Customizing my Explorer

[Trapping]

Hi everyone.
I bought a 97 Explorer 4.0 almost 4 years ago when I moved to Minnesota from Iceland where I am from. In Iceland if you have a stock SUV or any truck you are considered to be a weirdo or owned by government agency. I promised myself that I would not start lifting my truck and spend allot of money on stuff like this. I have better use for my income.
However now the citation has changed. I have started hunting and Trapping like crazy. I guess that was a direct impact of the work I choose. I am getting older and my back can't handle any carry in to the woods type of deals anymore. I have decided to lift and customize my 97 Explorer to fit my trapping and hunting purpose. Now I want to do this as cheaply as I can because traps and ammo cost money too. I have thought about putting 31" mud tires and lift the truck 2" on suspension only.
I am asking for advice at this point. I have customized many vehicles in my days and build off road competition trucks so I have some ideas but I would like not to invent the wheel on this one. After looking at this forum I saw that here are good people that have way more experience in Explorers than I have. I have been stuck too many times this season so the game is on.

 

[Joe Dirt]

If you're only looking for a 2" lift, you can get away with a 'torsion twist' and some Warrior/larger shackles for the rear leafs...

THIS thread will help...

The AAL/add-a-leaf is an option, or maybe putting in some 4-door leaf packs if you have a mono/single leaf spring, but not necessary...

 

[jjaganashi]

Go cheap, torsion twist in the front and throw a shackle or Add-A-Leaf in the back for your 2" lift..
Very simple, only takes a few hours and very cheap..
AAL= 25-40$ Shackles= 25-40$ TT= Free$
TT= 10 minutes
AAL= 1-2 hours
Shackle= 20 minutes

Prices vary on location and quality..

 

[1Aauto]

welcome to the site

 

[Trapping]

Thanks for the info guys. I put my stock explorer to the max test this morning checking my traps. I only got stuck 2 times today, but it pissed me off. much better than yesterday when I hand shoveled my way through the woods getting stuck every 20 ft.
I have a 4 door one. I was thinking about putting in lift blade in my leaf springs because when my truck is full of heavy stuff for hunting and trapping it rides very soft. I would not mind getting it a bit stiffer.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/180940092318?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
has anyone used these before? Is it worth buying or not?
Thanks again for the information it is very helpful.