Looking at buying a 79 pickup. It's in great shape and already has 4.88 gears.

My question is this. I have enough money to get the trail-gear.com 5'' lift, 35 tires, wheels to go with them, t-case gears, the IFS box and mount for the hy-steer right away. When I lift it 5'' I assume I need to get longer driveshafts. My question is how long do they need to be and do I need to relocate the mounting points on the axles to adjust for the lifting angles?

Thanks in advance for the info,
Brandon

 

My advice, buy a lift kit from someone else other than trailgear.

 

Obviously this guy knows nothing about lifts.... Trailgear is a great lift and company. But you should take abvice form someone who actually has lifted there 4x4...


Ask Brian from wabfab.com, he sales them

 

Ok tough guy, go do your research on pirate and marlin crawler forums. Trailgear makes nice parts, but their ethics leave a lot to be desired.

 

I would personally look into either Allpro or marlin. Those are both two very well trusted and big name companies. And Marlin and bigmike both stand behind there products.

 

i second that

 

Install lift, then measure for the shafts and go from there. Rear may be OK, but up front, likely will need to be lengthened and also need a longer slip yoke on it as well. Measure flange-flange, ideally with suspension fully compressed and fully extended to get an idea on how long that shaft needs to be and how much slip length it needs. And on the angles, again measure and see:
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/Shims.shtml#FAQ1

 

Up front you can make a square tube driveshaft for cheap. The rear may be good as 4Crawler said.
You'll have to wait and see till the truck is lifted to see what the measurements are like.

Personally I'd go with Marlin's lift over anyone else.

 

Advice from Pirate4x4 is about as useless as tits on a boar. The people that do take the time to post on that forum are generally on the hunt to flame someone for a silly question vice giving actual advice. And why would Marlin be positive about products from a company who competes with them?

Yeah, his response could have been more professional but damn...just buy the stuff that works for you.

as to the dshafts, lift then measure like several people have already said.

If you don't pan on going more than like 5-10mph in 4wd you could fab up a front dshaft, the rear might be alright, again like several people already mentioned.

And in my opinion, you could just as easily build your own lift...missing links or longer springs, whatever, come up with something creative. Obviously if you don't have the time, money, material to accomplish this then your best bet is to do your research and buy the product that fits your "desire."

Hope this helps,

Jon

 

I don't have the time or desire to redesign the perverbial wheel. I can get a kit for approximately the same amount of money that the time to design my own would be worth. They have spent lots of time and money researching so that I don't have to.


Thank you all for the advice on driveshafts and I will probably go for a square ds up front.