okay so as of now my rig is running with completly bone stock suspension. i'm looking to do a 4-5 inch lift in order to fit bigger tires after i gear my truck. i really would like to settle with a solid axle swap from all pro, but that could easily get over 2 grand. so here is my dilemma: i need to find a regular lift kit for the IFS. my trouble is, i don't know where to start looking. i've found kits out there, but i hear there are alot of IFS lift kits out there that aren't exactly the greatest quality. if anyone knows of a good, strong, durable, lift kit with a decent ride quality please post. or if anyone has any ideas on where i can start looking that would help out too. thankssss.

 

Don't waste your money on an IFS lift if you plan on SASing in the future. Do the standard minimum lift for 33s and save up for a solid axle. Try doing a search, you'll find lots of info.

 

i thought about doing that. but it could be an awful long time before i'm even ready for a solid axle swap. i guess i could settle with ball joint spacers in the front and longer shackles in the rear and a 1 or 2 inch body lift for now. any recommendations on what companies/brands are good to buy from?

also, as of now my suspension is squeaking like crazy. i suspect it's maybe my bushings or something. everytime i hit a little bit my springs screach and it gets rather annoying especially when pedestrians start staring down my noisy truck. ahahaha. if anyone else has had this sort of problem or has any knowledge that might be useful let me knoww.

thank you very much for your help. it is appreciated.

 

Links to fitting 33s on an IFS truck. The '94 pickup writeup (link on above page) has a body lift and shackles that I built. We just did the torsion bar lift on it.

On the squeaks, try to find out where they are coming from then you'll have a better idea on how to fix them. Bushings can be replaced if worn.

 

Roger's the man.

 

A body lift is the only cheap way to clear 33" tires. Ball joint spacer, torsion bars and Shackles will lift your truck but as your suspension cycles up (bottoming out) your tires will still rub. The body lift will allow for the clearance of 33".

 

if i get the ball joint spacers and the shakles that'll give me maybe 1.5 inches of lift plus a 1 - 2 inch body lift ON TOP of that. another factor about fitting 33's on my truck is i have prerunner fender flares due to an unfortunate rollover and my stock fenders and bedsides were smashed. so i bought the flared prerunner ones because they were cheaper than body work and just looked a heck of a lot cooler. with all that i think i should be able to fit 33's.

now for the other half of questions i still have... i can put the shackles on myself just fine. but i've never toyed with ball joints before. can anyone give me some pointers or link me to somewhere where i can find detailed information about installing ball joint spacers? i'm sure i can do it, it doesn't seem like it'd be that tough. i just like to know what i'm doing before i attempt something. thanks alot guys you are really helping me out!

--alan

 

......In the rear, I was able to keep the factory saggy springs and get lift like this.... http://zuk.tripod.com/dadcoil.htm

......In the front, I cranked the torsion bars 10 turns which resulted in 1.5" lift. I now have 33x10.5 all terrains on it and it looks pretty dam good. I have the nice factory 15x7 aluminum rims and using the 10.5 tire width allowed me to keep the highly in-spaced rims and not rub in full turns. Balljoint spacers may rub the tire depending on tire width and wheel backspacing so watch out for that.

I plan to use it as a DD and general trail use with camping in mind. No 4 foot boulders with this pup. cost of my lift....free (just my time and some fabbing)


..... You wouldn't believe how much using that center-coil to get the leafs off the over-load helped in giving a cushy ride.

 

i plan on running 33x12.50 on 15x8/4.75" backspace wheels. i recently had my torsion bars uncranked and i do not intend on cranking them back up again... ever. they were cranked sky high and it cause alot of annoying little problems i.e. cv boots breaking etc. but mostly the ride was so stiff i don't think i'll ever resort to cranking those bars back up. from what i've heard, this setup should work. but i still comments and suggestions are welcome. i need all the input i can get.

ps. i still need info on installing ball joint spacers..... anyone? please

 

Whether you use 1.5" ball joint spacers or crank the tbars 1.5", the CVs will see the same amount of lift and you will have the same CV boot problems. If you don't have them already, switch to manual hubs.

 

are there any other cons to using ball joint spacers? i'm sure hoping it doesn't stiffen out your ride like cranking the tbars does... or at least not as much.

and yes, i switched to manual hubs almost a year ago. my truck came stock with auto hubs and those things were garbage. one of my hubs wasn't working for like the first year i owned the thing until i finally got a clue how to fix it (manual hub conversion!) and having those auto hubs unlock on me in reverse was really annoying and led to a couple situations where i got stuck somewhere i should have been able to back out of. anyhoo, that's my little story there. now for some info on those ball joint spacers! yeeee hawww!

 

Most people are very happy with the ride from BJ spacers. What you do is install the spacers and then uncrank the tbars to whatever height you want. This gets the A-arm geometry back to normal, softening the ride.

 

okay, that's good to hear. any pointers on installing them? i've never toyed with ball joints before.

 

Try doing a search, lots of people have written about their install. Try here and at 4x4wire.com

 

If you want any info on a 4.5" lift for an IFS, let me know, I just did a bunch of work to my truck, and previous to that I did a lot of researching the different lift kits, getting different opinions, finding out what peoples experiences where, and determining what kits included what parts, what parts would be needed on install, how to install, and tire/wheel combo stuff. The specs on my truck are in my signature.

One other thing, I thought about going with a SAS, but decided since mine was a daily driver, and I didn't want to put that much money into it, I went with an IFS lift. So far I have been extrememly happy, and the truck does incredibly well for IFS.

 

thank you so much everyone for your help. if i have more questions i'll post them.