Well I searched around and noticed we didn't have a thread with good information for the newbies who want to lift their second gen and it gets tiring explaining it everyday I sign on here so I thought I would create a page that will help people understand what they need to do to lift their trucks. I'm not it anyway trying to score free elite membership for a while as I am trying to make my life a little easier so I don't have to type this stuff again. So here it goes:
Disclaimer: Do at your own risk. I will not be held responsible for personal injury or vehicle damage.
Warrior Shackles
Most of us on the forum have started with the Shackles and TT. Shackles as in lift shackles for the rear leaf springs and TT as in torsion bar twist in the front. You can pick up universal lift shackles at pretty much any auto parts store for cheap But I recommend getting the Warrior Products shackles part # War-153.
You can pick up a set of Warrior Products lift shackles at
www.desertrat.com for 69.95
Here is a fantastic write up on the installation of the shackles created by a member on here Four0Sport...
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=212451 FYI If you live in the south or the west coast it will not be as difficult as we do not use salt on our roads.
Add-A-Leaf
You can also do a Add-A-Leaf in the rear instead of the shackles or with the shackles. You need Part number EXP13120 35.00 from
www.4wheelparts.com and here is a great write up on how to install them by a member on here V8BoatBuilder...
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97676
Torsion Twist
After your done with lifting the rear your going to want to level it out a little bit by cranking up the torsion bars up front. Here is a great thread created by a member on here CBoug76...
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47345 All you do is tighten that adjuster bolt on both sides in the picture and it lifts the front end. You cannot exceed 2" though do to CV Joint binding so measure carefully. You might need a longer bolt for the driver side to get the full 2" of lift. The reason being is the gas tank and the driver always being on the drivers side. Here is the link for the bolt that you might need...
http://www.fastenal.com/web/products/detail.ex?sku=0121853 I got mine at my local ACE Hardware store. Also your going to need to Get an alignment afterwords as you may have thrown it off a little bit. If you don't get one it's not that big of a deal. The truck will still drive straight and it won't harm anything other than maybe wearing your tires un-evenly if you go without for a long period of time.
Now that you have roughly 2" of lift you can fit a 31x10.5 tire without any rubbing or a 32" tire with some trimming.
3" Body Lift
Now if that's not big enough for you, you can do a 3" body lift, it will run you right around 180.00. If your truck is a 1995-1997 you need part # PA-853 for the ford ranger, If your truck is a 1998-2001 you need part # PA-883 for the ford ranger. I purchased mine from
www.suspensionconnection.com
Click on body lifts, ford body lifts, then ranger. Here is a pretty good write up on how to install the 883 kit, Its on a sport but it's pretty much the same process for us 4door guys. Also I think he welded something in the installation which is not needed.
http://mudmarine.tripod.com/3bodyliftinstall/index.html And here is a BETTER write up on how to install the 883 kit. It's on a sport again but it's the same process for 4 doors.....
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=240957
The front bumper brackets that come in the kit work perfect. The rear ones, not so much. In the 883 kit you can flip the brackets that come in the kit upside down and use the left one on the right and the right one on the left. I'm not sure if the same goes for the 853 kit though.
If not you can make your own or get some made. Here is a link for the brackets....
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172250
Other than that everything you need comes in the kit except for the bolts directly behind the 2 front seats so you use the factory ford bolts out of the very rear of the cargo area for those two. Here are the bolt lengths you need for every mount...I got this info from CAHUNTERMAN when I was in the process of installing my lift.
Front mounts - 180MM
Mounts that are in front of the front seats - 140MM
Mounts just under the rear of the front seats - I used the stock bolts from the very rear mounts.
Mounts in the front of cargo area - 160MM
Mounts in rear of cargo area - 200MM
For those of you who don't like body lifts super lift and trail master both sell a 4" suspension lift for over 2000.00 but you don't gain anymore than you do with the body lift due to the Torsion bars. All the suspension lift does is drop everything down 4" so save your money and do the BL
Now that you have roughly 5" of lift for a total price of around 290.00 you can clear 33x12.5 tires.
You first gen explorer owners can do the exact same thing, You just need to purchase Coils Spacers to raise the front 2" and of course buy the body lift that you need. They make a 2" body lift and a 3" body lift for the first gens.
Third and 4th gen explorer owners can do the 883 body lift and roadbully's spacers. Here is where to get the spacers....
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2013988#post2013988 And here is how to install the body lift on a 3rd gen....
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219234
I hope this helps a lot of people, I know it would have been a big help for me when I was trying to do all this.