Im sure this is in another thread somewhere but i couldnt find anything about it. Anyone know what the factory ride height is of an 03 FX4? Like ground to bumpers. It seems to me that every other 4x4 Ranger I see on the road sits higher than mine. Just wondering if maybe someone altered the suspension before I bought it. Thanks for any input.

 

My '07 was about 35" from ground to top of wheel well before I lifted it if I remember correctly... I've got the measurements somewhere but it shouldn't be too far off yours.

 

That's sad. My 08 was 32" I wanna say.

 

I think that all the Rangers are a bit different, even within the 4x4 "segment" I know that the later Rangers like '06 and up actually ride a bit lower than the same truck of an earlier year. My stock 04 is a bit taller than most stock Rangers, I always park next to other Rangers when I can and do a quick comparison with mine. You also need to take into account tire size as well. I just bought some new yokohama ats for my truck, in 235/75/15. I measured these new tires and they ended up being over half an inch bigger than my cooper mastercraft of the same size. Though, your fx4 should come stock with 31's so it should actually be riding taller than most other Rangers, so check your tire size.
If you can't find a reason for your low riding truck, check out the suspension. Make sure that your shocks aren't completely beat, your torsion bars could be saggin as well, so you could crank those to compensate for a worn suspension.

You can find the specs for the ride height on the Ford website, and then park yours on a level surface and measure from the ground to the top of the cab or wheel well.

I hope some of this helped.

 

08 is when they affected the height more with the re indexed keys. I am also sure after 08 all models came with the same height. I've seen xlts, fx4 and they both had those shitty goodyears in a 255.
A guy at work just got a 11' sport 4x4. My truck with pre key, crank and 31's sits a good 2-3 higher then his.

 

I measured it and it sits 35 inches to top of wheel well in the rear an 33 in the front. I have it on BF Goodrich 265/75 R16's. So I guess its where it needs to be. It could that it just looks lower cause its not leveled? However I do need to do some suspension work. I need to replace the ball joints for sure and im sure the shocks are factory original at 98k. So ill probably do those as well. As far as torsion bars go, where do i tighen those? I had a 93 toyota pickup and the nuts to tighten were right inthe open. I havent been able to find them anywhere on my truck. I dont doubt that the suspension is worn. It was a rental before I bought it so there is no telling how many times it was ramped. One more quick question, there are no coil springs around the front shocks, just bit different than all other rangers ive seen. Normal here as well? Thanks for all the feedback and info so far. ITs been very informative.

 

Sounds like you're right where you should be. Those bars are closing in on 10 years old, so they have likely just sagged. The bolts are at the rear end of the torsion bars, the head of them are pointing towards the ground.

 

Check out this thread:

Torsion Bar Cranking

 

You are around where I am sitting. I forget exactly but it's in one of my threads.

Post pics up of your truck. I am curious about what it looks like.

 

I would also like to see pictures of your truck.

 

I just looked through my older threads. Rear is 36-37" and front is 35".

 

Ok thanks. Thats where I thought they were but it looked like they were capped off ans were not able to be un capped. Maybe I was just looking at it wrong. As for the pictures, I will be more than happy to post some. It will be a couple of days as I am at work and do not get off until saturday morning.

 

That thread you posted just confused the s*** out of me. I would like it ride even in front and back but there was so many differed opinions there I dont know what to do about it. Any one here have a straight answer about which would be best? Cranking or keys? Thanks.

 

You can't do one without the other. 07 and older there is no need to swap in "pre keys" or older keys as your tuck is already properly indexed. Cranking is something that can be done for any torsion bar suspension. Since my truck is an 08 I swapped keys from an 05 or 06 truck then cranked them a little.

Your truck is an 03, you do not need to swap keys. However, your bars could be sagging and after 10 years I would bet they are. You would have to order and replace the bars. #1 bars are the strongest. There is a post describing from strongest to weakest using the code on the sticker on your door jam. Post it here and someone can decode it for you.

 

which code is that exactlty. I found some other stuff online that said cranking the bars and getting long travel shocks is the best bet for just leveling. Im replacing the ball joints(probably with moog) so an alignment is gonna happen anyway. About how much new torsion bars run?

 

If you look on the sticker it should say what suspension you have bars have a double number and or letter. Same for the rear springs. As for cost of new bars, I don't know since my truck is only 4 years old ( that sucked typing that). you will need an alignment after you crank the bars. I also don't know about the long travel stuff but someone posted an aftermarket shock that was designed for cranking the bars. I hope someone else remembers which ones they are as I'd like to consider them.

 

Do you know what thats abreviated as? I cant tell and the owners manual doesnt say jack

 

Also for the shocks i read rancho r5000 with up to 2.25 inch extension. Thats what i found works well when the bars are cranked to level

 

Sorry about the multiple postings. I found out what it was. I have B torsion bars and K rear leafs. So can I replace witha 1 or do i need to use another B?

 

lol @ the multiple posts. But now you got me measuring my truck though. I just measured and mine's exactly 34" in the front and 36" in the back, and thats with small *** tires too. Yours does seem a little low for an fx4 if its only 33". If you are measuring from the drivers side, it sits a bit lower because of the gas tank.

 

ok here are a few pics.