Pros & Cons of installing a Body Lift on an offroad 4x4 truck

[ElectricSquid]

I'd like to get your opinions on using a Body Lift on a truck that's built for offroad use.
I'm not talking mall crawler here. In every town there's at least one :icon_twisted: that has a truck you need a ladder to climb into. That's a whole different topic.
I'm interested in offroad ready inspired ideas and best practices.

:icon_confused:
What height would you consider the limit for a body lift?
What did you take into consideration when choosing the height for your body lift?
Do you have any body lift horror stories, or stuff you didn't think of till the truck was half lifted?

 

[koda6966]

Pro- More room to stuff tires, and it gets your body higher up and away from the ground while maintaining a low center of gravity on the main part of the truck. (Frame, Engine, etc)

Cons- I honestly can't think of any right now.

I would only go three inches max, but stick with two if it will give you what your looking for.

 

[ElectricSquid]

Added a poll to the topic, for those who don't have time to post a reply.

 

[Jay FX4]

Koda pretty much summed up the pros. I'll list some cons....

1. UGLY!!! Frame rails are not attractive. Gap guards help with the wheel wells though
2. Kiss your front tow hooks goodbye unless you remove/hack up your valance.
3. Hitch and exhaust will either "hang down low" (it's actually in the same spot but lifting the body off it makes it look low) or require modification. The other alternative is to leave your rear bumper in the stock location, but that looks pretty bad, too.

On the other hand, they're cheap, and your driveshaft and suspension can stay happily stock.

 

[ElectricSquid]

Wheel wells are not an issue, they've been custom chopped away already.
The frame rails could use some exposure to make the slide rail build easier.
The exhaust is custom and can be modified further to work with the new heights.

...but the damn trailer hitch and rear bumper are going to give me some trouble. I see what you mean with that and I can tell that's gonna need some attention.

 

[dusto2]

con it can ad in pushing a body mount through your floor if you get real hard on the truck

 

[c_note]

as for the whole center of gravity bull crap, ive had a ranger with a body lift and i now have an SASed ranger with twice the lift. my truck now with the SAS has much better control on the road and i swear the center of gravity was gone with the body lift.

and if you have ever read any of my post on body lifts, im pretty sure you know what i voted.

 

[Jay FX4]

...but the damn trailer hitch and rear bumper are going to give me some trouble. I see what you mean with that and I can tell that's gonna need some attention.

The hitch can be modified. It's going to require welding. Personally, even if a hitch was 5 times stronger after being modified, I'd have a hard time trusting it. But that's just me. It can be done without issues.

 

[Jay FX4]

I'm not a fan of body lifts, and as bad as I want 33's, I will most likely not get one.
But for the record, since the question wasn't whether or not you should get a body lift, rather how much you'd lift the body, I voted 3".

 

[big91explorer]

I had a 3 inch body lift on my 91 explorer, and it allowed the tires to tuck up into the fender wells better.

I had the 2 inch coils on the front, with add a leafs in the rear.

and fully flexed out, it would just barely rub the inner fenderwells, without the body lift, I would not have been able to flex it very much.

 

[4x4junkie]

I have a 2" BL on mine. It gave me the needed clearance for my dual-transfercase setup. A body lift also gets you up higher without whacking your steering geometry all to hell (6" is the upper practical limit for lifting the TTB suspension). I've also used the space created by the BL for things like extended shock mounts and what not.

as for the whole center of gravity bull crap, ive had a ranger with a body lift and i now have an SASed ranger with twice the lift. my truck now with the SAS has much better control on the road and i swear the center of gravity was gone with the body lift.

and if you have ever read any of my post on body lifts, im pretty sure you know what i voted.

Control & handling is not entirely tied to your CoG.
It should be pretty obvious between a vehicle that has only the sheetmetal body structure lifted 3" vs. one that also has the frame, engine & driveline lifted 3", which one has the lower CoG.

 

[ElectricSquid]

More room to stuff tires, and it gets your body higher up and away from the ground while maintaining a low center of gravity on the main part of the truck. (Frame, Engine, etc)

It should be pretty obvious between a vehicle that has only the sheetmetal body structure lifted 3" vs. one that also has the frame, engine & driveline lifted 3", which one has the lower CoG.

I agree.
For the longest time, I've heard the argument that a body lift just gives you a higher center of gravity, so go with a suspension lift instead. But after thinking about it, you're 100% right, the suspension lift lifts everything including the body. A BL lifts only the body.
So say you're going to lift a total of 6",
if ALL the lift came from a body lift, the center of gravity should be much lower than if you got your 6" of lift from only a suspension lift (which lifts everything + the body)

The suspension lift has it's good points. It gives the axles more room to flex and gives better overall frame clearance. I already have 3" of suspension lift for those reasons.

But even after 3" of suspension lift, the area just below the doors is still too low. This area is well known to get damaged offroad. Just look at any offroad truck magazine and you'll see that spot damaged on at least half of the truck pics. And when it does get damaged, it's a royal pain in the @$$ to fix because of the door getting crunched.

I also need to lift the gas tank on this truck for added safety. It's the floor of the body that's keeping me from doing that modification.

I've had a many tell me that I should lift the suspension another 3" to get the extra lift I need, and avoid any kind of body lift like it was the plague. Their argument is that the BL is the cheap-o way to lift a truck and all it does is raise the COG. But I don't agree with that at all.
The more I look into it, the better a body lift sounds.

 

[rngmStr]

3" shows too much frame rail, not to mention full length of WAR lift shackle in the rear, extensions.................
2" BL and 2" SL gives enough room to throw some 32's under it and call it good................. can deal with the muffler for now

 

[Chris.S.]

Con:

Installing a body lift can sometimes damage wires if you're not careful. Some folks think that stretching them is bad period, even if they don't break.

 

[kunar]

i'm not really a big fan of body lifts but an inch or two is just enough to give a little more clearance when working on your transmission or exhaust....

 

[ElectricSquid]

Con:

Installing a body lift can sometimes damage wires if you're not careful.

I think that "con" is more of an installer error than a bad check for body lifts.
That's like saying oil changes are bad because you might not put the drain plug back in.

Some folks think that stretching wires is bad period, even if they don't break.

That's very correct.
Stretching a wire WILL lead to a broken wire sometime down the road.
The worst part is that the wire will most likely break inside of it's shielding, which from the outside, won't look like a broken wire.
That'll make diagnosing the problem that much harder.

 

[kkjb4x4.0]

I don't think a bl on a ranger looks too bad,,not as bad as some chevy's I see. A few years back I put one on a s15 to clear 275 75 15's, looked like crap and the engine bay was a snowdrift in the winter and would'nt start well .I would consider a 2 or 3 inch bl to clear 33's on my 97.

 

[haulasswithclass]

body lift

I like the body lift for a few reasons. It make the bronco II and rangers easier to work on all the way around. I play in the mud alot and it make it easier to wash the running gear. I think that body lifts get a bad rap because of bad installer doing them. I have had a few rig over the year that i ran body lifts on and i took my time putting them on. I never had any problem caused by the body lift.

 

[orange_ranger]

im hoping to install a bl in the fall they doo have downsides but they r cheap and if u do it right i think it will be worth it too clear the bigger tires.

 

[Boggin]

my buddy had a 6" body lift on his old chev, beat that truck like hell and no problems

ill vote 4