8" lift for 91 idea

[91xltTerd]

I was looking at the Camburg web page and noticed the custom I Beams that they sell for Rangers and Explorers and came up with an idea to combine them and a 4" superlift to get 8"s of suspension lift. The I Beams allow for 4" taller coils to be used with the stock pivot points. What would happen if the superlift drop bracket for the front was used and then the 4" superlift leafs were used in the back with a spring over also in the back. Would that not give 8"s of suspension lift? Custom coils would have to be ordered for the front and I'm not sure about the steering or driveshaft angles, but other than that I don't know why it wouldn't work. Would 35s fit if this was done?

 

[BislamJoe]

I don't know if you'd get a full 8" out of 4" leaves and an SOA, but up front, yes you would have 8". The Zimmerman's Explorer under the Featured Explorers section has a 7" suspension lift. They built 3" drop brackets, and cut and turned the I-beams for another 4". You'd need custom coils, and you may need custom leaves in the back. You might need to fabricate radius arms too, if you want some major flex. But 35's should fit under 8", maybe even 37's. Good luck with whatever you do.

 

[91xltTerd]

I forgot I was going to buy the custom radius arms from Camburg also, if I didn't just modify mine for less than $450. I thought that the spring over added 3"s plus the thickness of the springs and the superlift springs add 4"s by themselves, but maybe it wouldn't make 8"s in the back. I'm trying to spend as little money as possible with the biggest X possible. I thought I could just buy certain peices of a superlift kit and other peices from camburg (who isn't cheap) without buying the whole lift from superlift.

Chip

 

[Randall]

The Superlift spring over will give you 5.5 inches in the rear. The 4" springs added to that would give you close to 9.5 inches. and if you want more than that, you can add Warrior Shackles for another inch. I will be getting 8" out of the rear using a spring over, Warrior Shackles, and Old Man Emu 2" lift springs. You will definately be able to fit 35's. 37's are possible but you may need some fender trimming. Your front driveshaft I think would be too short, and you may want to lengthen the rear as well. Brakelines need to be extended. Good Luck.

 

[rpenner54]

I gotta ask why? It seems silly to lift that high and keep the stock axles. If your going that high you gotta go wider. Plus if you go that high you could probably fit a 38" or better tire with the right amount of trimming.

It would be smarter to lift smaller if your only going to run a 35.

 

[BislamJoe]

Ryan's got a point there. If all you want is a 35, lift 4-6 inches, then get some fiberglass or trim the hell out of your fenders. If you're thinking you might sell it later, get the fiberglass and hang on to your fenders, so you can put them back if you need to.

 

[sirhk100]

What ever you do, don't tell Camburg about your idea cause they'll laugh at you. The whole point of their beams are to avoid having to use drop brackets that'll cause extra stress on the frame. Speaking of stress, that much lift on drop brackets will definately cause some extra stress to parts. You may want to check into bracing your frame and supporting the drop brackets better.

 

[BislamJoe]

What you could do for drop brackets - look at the Zimmerman's truck. They fabricated some 3" drop brackets, you could probably ask for schematics or something, and build some for 4". The brackets they built are sick! They're really heavy-duty.

 

[Joe93]

You can also get the 2.5 inch drop brackets from Rancho for around 150 bucks.

 

[dbarale]

Did I miss something?
What about a 5.5" superlift (or a 6 Skyjacker) and a 2" body lift?
Cheaper, no custom work, and you should be able to fit 35's with that.

 

[BislamJoe]

Honestly, I can't see why anyone would lift higher than 6 inches. I could probably run the biggest tires I could need with 6 inches of suspension lift. Granted, I'd also be running fiberglass fenders or trimming a lot, but that seems like a much better choice to me. If all you want is a 35 (which is plenty of tire for me, to be honest) then all you need is a Skyjacker 4" or 6" Class II (I hear lots of good stuff about this kit) and the big fenders. Or, if you'd rather not mess with fenders or trimming, do what dbarale said and do a susp/body combination.

 

[leebo]

Without seeing the newer design of the Camburg setup, I've got this one question. Wouldn't that make it a PITA the get that aligned? Stacking items like that would have to cause a shim somewhere. Also, what are you using this for? For rocks 8" is kinda too tall, and for desert racing drop brackets suck. I'd also think that you would need to do something with the stearing, but like I said, I've yet to see the new design, so I'm not 100% sure.

 

[Dannyboy]

I have one more thought, maybe Gloria can verify this, would cutting and turning the I-Beams make the axle narrower? Unless the TTB goes upwards stock, that lift has to come from somewhere.

 

[leebo]

Dead Link Removed

It just depends on how much lift you want. If you'll settle for about 3" a cut and turn will get it for ya no problem. If ya want more you'll still need to run somesort of drop brackets. As for making the axle narrower, nope. The jig that is used even if it does narrow it, it's very little at best.

 

[BislamJoe]

You can lift higher than 3" with a cut-and-turn. 4" is really common, I've seen 6" lift beams, but they were also widened a little.

 

[91xltTerd]

How hard would it be to just swap out to dana 60s front and rear and just let the tires stick out about a mile on each side and run about 38s with about 6"s of lift? LOL I really just want to run 35s with no body lift and no fender trimming and have a lot of flex and the height doesn't matter to me. I would like for the lift to be simple and easy to get replacement parts for(not too many fabbed parts). Would an axle swap cost more or less in the long run? Has anyone ever swapped to fullsize axles?

 

[BislamJoe]

Oknut has a full-width D44 up front and full-width D60 in the rear. He's also leaf-sprung all around though. He's running like 16" of lift and 42" Swampers.

 

[sirhk100]

Leebo,
How do you like that superrunner steering? Is it pretty strong? Do you think it would hold up to prerunnign and high speed bashing? What did it set you back? What does the passenger side pivot mount to?

 

[rpenner54]

Originally posted by 91xltTerd
How hard would it be to just swap out to dana 60s front and rear and just let the tires stick out about a mile on each side and run about 38s with about 6"s of lift? LOL I really just want to run 35s with no body lift and no fender trimming and have a lot of flex and the height doesn't matter to me. I would like for the lift to be simple and easy to get replacement parts for(not too many fabbed parts). Would an axle swap cost more or less in the long run? Has anyone ever swapped to fullsize axles?

Its going to be cheaper to do the Solid Axle swap anyday of the week. It will also get better (Controlled) flex and it will out run any TTB/IFS in the rocks anyday of the week. TTB Just plain sucks when you get serious. Thats why all these guys on here are swaping, they are sick of the little problems with it.

 

[sirhk100]

Again, it depends on what you're doing. Obviously with a solid front axle ($?) and 14" stroke coilovers mounted to a tig welded chromoly upper cage ($900) you'll get much further then my reworked 3" widened TTB ($850) with heimed extended radius arms ($850) mounted to the same shocks with an upper tig welded chromoly upper engine cage ($900). But, when we get off the rocks and into 2' deep whoops I know you won't be doing 50mph through them cause 1st off your suspension won't have the ride mine will because of the independant nature of it. And 2nd, I doubt you'll have spent the money to get a professionally trussed axle (not a cheesy bolt on truss) with welded axle tubes ($$$). Personally I don't think the part of putting a TTB on a 95+ explorer is much more difficult then a solid axle or much more expensive. Either way you get to cut/torch off all the stock stuff. On the solid you fab up your 2 spring hangers and 2 shackle hangers. If you're running coilovers like I plan on my TTB system you have the same cost in upper cage/mounting stuff. TTB you have to fab the TTB mounting points. The Radius arms mounts are supplied with the radius arms and require 4 holes/mount to be drilled (you have to do this on the '91-'94 too). Figure you can pick up a TTB setup from a junk yard for a comparable cost of a solid axle and the only extra cost you have is the cost to rework the beams which is actually only ($450) if you don't want them widened. Basically I'm arguing that you need to figure out what you want to do and figure out which will be better. I would think that once you have the cost involved for a serious fab job on the front end the little extra cost isn't really a issue.

BTW I'm not trying to confront anyone with these replys or saying that any of you are wrong, I'm just saying that you are wrong by saying that the TTB system sucks. I don't see anyone and doubt I will see anyone catching 3' of air in a solid front axle explrer. If you think it's not possible in a TTB I'll email you a picture of one doing it with just heavy duty coil buckets and dual shocks (which by the way would cut about $600 off the cost of my ideal setup but won't handle quite as good) I also don't see it really being extrodinarilly more expensive when you already are tackling a job that is pretty expensive in general. You will make the wrong choice if you build a exotic TTB for rock crawling or a Exotic solid front end for hauling ass through the desert.