Skyjacker woes....

[Limited Ex]

I cannot complain about my mechanic, he has always done good work in the past. And I cannot blame him for what happened, because I just said a 6" lift and not anything about spacers. But I got a good deal on some new coils that should be there Wednesday, so thats the big day right now. The only other thing left is to figure out why the radius arms are not fitting like they should. He called Skyjacker today and talked to the tech guy and he was supposed to get back to my mechanic today, but I did not get the chance to give him a call because I had class. So I will find out some more info tomorrow....

 

[Limited Ex]

Thought I would update you guys. Well, even with the new springs, it did not pick the front end up high enough to avoid the axle drop brackets rubbing the axle. The combined weight of my bumper and winch muct be too much for the Skyjacker coils to lift the front end. I did not have that problem at all with the Superlift coils. So the new coils and the arms that I bought, I am going to call Skyjacker and see if they will take them back and refund my money. Right now I am going to have to just use the radius arm drop brackets, and Suerlift coils with the spacers. Maybe Skyjacker will find a problem with the arms and send me new ones. By now, all the money I have spent, I could have just gone with the Camburg extended arms! I had considered getting some coil springs made, but I have no idea how much that costs, nor am I positive as to who does it. Doesn't National Springs do that?

 

[410Fortune]

The Skyjacker coils are much softer then the Superlifts, if I am not mistaken they are 350#/ft and the Superlifts are 450#/ft.

Why not just get some Superlift 5.5" coils? I am sure you can even find somebody who will trade.......

I see those Superlift coils go on the boards all the time....

Eibach makes a 5" coil, get those through Camburg (they are softer too from what I understand)


Superlifts are stiff, but ride well. They have updated the design so dont get the earlier ones.

You can have custom coils made no problem. There are probably local spring shops in your area who have what you need. You can calculate the spring rate yourself:

www.therangerstation.com

Or youc an start by knowing the jacker coils are too soft and find out what they are rated at (if other then 350) and go from there......

Goood luck dude. I dont think their is anything wrong with your kit or arms.........Just need to get the right amount of lift for the brackets......

 

[Limited Ex]

Well here is the low down so far:
I went to 4Wheel Parts and talked to one of the managers there, and brought the pics that are on this thread to him. He took a look at them and asked if he could keep them. He referred me to a guy at Skyjacker and his email address so I could send him the pictures. So I sent him the pictures on Sunday, and have not heard anything thus far, as to whether or not they will take the radius arms back. Right now I am using the Superlift 4" coils with spacers and the Skyjacker axle brackets, but found today in a 4Wheel Parts magazine that Superlift makes a 6" lift for 1st gen Exs, so I am going to call tomorrow and inquire about the coils. I also talked to a guy here on the forum who has the 6" Superlift and he said he is pretty happy with it. And I talked to a guy at Tuff Country, and he said they do make extended radius arms for 91-94 Explorers. If Skyjacker will take my arms back and refund my money, then I may just go with the Tuff Country arms. That is if I decide not to try the Skyjackers again. But hopefully they will find a defect and give me new arms, which would be wonderful, but I am not holding my breath. So we shall see.......

 

[410Fortune]

I really dont think there is a single thing wrong with your Skyjacker radius arms.......

The Superlift 5.5 coils work great.
As stated before they are stiffer then the Skyjackers and should help out with your extra weight....

 

[Limited Ex]

The reason I think that there is something wrong is because of how close they were to the fender well, and that was after drilling new holes 1 1/2" closer than what the instructions say to do. If they had been mounted in the stock holes, there might have been an inch between the tire and the fender. Right now the stock radius arms are back in and the radius arms drop brackets are in, and I can pass my whole hand between my wheel and fender now, as opposed to before less than 4 fingers. Surely that cannot be right. If they were just about 2 inches longer, all would be perfect!

 

[RFR2212]

Ya know, I'm too damn tired to read through this thread, but I'm going home some time this weekend... If ya haven't seen me post here by saturday... PM me... I'll try and get pics of how mine lays out, but from glancing at the pics i dunno how this is all screwed up...
Pete

 

[Blaine122300]

Originally posted by Limited Ex
Do any of you know if Skyjacker made an upgraded version of one of the axle drop brackets? I have seen pics of people with the 6" Skyjacker and the one drop bracket is a different style with some large holes drilled in it. Below is a pic of what I have, the larger bracket on the right is the one in question:

I know what you are talking about. Mine has a big tube like hole welded in it. Looks like mine may be stronger. That one looks like for a ranger maybe.

 

[X-1]

The one that limited has is class I, same as mine, the one with the hole in it, fits either ranger, or explorer is class II, way stronger than class I.

 

[Blaine122300]

Yeah, it looks a lot stronger.

 

[Limited Ex]

Well the verdict is in. The manager at the 4Wheel Parts here in Charlotte ordered a new set of arms to compare to the ones that I have, and they are the same in every way. I had also PMed Felix to ask how long his arms are and they are the same length as mine. So maybe they are correct and my Explorer just does not like them. It would not be a big issue if my tires did not sit so close to the fender. Anyhow, I have a guy that is interested in buying them, and if he does, I will just try some new arms. Either the Tuff Country ones or the arms that Alaskan Jack found on eBay from Camburg. And in the event that my arms do not get sold, I will just have them extended a few inches. But this also makes me wonder that if I do get new arms, if I will run into the same problem. Either way, I am going to have new arms whether it means alterations or not!

 

[Blaine122300]

I guess you already tried to bolt them farther forward, right??

 

[Limited Ex]

They were bolted as far forward as they could go while still using the tranny cross member. And I may try just bolting them farther up than that and just not bolt the cross member to the tranny, but still run it between the radius arm brackets. But I am not sure what that would do for my caster.

 

[410Fortune]

If we are talking an inch or less you know you can space the radius arms forward by putting washers on the front od the arm, in front of the foremost bushing....

It is common practice to double up on the washers that go there anyways to gain a 1/4" or so forward spacing of the beams...

 

[Limited Ex]

Man I wish it was that little! Right now as it is with the radius arm drop brackets, there is about 4" of space between the tire and fender, as compared to before with the arms I had about 2 1/2" space. And that 1 1/2" reduction was the difference between being able to turn the wheels with no rub, and turning the wheels and having them chew the bottom of my flares to pieces. And that was with 33" tires, I am wanting 34s.

 

[DanB]

Skyjacer lift

I posted a message on this site about 3 years ago about the problems that I had installing my 4 inch kit. It seems that things haven't improved much, but I still think the Skyjacker is superior to the Superlift. A guy in our club has replaced the front dropdown brackets because of cracks three times now.

I had problems with holes lining up on the left side radius arm bracket but not the right. My bigest problem was with the front shock mounts on the new radius arms. With the shocks in the kit, you have to mount the shocks shaft end up. (Of course, these were the hydraulic shock so they wouldn't work the other way anyway.) When I mounted them, the shock body hit the top rail of the radius arm and wouldn't come any closer to the lower mount than about an inch. After fighting with them for two months, I finallly gave up and drilled the old mounts out and installed longer ones. I got the same story about it must be my rig and not their perfect kit.

By the way, if you use the 4" kit, you can cut the bottom part of the drop down brackets off and gain a little ground clearance. You also won't bend them as much. You can also use Superlift's Superrunner steering with the Skyjacker kit, but it takes some fab work to make it all come together.

 

[410Fortune]

I Simply used longer bolts and some collars to get the shocks body away from the radius arm on the bottom mount. Works perfect. I also run Rancho 9000's with teh Skyjacker arms (tubes are a little smaller then Skyjacker shocks)

If you cut the bottom hole off then you will need new brackets when you decide to finally go with 6" lift

 

[Blaine122300]

Originally posted by 410Fortune
I Simply used longer bolts and some collars to get the shocks body away from the radius arm on the bottom mount. Works perfect. I also run Rancho 9000's with teh Skyjacker arms (tubes are a little smaller then Skyjacker shocks)

I did the same thing. I actually ruined a 9000 shock because it hit my radius arm and dented it and it leaked all over the place. I just ended up putting washers behind the post to move it away from the radius arm a little. It works great now.

 

[NOTAJP]

Re: Skyjacer lift

Originally posted by DanB
I posted a message on this site about 3 years ago about the problems that I had installing my 4 inch kit. It seems that things haven't improved much, but I still think the Skyjacker is superior to the Superlift. A guy in our club has replaced the front dropdown brackets because of cracks three times now.

I had problems with holes lining up on the left side radius arm bracket but not the right. My bigest problem was with the front shock mounts on the new radius arms. With the shocks in the kit, you have to mount the shocks shaft end up. (Of course, these were the hydraulic shock so they wouldn't work the other way anyway.) When I mounted them, the shock body hit the top rail of the radius arm and wouldn't come any closer to the lower mount than about an inch. After fighting with them for two months, I finallly gave up and drilled the old mounts out and installed longer ones. I got the same story about it must be my rig and not their perfect kit.

By the way, if you use the 4" kit, you can cut the bottom part of the drop down brackets off and gain a little ground clearance. You also won't bend them as much. You can also use Superlift's Superrunner steering with the Skyjacker kit, but it takes some fab work to make it all come together.

Dan! How have you been? Must not be able to get my emails anymore. Yep, that's me three sets of drop brackets. They look good now and haven't broke anything, yet. How was your trip to MOAB?

 

[Limited Ex]

Yeah, the shocks were rubbing the top of the arms too. I figured that could be fixed with some longer bolts. Since I am kinda stuck with the arms, as soon as class gets out and I get back home, I am going to work on extending the arms a few inches.