body or suspension lift for 97 5.0 AWD

[Rockymtnman]

Hi Ya'll,
very new here and if there was a thread about this I did not see it. I recently bought a 97 4 door AWD with the 5.o. I have searched the web and can not seem to find any kits for it. I want to lift it around 3" . I do not know if I want body or suspension. I drive through alot of deep snow and mud if that helps with what you might advise. Thanks

 

[LoganD]

Body lifts will not increase your ground clearance, they will just allow for bigger tires to be put on your truck. suspension lifts (TT/Shackles/AAL) will give you a couple more inches of ground clearance. I assume that's all you would need, after reading your post. Hope this helps.

 

[Blee1099]

Do a combination if you wanna run 32 or 33s. You can do the 3" body lift plus a Torsion twist & shackles or add a leafs in the rear to gain another 2 inches.

 

[Glen4X4]

With the combination Blee posted your truck would sit like this, this is Doug's a moderator here.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Body lifts will not increase your ground clearance, they will just allow for bigger tires to be put on your truck. suspension lifts (TT/Shackles/AAL) will give you a couple more inches of ground clearance.

Wrong. Only taller tires will give you ground clearance. No suspesnion lift will give you more ground clearance.

 

[Glen4X4]

Wrong. Only taller tires will give you ground clearance. No suspesnion lift will give you more ground clearance.

Not entirely, suspension lifts give more frame to ground clearance except for on 2nd gens due to the torsion bar bracket drop. Tires do however give the axles more clearance.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Not entirely, suspension lifts give more frame to ground clearance except for on 2nd gens due to the torsion bar bracket drop. Tires do however give the axles more clearance.

Frame to ground clearance doesn't mean crap when the dif housing is the lowest point.

 

[Glen4X4]

Frame to ground clearance doesn't mean crap when the dif housing is the lowest point.

If the wheel travel is watched then you can avoid it at times and with the suspension lift in return will help prevent your frame from bottoming out on some trails.

 

[Turdle]

actually--

for a 4" suspension lift on a 2nd gen, you end up with worse ground clearance because of the front control arm drop bracket "plow" induced.
The front diff is also dropped, as are the torsion bar brackets.



What I mean to say is-a truck with a 3" body lift and 33" tires will have about 4" greater ground clearance than the same truck with a suspension lift and 33" tires. Add a little torsion twist to the body lift and you will have 5" or more better clearance than the suspension lifted truck.

 

[Rockymtnman]

Thanks

lots of good advice, thank you! I will most likely go with a combo. dose any one know how high I can go with a suspension lift before I start to negatively affect clearance, I dont really need more than say 31s would give me. (Dougs truck = the vision in my head). but on the same token I sure do not want less. Now I only need to know where to find the parts. I have around 4k to spend on the project.

 

[SkyJumper]

Actually the only help a TT and shackle lift will help with is high center and tire clearance. You still are not increasing front and rear clearance and the only way you are going to increase ground clearance for the front and rear is taller tires. And the 4" lift kit may drop the front diff, but the ht from center section to ground is the same. I do not believe that high center is going to be a issue for snow conditions. But getting the front and rear higher is going to be the only solution. BL is not going to help with ground clearance what so ever.

Now with that being said, fender clearance from a BL and or TT and AAL and shackles and or a spindle lift is going to allow for the larger diameter tire to provide better ground clearance for the front and rear.

There is a lot of options for you to achieve the clearance, it is all dependent on your budget and creativity and skill level. Throughout this site is write ups on just about anything and everything available and or tried for these vehicles. So do some research, and read up and all your answers and concerns will be answered.

 

[springer275]

I did not want to spend a bunch of money. So I bought new torsion keys and warrior shackles and it lifted the explorer around 2 inches. Then you might be able to get body lift pieces to give you another 2 inches without having to modify the steering or front drive shaft. I believe 2 inch body lift is the limit on the steering before you have to make changes there. Someone may correct me though. I did not try that.

I was able to get 31" tires under my old explorer with the 2" torsion key lift and larger shackles which yielded a total lift of roughly 3 to 4 inches, depending how much air I put in the tires. 31 inch spare should fit underneath too.

You could just crank the stock keys which will give you 1.5" and get warrior shackles if you don't want to spend $$$ and that should be enough for 31" tires with no rubbing.

 

[BSlusser]

I did not want to spend a bunch of money. So I bought new torsion keys and warrior shackles and it lifted the explorer around 2 inches. Then you might be able to get body lift pieces to give you another 2 inches without having to modify the steering or front drive shaft. I believe 2 inch body lift is the limit on the steering before you have to make changes there. Someone may correct me though. I did not try that.

That's correct, you won't need steering extension with the lesser-known 2" BL. At that point you'll have 4" of lift w/ TT and shackles and be able to run 33's with very minor trimming