WARNINGS about TT and shackle lift .

[guggy]

Hi everyone i need your help,

I really want to raise my truck using the Torsion Twist and war-153 shackle method you all are talking about.

Today i spoke to someone at a lift shop that does nice work (from what i can tell) and he advised me not to twist the Torsion bars up because i would throw the camber off and wear the outside edges of my new bfgs
(i don't want this happening) and i will eat up ball joints and wheel bearings , which he stated will destroy my auto hubs ( is this true ) ?


I would only be lifting the front end a maximum 2 inchs which is recomended by many of you .


Now i'm by no means an expert at lifting this will be my first attempt at it and i just want everything to work out smoothly with no damage down the road.

Is what this person telling me true ? if so any other suggestions on a 2 - 2.5" lift ?

I just want to let you all know i really value all your input so any info would be helpful.

Thanks

Mark

 

[Robert]

I've got about 30K miles on my TT/Shackle lift and tires. My tires don't look half way worn yet and are even all the way across. I also have never had bearing nor ball-joint problems with the front end. I did have to replace a tie-rod end before my lift. I also replace both rear wheel bearings last summer but the lift wasn't the cause of it. If you keep it within reason, you shouldn't have any problems. If the camber concerns you, you can always get it re-aligned after the lift.

 

[JDraper]

Oh yeah, it will throw your camber off, but that's what an alignment is for!! After I did the TT, I had mine aligned, and it is dead on the specs for the vehicle. As for wrecking your auto hubs, your year doesn't have auto hubs. Your axles are permanantly mounted to the hubs and the xfer case does the switching. I think the mechanic is lacking a little in his expertise. I have mine up 2" and my tires are wearing evenly. I've put about 6k on it since the lift and no problems (except for me whacking it out of line at Paragon). As for wearing out the ball joints and bearings prematurely, I don't see how. You are still putting the same amount of force on them, albeit at a slightly different angle (but they are designed to be able to handle the small angle change). The only thing that might wear a little faster would be the cv joints, but only if you put it up high enough to bind them up, and 2" shouldn't do that.

 

[Michigander]

get an allignment and rotate them when you are supposed to ... you'll never have a problem

 

[Alec]

ditto, it's always advised to get an alignment after a lift.

However, when lowering the truck with the torsion bars, camber can be a problem even with alignment. When lifting it's not.

 

[KEbert]

Probably the only thing you will wear out fast are the cv boots. They will rub a little more than normal so just watch them. You should be fine with everything though. I guess if you are really scared about it then only go up an inch or so. But you will be fine with 2".

 

[GJarrett]

He showed how much he knew about what he was talking about when he said you'd wear your auto hubs (you don't have any) and that the camber will go off and wear the outside edges of your tires (if it does - and it usually doesn't - it will go off the other way and wear the inside edges: the way the control arms coordinate together the camber goes off the opposite way you would think they would). As mentioned multiple times already, just get an alignment.

The only difference will be possible CV joint premature wear from the fact that you will always be operating at a CV angle. However, to my knowledge, none of us have worn our CVs out yet, and many of us have used our Explorers hard. I have at least 55,000 miles of hard abuse on a 2" torsion lift and my CVs still haven't given up the ghost yet.

Hundreds of us (over a thousand?) have the torsion twist lift and no one has had a problem yet from the twist that I know of. Introduce your acquaintance at the lift shop to this website and let him learn more about Explorers.

 

[Yomie]

What about your tortion bars themselves?Dead Link Removed

for real man, i'm glad to see your safe

 

[GJarrett]

My torsion bar break was the result of bouncing a 5,000+ lb Explorer on rocks using the torsion bar as an impact point and then stressing it in very cold weather. I seriously doubt if the fact it had a TT or not made any difference whatsoever in the outcome.

 

[guggy]

Thanks

I'm always happy to hear from you all.


Thank you again for all your great info.

I will be doing the TT and shackle lift as soon as i get the war 153's .

I just wanted to add that i am very impressed with the knowledge of all those on this board which make owning an Explorer a lifestyle, not an "expense".


As always ,

Thanks,

Mark