Hey everyone, just running a post to see if anyone's put Performance Accessories (#863) 3 inch body lift kit on their trucks. I am interested in how it worked out for you, any tips or tricks to the kit, and if anyone has any pics of their truck after installation. Summit Racing sells the kit for a modest $123 and I'm planning on buying it. Any response is appreciated.

Steve

 

Steve,

The 863 is one of the best kits out there, I put one on my 1997 F150 4x4 , took about 9 hours, with impacts. It comes with good instructions and all needed hardware. Neil

 

Steve...............I put one on my '99.As poynter said, it is a good kit and does come with everything, just allow plenty of time to do it.
I will say..........FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. Made a few mistakes by jumping ahead myself.Thought I knew more than the instruction manual as I am a mechanic (not automobile) and I had to back up and start over a few times.Main one is they say to raise the bed and cab at the same time and you must do it that way. Will not work trying to do one at a time..

Only thing that I really had much trouble at all on was the fan shroud.Seemed that the lowering brackets weren't designed for one with a transmission and oil cooler.Don't know what the deal was, but I had to do quiet a bit of modification to the shroud.Other than that, everything was fairly easy.

Later........FRF

 

Here are the pics of mine. The install was very easy but time consuming. Didn't require any special tools. A half inch drill, t47 socket, dremel tool, two jacks, and basic hand tools are all that is necessary.

The hardest part was aligning the bumpers, I had 4 hours into that alone. The fan shroud was easy for me. The longest part is just removing everything that has to be removed to lift the truck. The actual lifting of the body was the easiest thing I did. I used my 3 ton pole jack to lift the cab and a bottle jack sitting on the back tire to lift the bed.

kev

 

Anyone have pictures of their lift with stock tires? Had to replace two tires this past month and can not afford new ones for a while so I can not upgrade them. Just wanting to see if the body lift will look OK with 265/70/17's. Just trying to plan ahead.
Thanks for any help

 

JMTruck has pics of his truck when it had the 3" body and stock tires. Here is the link that is in his profile:

http://www.communicomgroup.com/jmtruck/body-mods.htm

kev

 

Thanks for the link. I forgot that he had those out there. I just don't want the truck to look like funny for a year or so while I am wearing out the old tires and saving for the new ones.

 

Glad to be helpful. Thanks kev for helping other F150 friends.

 

All in all, how did you like the setup with the stock tires and the body lift. It will be most likely another year before I get new tires and am wondering if I can stand looking at the truck without the new tires? Just curious

 

Well to be honest, I did not like the looks of it with the body lift and stock tires. I only drove it one day like that though. It just didn't look right. Even a guy at work commented on it. He asked me why I would make it look like that. He changed his opinion when he saw the 35s on the truck though.

If I were you, I would purchase the lift kit when you have a few spare bucks but not install it until closer to the time when you are thinking about purchasing new tires. This is what I did. Well actually I saved for the tires first and then bought the lift. My 35s sat in my garage for a little over a month until I ordered the kit and installed it.

You also could consider one of those wheel/tire packages where you could keep your new stock tires on the original rims as spares for the winter/etc. But of course that is more $$$$

kev