Alrighty I am getting rid of my 2005 f150 2 door and getting the fx4 foor door within a month. I plan on almost immediately lifting my new truck. I would be lifting my truck either 6 or 8 inches. Many people state that the balljoints wear out premeturely. Is this true? I need some input from people that have had there trucks lifted for a while about any breakages, or failures of your truck. Also what lift kits do you have and is it the 6 or 8 or is it a custom lift kit. Thanks for all of input in advance. Jon Im looking at a truck with the 5.4 with the 3.73 gears. I will not be able to buy tires rims and a lift and regear all at once so will the 373 hold up for 6 months. Thanks again

 

I have never heard of ball joint problems with someone running a lift kit. Its mostly with the leveling kit/spacer set-ups. I wouldn't worry about it. As far as gearing goes, you'll be fine. I've got 37s and the 3.73s and its been fine.

 

i agree

 

i previoulsy had a f150 wiht fabtech long travel on it and it went through ball joints every 6 months, and my buddy has a regular drop braket lift on a 2000 f150 and has the same problem, i learned how to change them out fairly easy so it was not a major problem for me, ive talked to alot of people and many say its because the truck is a 2wd and has coils which causes this rather than torsion bars. the only trucks that i know that have experienced this is fabtech, if i were you i would consider procomp, rize or any other brand before fabtech as i and many others have experienced nothing but hassels, expecially with their recalls and discontinued parts for their lifts.

 

i know alot of people who have/had fabtech lifts (dad owns local offroad shop) and never had any kind of complaints or problems with them

 

this is my second truck with a lift on it. i have not had any parts wear out prematurly due to a lift kit.

 

Thamks alot, my brother currently has a dodge ram lifted 6 inches with a fabtech lift kit; I believe that is where I heard abotu premature balljoint failure. For those of you with the 8 inch rize how is the front end lifted. From my basic understanding ti seems to me that it is the rize 6 inch lift kit with a spacer/leveling kit added. I may be wrong but wouldnt this put the cv joint at an extreme angle instead of level like they are supposed to be. I heard that you cannot run a spacer with a lift kit unless your are 2wd. Am I correct in my understanding?

 

this is my 8"kit as u can see it has perfect angles.

 

allrsdup thanks for the picture, it seems to me that the angles are actually perfect. Your signature picture may look decieving but it seems to em that you are experience some toe in on your front tire. It looks like the top of the tire is slightly inward compared to the bottom / \
This may be the picture but just another concern

 

it is just the picture i have 4000 miles on the tires now since the lift and they are wearing perfectly.

 

I had a problem with them wearing out. I got a 4" rancho lift on my 2005 fx4 in april of this year and when i took my truck to get my tires rotated in september they told me they were worn. Had to replace them. The bad thing is on the new ford you have to replace the whole lower a arm.

 

It isn't so much the lift that causes the problems, as it is the bigger tires and rims with more offset. Fabtech is known for ball-joint problems - go visit any of the off-road or desert boards and you will see lots of ball-joint problems. Any time you put larger tires or change the geometry of something, stock parts will tend to wear faster. They will also wear faster if you actually take your truck off-road.