Hey guys... im hopefully gonna be getting either 6inch lift or the rize this winter. I'm just trying to justify using my truck as a work truck with it lifted. I dont work it hard but i load it up with couple thousands pounds of lime/fertilzer and use it for towing equipment. Are there any downfalls have a lifted truck while using it? towing etc?

 

if your gonna put tons of stuff in the bed (lots of weight) then your rear end will sag, and your tires could rub. you may want to consider rear air-bags. this would solve that problem, i think a member on here has rear airbags with a rancho lift, i forgot who it is.

 

lifting it obviously wont HELP in towing. it will probably hurt it a little. if you are real serious about towing you should look into a tuner and gears.

 

I agree with Dave. However, you shouldn't have any problems rubbing in the rear, not with 37's nor 35's. Depends on your backspacing but mine stick out quite far and I can tuck the entire top third of the tire into the wheel well and thats as far as my flex will go.

 

josiah what about if you were to put a bunch of weight into your bed, and it was to sag straight down several inches (with your truck on level pavement, not flexing) then when you are on the highway and you go through little dips n stuff wouldnt your rear fenders rub the back tires?

 

I didn't think about that, if that becomes the case I would throw an add-a-leaf back there. I've loaded the truck bed full of camping equipment, and 2 jet ski's on the trailer, 1 in the bed, rubbing became more of an issue on the front end at that point (w/everyone inside), either way it ran fine and managed 14-15mpg. In your case I would definitely recommend not stuffing rubber in the wheel wells, run whatever sized tire the kit was designed for or you will be constantly worried about fender problems. I've never rubbed once on the rear end and I'm on a 6" w/37's and I've been loaded pretty good (not as much as you however). I think the 37's and mild load is somewhat relative to 35's and a large load. We overcomplicated everything, what kit are you planning to run and what size tires, we'll go from there.

 

The biggest downfall for me is since i lifted mine, i cant load my Harley into the back as easy. I used to just Kamakazi it up the ramp into the bed, now that i sit higher, im afraid my ramp will slip and ill plow into the tailgate or ill put my front tire thru the back window of the truck. Guess i need to find a deeper ditch to back the truck into to load it.

 

I've had 2-3 yds of mulch in the bed and 4 yds on a trailer and my truck handled it fine. If you're planning on hauling skid loaders and tractors around to job sites you would definately want to consider re-gearing but for small stuff like hauling mulch you won't have a problem.

 

If you're going to be towing/hauling on a daily basis then regearing will pretty much be a must.

Obviously it will be a little more difficult to climb in and out and get things in and out of the bed because of the height.

As for the tires rubbing, don't go over what the lift kit manufacturer recommends and you won't have a problem. Make sure you keep a lift block with a integrated bump stop ear in the rear of the truck. If it's really a question wether or not the tires will rub with weight in the bed, it's pretty simple to figure out wehter or not it will. Measure the distance from the rubber bump stop to the lift block ear, then measure from the top of the tire to the bottom of the wheel well and see if there's more potential travel then the wheel wells will allow.

Good luck.

 

With the bigger tires having higher load capacity and installing an add-a-leaf I'd say hauling would be even better. My rear tires (325/60R20) have 12-inches to the wheel well lip but the lift block ear has only 8-inch to the bump stop so it'll never come close to rubbing. The tires are rated to over 3k lbs. each so the axle would likely bend before anything else happened.

Towing will be decreased unless you gear it properly like Baja said. Braking is compromised slightly but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. With proper trailer brakes (which any big load should have anyway) I don't think a brake upgrade is worth it.

I'd say re-gear ~$1,300-$1,600, add an extra leaf spring ~$200 to level it, and/or an air rite kit ~$450 with in cab control if you have over about 1,200 pounds in the bed a lot or if loaded plus a trailer. Not sure about all but my truck came with only 3 leafs per pack and the bottom one is really not active which is rediculous IMO so I added a leaf and leveled it. Went on summer trip to keys pulling ~6-7k plus a few hundred pounds of gear in the bed and it was perfect. If you're hauling more like 2k in the bed or pulling tractor/farm equipment I'd strongly consider the air rite bag kit.

 

Surprisingly enough the front 8.8 is rated at 4400# while the rear 9.75 axle is rated for 4200#

You can always get the 4-pack leafs (+aux) off the 7700 and replace your 2-pack leaf (+aux).

 

Superduty.

Your money would be better spent getting an SD set up for work rather than throwing money at the F150 just to get it up to par. But that's were the advice so far has been leading to is beefing up the suspension to handle a better load which I don't think you are interested in.

Practically, think about how much higher the bed (especially the rails) is going to be with a 6" lift. Do you want to throw that sack of fertilizer another 6"? Climb in the bed just to get something at the front?

It boils down to whether you prefer functionality or personality. It's a sacrifice and compromise either way.