i've looked at so many threads today regarding t bar cranking. ovbiously its a good idea in the aspect of its.. FREE. but the draw backs i have seen are weakening the ball joints and a bit more tire wear. i wanna know:
-peoples opinion
-is it worth it
-how much did you crank them
-best way to do it
-best height without devastating damages
-how much a new ball joint would cost
-#1 torsion bars?
-pretty much ANYTHING on t-bar cranking

thanks

 

I did around 4 turns and it leveled it out adn I could fit my 33 inch tires.... Id do it again if I could.

 

The only ride problem is the higher you crank the rougher the ride becomes, we crank em everyday at work, we dont notice any premature ball joint wear...but around here theres alot of dirt roads with wash board n shat for the oil field so the 2007s are already needing ball joints...

 

I cranked mine up all the way and got about 2 inches out of the front. It's not a big deal, just crank them, any of those joints are going to go sooner or later, none of them are greasable from Ford.

 

crank em'. mine are maxed out. the ride is a little stiff, but i like it rough.

 

i did search. how many turns on each side should level it out, i know the ranger lean doesnt make it the same amount of turns

 

Each truck can/could get differant results. Just crank them, shops do it all the time.

 

So is the genereal thot on tbar cranks go for it? ive been thinking about it on mine... i dont want to hurt anything and is there a way to remedy the rough ride??

and what tool do u need? And what about the tire wear that he asked?

 

Get an alignment afterwards. The only problem I had was that I snapped the bolt trying to crank them.

 

You should get the alignment checked, more often that not it won't throw it out. Now before folks jump on me, I just installed new bars in my truck, cranked them up 1.5 inchs and it did not throw it out. I use an impact to do it seems sooo much faster.

Shops crank them all the time for our maintenance trucks for plows in the winter and they showed all green on the rack. That being said I have seen a few go red. Crank them up a couple of inchs, drive a bit and work the suspension to have it settle.Then get it checked.

Buy cranking them your suspension will stiffen up and lose some travel. No way around it. As mojave stated and I agree the joints may wear faster but they suck anyway.

 

Ive heard that it increases tire wear also. i dont see how that is possible if you get an alignment after cranking 'em though...

As for how many turns, it depends how much you want to lift the front. Usually, the maximum youre gonna get is 2" Just jack the front end up and measure how for the tires are off the ground. Give them the same amount of turns on each side, then measure how high the tires are off the ground again. Make sure that each side went down the same amount. I found that on my truck (almost brand new) the left tire was about .5" lower than the right when I jacked the front end up.The adjustment screw on the left was screwed in about 4-5 turns more than the right from the factory, and I kept it that way. i also made sure that after adjusting the t-bars, the left tire was still a half inch lower.

As for the rougher ride, Mine are nearly maxed out and the ride isnt much rougher at all. i have the #1 t-bars too (the stiffest)

 

since you want everyones opinions, i'll be the first to step up and say if you want lift, then do it right the first time. i've run maxed bars w/ and w/out suspension lift, and had torsion keys for a while. if you want CHEAP lift, look into a body lift. if you crank you're torsion bars you're going to loose performance, no way around that. i replaced my lower ball joints when i installed my new front suspension and i think it costed about $75 from ford. all cranking will do is send the angles of your control arms and ball joints out of whack.

 

i have had mine cranked various stages for almost 2 years now and the ride is considerably rougher now and offroad sucks cuz you bounce all over the place. i did get about 2 inches out of it though.i have 265/75/16 tires right now and could fit a 33 easily. it is all about personal preferance with how you want your ride to be.

 

Cam alignment kit will fix the uneven cam tire wear.

 

just do it, crank the **** out of them
if you dont like it undo it..


just make sure if you keep it that way to get an alignment.

the lowers which im guessing wear out faster?
run somewhere around $15 a piece i think, the uppers are expensive, espeically the driver upper

 

cranked em all the way, gained 1.5", got an alignment and it looks awesome
\
**** ride quality, its a ****in truck!

 

stock lowers wear out at like 70k anyway, so it's no biggie. I know that the moog units are about $50 each.

it's a very very easily reversable mod. so just go out and do it. I ran mike cranked all the way on the left side, and make the right side level with left.(ranger lean ftw).

I like to crank them while the truck is still on the ground. because once they hit full droop, it'll take some bumps for them to settle down to normal ride height.

I LOVE MY #1 BARS! I'm only cranked about 60% of the way on the driverside, and still holdin' tall.

Downsides : not much down travel because of the cranked bars. I kinda don't like that. Why isn't there a damn 6" lift for torsion bar 4x4's? it sucks that there isn't.

 

Thats what she said...lol

 

I use to take my sway bar off for offroading. i mean when i cranked my t-bars (#1) it would have very little flex. Takin off the sway bar helped alot..

Crankin them seemed to eat up my wheel bearing assm. Ive already replaced both lol

 

well obviously balljoints are going to wear out anyways....and cv's, those gd things blow up all the time on non-cranked vehicles. I've had at least some crank on every vehicle I've had and had no problems at all.....there's trucks on fullsize sites running cranks with 38" boggers and have had it cranked for 60,000 miles...just do it and enjoy the height in the frontend

 

Cause we would really catch hell if our bars hung down 2 more inches.

 

but.....37's! actually......i was kinda thinkin' coilovers, just taller diff drop bracketry would be AWESOME!

 

lol...

 

Crap just broke 70k today, I guess I'll be doing that this winter.