Front end lift help!

[PAExplorer]

Hey all,
I have a 98 x-sport. I'm adding a 3" PA body lift, OME 2" lift springs and the OME shocks and a TT in front. I don't think I'll have trouble running 33's, but I still want a little more hieght. I was thinking of adding shackles in the rear, but how would I make up the height difference in the front? I know with the 4WD more than 2" of twist in the front is not recommended. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
-Eric

 

[JDraper]

Only way to get more than that in the front without cranking up the tbars is to do what I did to Karol's truck....Superlift or Trailmaster suspension system.

 

[PAExplorer]

Jeff,
Do I just need the coils for the front? Obviously I don't need a full suspension kit because I have the OME leafs and shocks. The way I figure it is that I will have around 7 inches in the rear (Leafs 2", body lift 3" and shackles 2") and only 3 in the front from the body lift. If I do the TT that will give me 5 inches in the front. Is there a way to avoid the tortion bars all together and just add front coils? Or do you think it will look OK with 7" in back and 5" in front?
-Eric

 

[JDraper]

The front suspension does not have coils, the torsion bars are the springs. The way you lift the front is to lower the mounting point for the torsion bars and a-arms, and then put longer steering knuckles in. For the Gen II explorers, there are 4 ways to lift the nose. 1st is the torsion twist method. Second is a lift kit that utilizes the existing front suspension, but relocates it. This is what I did for Karol's truck. Check out http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80310. The third way is the RCD kit which replaces a big chunk of the front suspension. Check out http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36219. The fourth way is a solid axle swap.

All of the above, excluding the TT are expensive. Take a look at DasFrem and Doug's trucks. They are TT with a lot of lift and running 35's. You can see how they sit.

 

[Alec]

YOU DON'T HAVE COILS AT ALL ON YOUR TRUCK!

Now that that's out of the way, I see a few options:
Leave it uneven 5/7
get fiberglass fenders to make the fenderwells appear even and leave it 5/7
get a 4" suspension lift kit and figure it out
crank up your tbars more and risk CV failure
or custom fab up a coilover setup or SAS with coils.

 

[PAExplorer]

Thanks guys! I just finished removing the step bars and while I was under my x I realized that there were no coils. Guess I should have looked first. Oh well. I will probably leave the back end higher than the front by 2 inches. Maybe it will look more aggressive that way. Thanks again for the info. It may come in handy down the road.
-Eric