Who has 32's and TT/Shackles

I know someone on here with a black explorer has 32's with only a TT/Shackle. I am thinking about getting the 32X11.5 BFG AT's. I juat have a few questions for you. I had the 31's and it appeared that i could have gone 32's. I was wondering if they fit good and didn't rub a whole lot. I know my 10.5's rubed the sway bar at full lock, but i'm not worried about that, just on trails and fenders type stuff. I can get the 32's for $580 installed, so please get back to me on this!

 

[codewiz]

I had 33X12.5s with tt/shackle and 2" body... took the body lift off a couple days ago (sigh). It rubbed a bit when I was turning and hitting a good size bump or curb. I trimmed the plastic back quite a bit and the rubbing is gone but I have yet to see what will happen on the trail.

-Kevin

 

[Yomie]

33's with just the TT/Shackle? Man thats gotta look Huge with such little lift.

Man your in Indy? I am just like Down the road away in Louisville!

 

[codewiz]

Yeah, I preferred it with the body lift... my wife on the other hand couldn't stand the height so we compromised. I posted some pictures in before/after with the body lift but once i get some more pictures without the lift, I'll post them up as well. Lousiville, huh? We should organize an attica run soon... the ranger guys are going in sept and november - I was considering hooking up with them... maybe a ranger/explorer event.

-Kevin

 

[Yomie]

Yeah that would be great. I won't have my new 32's untill the 2nd week in september so it'll have to be after that November would be great, i also neet to go get new gear for the truck like first aid stuff and full size spare, but i should be ready by November, what kinda tires are ya running, nevermind i saw the pics, Who put 12.5's on the rims for ya? Looks really nice. I got the same rims just in silver. and mine is white also, but i have a 2 door.

 

[codewiz]

They are the BFG M/Ts... pretty sweet. I still don't have a full size spare though. I am currently running them on my stock 7" rims... I've been thinking about some 8 or 10s with different backspacing.

-Kevin

 

[Yomie]

BTW what did you do with the Body lift? Ya really got me wanting it now, since you just took it off and everything

 

[Yomie]

Sorry for all the questions, but did you make all the bumper brackets also? and was there any problems with putting it on your truck?

 

[codewiz]

I have it sitting in my garage at the moment... I was thinking about selling it but I may hang on to it. I was lucky enough to get the 94 2" kit and I finagled (is that how u spell that?) Performance Accessories into selling me the front bumper brackets from the 98 ranger 3" kit... let me ponder it for a couple days. If you really want it, I may let it go. If you want 3" it would probably be cheapest to just buy the 98 kit since I had to buy the bumper brackets seperately.

-Kevin

 

[codewiz]

continued... I didnt use any new brackets on the back. I just slid the bumper up on the stock bracket and drilled a single new hole in the frame and attached the bumper with a single bolt on each side. I also had to dremel out a little groove on each side of the bumper underneath so the bottom could slide over the original bracket and be straight. As far as the front goes, it went on 'OK'. The Ranger brackets arent a perfect fit. At first the rear of the front bumper sagged down. I corrected it by bending the brackets a little and shimming the bolts a bit to bring it up square. You can check out my pics in the before/after to see how they looked... i call the thread something like. '96 Just an After' or something like that.

-Kevin

 

[Yomie]

Thats cool, I didn't want to go with the 3" because all of the work that is involved with the 3" kit. I only wanted to run 32's (only have 3.73's) so i think the 2" and the TT/Shacle will be perfect. If you do decide to let it go you can e-mail me at Yomieho@yahoo.com and a price also. I saw the pictures and the truck looks great. Lemme know what you decide.

Reggie

 

[codewiz]

Sounds good... I'll let you know in a day or two. A couple things, though. Do you have the v8? I only have the 3.73 in mine and although the power is down, its not extreme (had a lot on tap). I have been considering redoing the gears but I am trying to get a price and see if the expense is worth the power gain. Another thing was concerning the steering. Mine was never binding because of the angle, but i did feel a pop in the wheel every once in a while and it was due to the fact that i really had to force the steering shaft to the very end of it's travel to get it to connect up. Other people seem to have plenty of travel in their steering shafts for the 2" lift but mine didn't.

-Kevin

 

[Yomie]

I have the 4.0L 5 Speed 2door(sport) model

 

[codewiz]

Yeah, that may effect it more. The 6s and 8s have different powerbands... plus you will feel more of a difference with a manual than you will with an auto.

-Kevin

 

[Michigander]

I have 32" tires with TT and add-a-leaf. I only had rubbing when the wheel was force all the way into the wheel well. I have no rubbing on turms.

 

[codewiz]

Hey, I think I will go ahead and sell my body lift... a couple things to think about though... I think i may have used a couple bolts from the kit when i took the lift off because i drilled through my bushings so I needed longer bolts (so u may need to find a couple bolts or depending on how you do it, you may be able to use a couple of your stock bolts). Also on the front brackets, the threads are pressed into the bracket itself and i tightened them enough to pop them right out of the right onw so on one bracket, it has the threads and the other bracket just has holes so i had to get a couple grade 8 bolts to put in there... I'll take some pics and post them so you can think about whether you want it or not.

-Kevin

 

[Yomie]

ok thats cool, lemme see the pics and stuff and well talk about a price....cool

 

[Yomie]

As far as the bolts go and stuff, if i do get it, i should be able to figure out where each bolt goes and stuff right? Does it tell you in the instructions where each one goes, oh well i'll figure it out. When you put the lift on, whas there anything like the radiator that you had to relocate, or did you just take out the shroud?

 

[codewiz]

Hmmm..let's see. The instructions do tell you where the bolts go, but since this kit wasn't made for the new explorers, they aren't correct. What I ended up doing was using the new bolts, but i drilled out all of my bushings w/ a 1/2" bit and stuck nuts underneath because they were all too long and they are only threaded at the ends. If you study it, you can probably figure out which of the original long bolts you can use in place of the new short bolts and not drill out those bushings. My original bolts were all pretty shot though. They had so much rust and factory loctite that they were toast... It may help if you spray them all with liquid wrench for a week or so before you do it. I had to destroy the front two because they would not come off at all... I hacksawed them off. It has a couple brackets for the fan shroud (which in theory you could probably even use to lower the whole radiator). I didn't want to lower the radiator because there is a big rest for it on the body which i would have had to cut off. This will probably be quite a bit different for your 6 cyl and hopefully easier. I could drop the driver side of the shroud down 2" but the radiator hoses only allowed me to drop the passenger side down about an inch or so so my shroud was a little crooked (but the fan didnt rub it). There are some other miscellaneous brackets in there too that I didn't use like for the parking brake cable...not sure what the others were... I'll take a pic of all the parts and the instructions and upload them ... ill let you know when i get it uploaded. There is also a problem with something rubbing on the 6s when you lift the body... something about the air conditioning lines? In my case, my tranny cooler lines touched my idler pulley when i lifted it so I had to zip tie them down to the frame to keep them from rubbing... Basically , you just want to really look over your fan and pulleys before you start the truck to make sure that nothing is rubbing and figure out a way to move stuff if it is.

-Kevin

 

[Yomie]

Cool, thanks for the information. I have read alot about the body lifts, because i have always been interested in the 2" body lift, and i think i am ready now. If i do get the lift, I was planning on getting under the truck and soaking the bolts/nuts with liquid wrench every once in a while untill i finally put the lift on. I have a friend that has done a Body Lift before that is willing to help me out. How hard was it to take the factory bolts out? and how long did it take you to put the lift on? Sorry for all the questions