Explorer Lift

[93Hesterexplorer]

Hey everyone question for everyone. I have a stock 93 Ford Explorer that i use for a hunting truck lol yes she get put through the worse of the worse but she just aint sitting high enough. I have the biggest problem with bottoming out now everyone say go with 4" of lift but I want 6". Now my question is where can i find that much lift and still use stock running gear?

 

[Rhett]

now everyone say go with 4" of lift but I want 6". Now my question is where can i find that much lift and still use stock running gear?

6" requires more mods -- typically radius arm drop brackets / extended arms, pitman arm drop, spring-over-axle in back, possibly custom driveshaft;

3" bodylift might be what you're thinking about.

2" suspension lift is about the highest you can go before you have to start modifying things. 1.5" - 2" is obtainable with longer shackles in rear (Warrior-153 or similar) and coil spacers in front (mid 90's F150 spacers). At that height to keep alignment you would need Moog camber bushings, but your "running gear" -- radius arms, springs, driveshaft, pitman -- would all be stock.

Only thing to watch out for would be gearing. If you go from say 29" tires up to 33's you'll want to re-gear, unless your truck was lucky enough to come with 4.10's from the factory.

 

[malohnes]

James Duff has great kits from 2 - 5.5" lifts that will address issues associated with our TTB front ends. There are other brand but this one seems to be the best. There are other options too, especially if you are handy with welding and can fabricate.

You'll do yourself a bug favor to do some research here and on the ranger statio websites. Look for Wood1 sticky on useful threads in the modified section and use the search function to get more answers. The ranger station has a great tech section with gobs of info.

Good luck. You e got a great rig to work with and a fun project to work on.

 

[5spdman]

Personally, I would never do a body lift. That being said, there's nothing wrong with them, but if you're looking to get the rig up a little higher to prevent bottoming out, a suspension lift is the way to go IMO; it gets both the body and the frame (which is what you more than likely will hit first) in the air.

Since you're just using the truck as a hunting rig and not looking to do some crawling (guessing from your post), a small 2" lift would probably be good. Kits can be found on eBay and the easiest would probably be coil spacers ("pucks" under the coil spring) and shackles. An AAL (add-a-leaf) would be good too, but more involved than changing out shackles.

Another thing to think about is larger tires. Stock tires measure around 28.5" in diameter...throwing on a set of 31's will lift the truck another inch or so.

With any suspension mod, no matter how small or what the rigs use will be, be sure to get it aligned. I did mine myself (videos on how-to can be found on you-tube), but since it's also my daily driver and at the time I was 200 miles away from a shop that could do a proper alignment, it was just to get me from where I live to the shop.

As far as gearing goes (since it was brought up), it's been said that at minimum you should run 3.73 ratio for 31's, 4.10 for 33's, etc, etc...personally, I'm running 3.73 with my 33's and don't have much of a problem other than it being a bit of a dog and MPG being down, but I also live in an area that has almost zero hills; took it to Moab last year though and did pretty good.

....I think I covered everything....

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

I'm running 3.73 with my 33's and don't have much of a problem other than it being a bit of a dog and MPG being down, but I also live in an area that has almost zero hills; took it to Moab last year though and did pretty good.

It's all about the hills!!! I have the same 3.73's in both the ex's, both with 31's, both major dogs driving up into the mountains. Now I live up here and it's nothing but hills anywhere you go, LOL. They do ok, and if I wasn't shooting for a minimum of 33's I'd go to 4.10's.

 

[5spdman]

It's all about the hills!!! I have the same 3.73's in both the ex's, both with 31's, both major dogs driving up into the mountains. Now I live up here and it's nothing but hills anywhere you go, LOL. They do ok, and if I wasn't shooting for a minimum of 33's I'd go to 4.10's.

It's true...when I went through the Rockies to get to Moab this year, I had to be in 3rd with the engine screaming at 3200 rpm just to stay at 60mph...however, in my 1500+ trip this year to Moab I was able to average almost 16mpg with my highest being 18...still looking to regear sometime though...

 

[Dumple]

If i hunting is what youre doing then id say do a 4 inch. I live up here in Alaska and just slapped Rough Country's 4" lift on my explorer and did a spring over swap and could not be happier. Im currently runn 33x10.5x15s and i have a ton of wheel travel. It lets the explorer set just high enough to clear obstacles but not too high to where my wife cant hop in. You will have to head to the local brake hose shop and have then make you a rear brake line. Mine only cost me $55 for the hose and fittings.