how good are superlifts lift kits

[superman]

how good are the superlift 5.5 suspension lift kits ? are they pretty popular with people for the '94 explorers?

 

[rpenner54]

They are as good as you make them. If you run it easy and not hard it will last a long time without to many problems. Its what I run and I run hard and harder, and I have problems with it because of that. They are really not really made for hardcore, more for show. However you can use them for semi hard core and get away with it. I guess nothing I have done is really that hard core but I wish I could! LOL

 

[Perry]

Hey superman,
I noticed you have a 89 Xlt. Didn't know they made such a year.
As for the 5.5" lift I like mine so far. We haven't done a lot of four wheeling yet, but so far it is doing well. If you get one I would suggest the extended radius arms.

They did have some problems, but they are slowly working out the parts that broke because of the hard four wheeling.
I also would like to welcome you to the board.
Good luck in your choice.

 

[olivesman]

i would recommend the sky jacker. i have had the super lift but as far as the sky jacker goes, i will vouch for them. a buddy of mine has the 5.5" super lift and just broke one of the radius arms and has gone through two sets of springs. the radius arm broke while he was breaking at about 35 mph and the coil flew out and ALMOST took the brake line w/ it! i know they have made a lot of improvements, but i've been scared a little too much by the stories i have heard lately. good luck-russel

p.s.-'89 huh?

 

[superman]

i did that 89 thing on accident when i was talking about '89 4runners when i made my profile sorry about that.

 

[RON COX]

I've had a radius arm break while hard braking on pavement. They took care of me but I don't think I will buy another kit from them. Just my 2 cents.

 

[tdavis]

my 2cents..

I've beat my superlift 5.5" kit to death, and beyond.

I have had no troubles with the springs (old 118's), the radius arms (new style), and their customer service (I call, say this part is broken, they ask for an address, and ship a new one to me!).

I have had trouble with the passenger side TTB drop bracket and cross member bending. No lift (Skyjacker's included) would of stopped that, except for one (Rancho's 2.5" kit).

I've only heard all the "good" stuff about skyjacker, but yet, noone seems able to send me pictures of their drop brackets to show me why it's better.

Anyway, I could go on, but go do a search, and you'll get a better opinion, than bashing superlift in yet another thread.

 

[RobbieJ]

To tell the complete truth the james duff 2.5 is the strongest explorer lift on the market. I beats the $hit out of any of them. The design is bullet proof. The drivers side drop braket looks the same the same as stock it is a one piece design, solid. If james duff would make a 5.5 or 6" lift I would buy it in a heart beat. To get around the superlift problems I used james duff radius arms and reinforced both superlift drop brakets. They won't move now. With a little creativity the superlift kit you can have a hell of a hard core rig. I here from a few jeeper friends or mine that skyjacker lifts on jeeps have tendencys to break brakets, like the superlift ones on explorers. I guess its up to you but the superlift is in it's 4th generation and I'm pretty sur that all of the bugs are gone. Tons of people have the superlift, that has to say something. Robbie

 

[tdavis]

Some of the design differences:

Superlift 4", Skyjacker 6" - both leave the rear as a spring under (SUA); you must replace the rear springs. Superlift 4" springs have been notorious for sagging. Superlift 4" uses the exact same drop brackets as the 5.5" lift - just 1" higher holes are used.

Superlift 5.5" - spring over in rear (SOA). You get to reuse the rear springs and can reuse the rear brake line if desired. Cheaper. If the springs do sag, it's an easy fix (stock springs) Some people will argue SOA is better than SUA. Hey, I like SOA, for it gets *everything* up above the axle.. less stuff to drag!

Superlift 5.5" - there has been 3 redesigns of the drop brackets. 1st design was a steel plate, and re-used original bracket (moved it down). 2nd design was a c type bracket - 3rd design is a built up bracket, welded and stamped. Biggest problem - no reinforcement for the bracket, so both the cross member and the bracket bends (and eventually cracks welds). (Go look at a Rancho 2.5" lift, and you'll see a great design, just too low for some of us..)

Radius arms:
Superlift's are built up from 3 pieces of steel - they also lay another 2 peices on the ears now (if you have diamonds or a single layer, yours will crack; call Superlift ASAP to get new ones). They also move bushings back to about the transmission cross member. The bushing mount is easy to catch, crack, and rip apart (been there, done that). I'd like to see them built up out of tubing..

Skyjacker radius arms: Uh, I'm still waiting to hear how the are constructed (photos would be nice too!).

Springs - Superlift just issued new coil springs for the front - came to be, they was using ranger springs, and the explorer (esp. the 4dr) was heavier. They have replaced the old coil springs with a high spring rate coil.

Skyjacker 6" springs are softer than superlift 5.5" springs (I've heard..)

Lower spring rates mean faster sagging.

Superlift also has the Superrunner steering kit; makes a big difference on Bump Steer. This kit can be used on any explorer with 4" of supension lift. (won't work on anything less).

As for installation, I don't see how they could differ; both kits have you remove the old drop brackets (time consuming), remove and change the radius arm bushing locations, and/or replace the radius arms themselves, and change the pitman arm out.

Superlift 5.5" you only have to disconnect one side of the rear springs, roll the axle out, roll axle back in, place SOA pads on, and you'r basically done.

Superlift 4" and Skyjacker 6" you have to remove the rear springs, and replace them with new springs; you also have to replace the rear brake line.

Any other differences? I'd like to hear them... (facts and pics please!)

 

[mattadams]

by the way, I'm now a fan of converting to a solid axle up front and doing a spring-over in the rear... it'll cost you more in the beginning, but less problems over time . i've been somewhat fortunate with my lack of problems (haven't broken a radius arm yet, but then again I haven't driven it in 4 months!), but it does have its limits, and if I was given the choice again I'd try a solid axle up front... all in all my superlift hasn't been too bad though. The only problems have been caused by semi-poor installation (Dick Cepek didn't do a bad job on installing hte lift, DID do a bad job of installing the gears and locker though)

 

[olivesman]

JUST KEEP GETTING WORSE!!!!!!.......

well, yet again, another story since my last post in here. my buddy just got his radius arm put back in yesterday and took her for a test drive. well, the notorious front drop bracket snapped on him and nows he's back to square one. super lift will probably send him another lift in the mail, but he sure doesn't want it. go w/ the sky jacker, or better yet, like matt said, the straight axle.

 

[rpenner54]

Re: JUST KEEP GETTING WORSE!!!!!!.......

Originally posted by olivesman
well, yet again, another story since my last post in here. my buddy just got his radius arm put back in yesterday and took her for a test drive. well, the notorious front drop bracket snapped on him and nows he's back to square one. super lift will probably send him another lift in the mail, but he sure doesn't want it. go w/ the sky jacker, or better yet, like matt said, the straight axle.

Hey man, show us a pic of the skyjacker drop brackets and that would be the proving factor that they are just that much better. Everyone keeps saying skyjacker, but no one has shown any proof like Tom said about how much better their brackets are. When I bought my lift at the time everyone was knocking Skyjackers poor quality and customer service, I have no idea if either one of these has improved but you can't have both of those to survive. Superlift on the other hand may have poor quality parts but they sure have good customer service. I have gotten about $500 out of replacement parts from them. Its been nice in one way but at the same time I would've gone solid had I know the cost of the front end lifting.

 

[tdavis]

Re: JUST KEEP GETTING WORSE!!!!!!.......

Originally posted by olivesman
well, yet again, another story since my last post in here. my buddy just got his radius arm put back in yesterday and took her for a test drive. well, the notorious front drop bracket snapped on him and nows he's back to square one. super lift will probably send him another lift in the mail, but he sure doesn't want it. go w/ the sky jacker, or better yet, like matt said, the straight axle.

You mean didn't have the brains to check for broken welds on the rest of the lift kit? If you've read the Superlift instructions, it states you are inspect the lift every 1k miles, and check all bolts for tightness.

Any truck lift (including Skyjacker) introduces new maintenance into your life - and that includes visual inspection of the drop brackets, checking the bolts for tightness, and bending.

By doing that, I've found and fixed several things before they became broken on the trail.

 

[olivesman]

hey, wowowo guys, your getting on the defensive for absolutely no reason.

rpenner- do i really need to post a picture of a broken radius arm and/or the drop brackets and they brake like lines to make you concerned? who cares if superlift has great costumer service? why should you have to even deal w/ them at all? why should you need $500 in replacement parts? are you willing to risk your life on the road for a nicer person to talk to on the phone? my friend almost died, TWICE, b/c of super lifts crappy parts. but yeah, he got a whole extra lift out of it. BIG DEAL, he's not even going to put it on, he's buying a skyjacker!

tdavis- next time, before you spout off ****y advice, figure out what your talking about. it wasn't the weld that broke, IT WAS THE BRACKET ITSELF!!!!!! me and everybody i know have been around lifted vehicles and put on enough lifts and modified enough junkers to know to re-tourque the nuts every 125 miles for the first couple months and to continually check all welds( well shoot, the whole truck for that matter) for the life of the vehicle.

i've been an active member on this sight for a while now and have taken a lot of great advice from a lot of respectable people. i wouldn't return the favor w/ bad stories or false recommendations.

-russel

 

[rpenner54]

Hey now no need to get all mean on us. All Tom and I are saying is that no one has yet to show any kind of picture on here of the Skyjacker brackets. As soon as someone does and they do in fact look good then fine we will belive it. I know exactly what a broken radius arm looks like, I have done that myself. I did it out in moab on the street coming into town. Yes it was scary but I wouldn't have lost my life if I had rolled. Just lost my truck probably. I am willing to risk my truck for a better customer service for when these parts do break and I am sure the skyjacker stuff would also with the way I drive, and I KNOW for a fact they would with Tom driving .

No one here is bashing you, its just that everyone that was around a year ago was saying that Skyjacker had poor quality componets, poor customer service, and so all of us that have the Superlift kits went on that advice. None of us have heard any differn't so far other then a few people running the lifts here and there.

I myself have found a broken drop down bracket that I honestly could not see untill I really torqued the suspension one time. It broke right in half. I didn't find it untill I needed an alignment oneday. I called superlift up right then and there and got the part 3 days later. It was re-built and much more sturdy then the last part.

Lets just all get along and not get to testy here, I don't want to have to close this thread up now. Lets keep this as a healthy debate.

 

[olivesman]

thans man for clearing that up. i wasn't really upset w/ you, as much as as davis. he just jumped in after you and gave his unneeded .02 about something he didn't understand to well. i was never intending on picing a fight a just trying to answer superman's questions. i do not want to see anybody get hurt and i don't thin it's smart at all to put your life on the line for some better costomer service. your body is in your rig and you can't control the outcome of an accident for you and/or those around you. that's all that got me upset. i understand your the mod, but you sounded as if you were foolish in your response to my post by praising superlift for replacing their bad parts even though my friend and many others have had accidents and near death experience while using them and it's only going to be a matter of time until somebody does die, and then what? i gave my opinion and accounts of personal experience w/ both SL and SJ just as those before me. i can tell you right now, the bracets do not stand out as being profoundly superior in design on either side but it's how they are made and what they are made w/ that is causing the problems. superlift just adds on more and more metal to their radius arms in hope of fixing the problem while SJ redesigned the set up. if you guys are happy w/ your lifts then that's great. i just don't want somebody to mae a bad decission that they could regret in the future. thans again for clearing up what you meant, but please be careful w/ the attitude that you won't get hurt, b/c one of my closest friends was put in a coma and partialy paralized when her FORD truc rolled a couple years bac. -russel

p.s.-in case your wondering, the button my eyboard to the right of the "J" just went bad. therefore a lot of words don't are incomplete. i.e.- lie, eyboard, than you, etc. sorry for the inconvience.-russel