Thinking of A 4" lift on my 96 f-150. What are some of the problems im going to be facing; driveline?, Brake Lines? Sway Bar Drop Down Brakcets? Or would it be better to do a 2" leveling kit with spacers and an add a leaf and a 2" body lift?

 

2WD or 4WD and what size tires are you planning to run? If you have 2WD and don't plan on running anything larger than 33" tires, the leveling kits look good to me.

 

4WD and hoping to run a 33X15X10.5" tire, also is it going to be a big deal not going with a different gear ratio with my 4.9 and the 33's?

 

Check out the Superlift site at superlift.com, that should give you a starting point. The other suspension manufacturers have similar sites. Some of the 4 wheel magazines have tech articles, but you will have to search for the older trucks.

 

Welcome to the site!

What do you plan on doing with the truck? If you plan on wheeling it offroad, you might want to skip the 4" kit, and go straight for a 6" kit. There's a minimal price difference, and for all the work it's gonna take, you might as well get the best results. Mine had a 4" lift on it when I got it and I hated it. It caused problems because it was a cheap kit, and I had some tire rubbing with 33's. The biggest problem was that it had radius arm drop brackets instead of extended radius arms. This resulted in frame cracking:





Therefore, if you plan on wheeling, I definately recommend using a kit that includes the extended arm . It prolly wouldn't matter as much if you intend to stay on road. I wheel on some pretty rough trails, and so far I have been extremely happy with the performance of the BDS kit.



I have had no driveline issues caused by either lift. Your brake lines will prolly need to be replaced, and you'll need a full alignment done again around 6 months after installation. Expect to run into some sub-projects during the job, so keep a few bucks available for the unexpected. Good luck, and have fun!

 

http://www.truckaddons.com/Catalog/s...nsion_fo03.htm

thats about the best lift i think i can do with the money. I do intend to wheel it but the trails around here arnt to bad. Its really just gunna be my rough and tough hunting rig. Think this lift will cover me and im really hoping im not going to have to change my gear ratio from stock with my 300 cube, 6 and the the 33" tires any thoughts on that. Thanks for the help btw.

 

I have a 95 4x4 with the 4.9L. I have a 3 in lift with 33x12.5's. I went to 4.10's to get the truck back to the "stock" ratio. I probably should have gone stepper, but it did make a big difference over the 3.55. The higher the lift,the more air resistance, and the more the 4.9L has to work. Also the bigger tires increase weight and resistance. I don't know about your engine, but my gutless wonder struggles to stay at highway speeds in the wind and I can forget about taking a hill and keeping speed. Other than that I do some wheeling and my combo, while not going to win ANY competitions, does great for me in the mud and rocks here in the southwest.

 

My 4.9's actually pretty snappy so i think im just guna try the lift n go from there with the 5 speed and the granny low i may be ok. im just also worried about gas mileage as this is my daily driver. how has the 33" tires and the 4.10 gears changed your mileage.

 

I got the truck about 5 years ago and it had 31x10.5's on it. About the only time I checked the mpg on it was on the highway. I got about 18 on the highway then. Putting the 33x12.5's on dropped it to about 16. This way before and after I changed the gears. I figured that with the 3.55's I was runnin lower rpm but pushing harder on the pedal to keep speed. The 4.10's increased the rmp's but don't have to press as hard on the pedal. Keep in mind that something is probably out of tune on mine. Overall I guess I dropped 2mpg with the tire change.

 

Cool i can deal with the 2mpg difference, was using the 3.55's a huge stress on the motor or should i be ok for a while? By the way thanks for all the help to everyone on this

 

The 3.55's weren't any problem on the engine. If anything, the lower rpm's on the engine with the 33's and 3.55's was a benefit to the engine. The lower rmp's on my truck though made it hard to keep the power I needed for high winds (big problem here in the southwest) and hills (at highway speeds). If your engine doesn't have this problem then I wouldn't worry about it. My guess is that IF you notice a change, the change will be small enough to live with untill you get the money for a gear change.

 

Hey there, I know that my truck being a 2wd makes this a little different, but I was also wondering about what gearset to run with my 4" lift.

If the 4wd 4" lifts, are as similar as I think they are, the longer radius arms are great! I enjoy hitting the largest potholes I can find, and or cruising over speed bumps at 40 while holding a cup of coffee.

With a 4" lift, you'll need longer brake lines for sure, and as far as the sway bar goes... I heard you can flip them upside down, and swap the links, driver / passenger. I haven't tried it yet, just running w/o a front sway bar at the moment because the guy I bought the lift from said he ran without it to keep all that extra wheel travel usable. On the highway its not an issue at all, can't even tell its missing. But I did put about 1,000 lbs in the back to see what happend, and it did drift around a little bit, not much tho.


I checked mine and I have 3.08 gears tied to my 4.9L So I'm thinking that when I put some 33's on there I at least need 3.55 if not better I would think. I know this thing has a lotta torque, and I love how 35mph in town is "idle" engine speed. I wanna keep my RPM's low for the most part, but I don't wanna hold up traffic when I'm towing a trencher or a car. So what gears should I look into? I really don't know.. 3.55 3.73 ?





2wd's can play in the mud too ya know! just not that deep..

 

Hey eric,

I went through the same problem before I got my gears. Check out this website 4lo.com (that is a lower case L and O, not zero). They have a link on the left side that allows you to input your tire size, rpm, speed, ect. If you put in that stuff and hit calculate, it will tell you what gear size you need to keep your truck stock. They have some pretty cool stuff for calculating on that site. They also have a chart on there somewhere that you can look at tire size vs gear ratio and it give an APPROXIMATE best gas mpg, most torque, ect. So have fun and play around with different configurations!

I have also heard that with gear ratio's, figure out what you want or need, and then go 1 steeper. I didn't do this, maybe I should have, but all in all I satisfied with my 4.10 in line with the 4.9L. hope this helps.

 

Just curious since I have a 4 inch on my 84'...
What purpose do the radius arms serve? My kit used the stock radius arms.
What are the benefits of extended radius arms over stock? I do go wheeling at least a few times a month over plenty of whoops, mud, sand, and whatever else gets in the way.

 

It allows for more wheel articulation. Look at where the 2 pivot points are at. End of I beams, and end of radius arms. Longer radius arms, allow for more travel.