Newbie - lift info

[jtucker]

Ok, I am a newbie to explorers and offroading.

That said, I want to lift my X at least 5-6 inches off the
ground so I can actually go out on the trails with my
friends and not have to park it and ride as a passanger
all the time. Looking to put 33 tires on, if not bigger,
but it seems 33 should be big enough, I think.

Ok, so from that info, how would I go about doing this?

What needs lifted, and how much.

I want to be able to do mudding and creek crossings,
but some stuff also, but mainly those two things that
worry me right now.

This rig will also have to travel on the highway from
65-75mph on average, so it needs to be stable as
well for that purpose.

I am not sure exactly where to start, could I get some
help? I have an idea of what I want my X to look like
after I am done in 3 years, found a pic on the
explorer 4x4 site:

http://www.explorer4x4.com/toddnew1.jpg

I would appreciate any help or guidance.

Thanks,

 

[Derrick C.]

Well it looks like you know what you want to do with it. You've got your needs so lets get going on the mods.

For the lift, I'd go with the Skyjacker 6" stage II kit. That will get you up in the air and 33s would be pretty damn good. For being stable on the highway, just leave your sway bars on and you'll never notice a difference.

I have 8.5" of lift with 35s on with no sway bars on and mine drives fine at 75 mph.

One thing you need to look at is gear ratios. Do you know what you have in it right now?

 

[TarHeel085]

ive seen that truck almost everyday in the school year, a kid at my school USED to have it but sold it. he had 35x15.5 swampers but then went to 35x12.5 trailblazers. but it was massive! its got almost 10" of lift and fender flares.

 

[jtucker]

Not sure what I have in it as far as gear ratio, but
I do have a stock auto tranny in it. I am going to
convert it to a Manual as soon as the cash is available,
and I get a good 20-30k more on my auto. Really
scared that it will go out while I am riding the trails

I am having a little trouble finding the exact stats for
the parts in my truck. Is there a place to go to find
stuff like that out?

Hmm, ok, I know where to get the 33s at, but have
no clue where I would find a Skyjacker 6" stage II kit.
Any resources on that? Internet would be good,
because I live in Alaska, so our local stores are very
limited.

Being a newbie sucks.

 

[Ray Lobato]

Here's a good site to find out things about your truck.
You need to first find out what you have, before you plan to make modifications.

There is a sticker on the door jamb for the drivers side door that has lots of information, but coded. ntrpriz has lots of info on those codes and what they mean.
Find this sticker and look this stuff up on his site. Once you know what you have , then you can plan for the mods.
The wonderful thing about doing modifications is once you change one thing, you will usually have to change something else. For instance going to begger tires. If your gears are too high, you will have to change gears or suffer bad gas milage, no power, and possible shortened engine and tranny life because you lugging your engine or putting too much strain on your tranny.
then you have to lift the truck to get the tires to fit, and you might still have to trim sheet metal. All because you want bigger tires.
All this takes MONEY, and if you don't do it right it cost you MORE MONEY.

ntrpriz website

Hope this helps.

 

[jtucker]

Thanks, that does help.

Oh, I expect to dump a good $10-15k into this truck
over the next 5 years on just mods alone, then another
$1-3k/year on repairs and adjustments.

Though when offroading, I may do more than $3/year
in damage knowing how hard I drive my vehicles.

I will look that info up when I get my truck back from
my mother in a few hours. I let her drive it around
during the day till her car is fixed

Will drop back by a bit later,