Yesterday me and Luke (shadyluke) and Rudy (Rudeman85) went to Buffalo to D's house to do my spring lift.
I took an old stock pack of springs and took the middle spring out and also used the top spring by cutting off the loops on each side.
We took my stock pack apart and inserted these extra 2, which also needed a custom c-bracket as pictured, which Rudy welded up at D's with some angle iron.
I put in new center bolts.
I replaced the u-bolts, the stock ones were just a bit too short, at least it would have been a little scary, but the new ones are from a spring shop and they are super quality, pictured also.
I got about 4-5" of lift from what it was previous to doing the lift. My leafs were sagging pretty good. Now the bottom of the rear bumper sits at about 25". The rear is exactlly 2" difference from the front.

New custom "HD longtravel" pack





Custom C-holder





Check out these new U-Bolts, awesome! (more thread rate for better clamping, longer/higher nuts, includes washers, 5$ a piece!)


If I would have done this flex shot with the stock pack, the passeger rear tire would be up in the fender, ripping off the flare, but check out the new heavy duty package!!!!!!
I have spring rate-1 torsion bars so the front is about as stiff as the rear now.




Luke, me, and D





We did some minor wheeling after to make sure everything was up to spec, and tightened up the U-bolts after. I did a few runs on an old train-bed where there were some dirt jumps, we have videos and I did get air! I traveled the suspension that my bald 31's scraped the inner top fender in the front and in the rear the springs flexed so much that on the top stock leaf the paint has stress cracks in it! We'll post the videos soon!

 

wow, looks good, and looks like a fun time.

 

Real nice, Joe! D. called me and told me about that yesterday. I did it by adding a single leaf (the longest one without eyes) to my pack and it was pretty cool. I couldn't add more because I had no way to change that clamp around the pack at the time. I may have to duplicate your work. With the full sized spare, extra battery, lots of tools, high lift and so on in the bed I have a lot of weight back there.

 

wow thats impressive... good work

 

man that looks kick @$$. sweet flex also. great job on the fab part of the work

 

It rides real well too! It's stiffer than stock but not too hard. And it doesn't sway as much. We'll really have to test it out in Centralia...D and Luke and I want to make a Centralia meet in June, I was with D and Luke yesterday when D called you and mentioned it.

John, do you think I should get longer shocks?

 

This is flex before the lift...a little difference! haha.
In the new flex shot with the springs, the front tire was almost the whole way off of the ground!

 

Very nice Joe, thats definitely a big differance in flex.

 

Looks really good! Makes a huuuge difference. I like the color of your truck, btw.

 

I don't like how it sits at a rake from the rear, but there's nothing else to lift the front with except long travel or the front sections of an RCD. I really want a LT system but don't have any money for that.

 

Hey that topper on Luke's Truck looks really familiar! haha. It's off my old one. Glad to see it still being used. Should get it colormatched white. Gonna hafta come wheeling with you guys. I live in Washington.

 

WOW ! good idea. How does it ride ? Is it super stiff ?

 

looks good, noticeable difference vs. the white ranger

 

Awesome... I like those wheels... I saw 'em on a Jeep once. That's some super travel outta those springs, man.

 

That looks great, I like its stance!

 

It rides real well for what it is! It is stiff compared to stock, probably more than what normal people would like, but I like it like that.
It works well off road too, not like it wouldn't.

 

looks good... but dont get too carried away with the jumps...

 

looks like you would get alot better flex if you left a little room inbetween the Custom C clamp and the pack. the pack needs to seperate a little.

 

Ya D called me, but i lost my phone in my desk that day and missed D's call... it would be nice if he would tell me ahead of time when yall are meeting up...

anyways, i have a pair of those Ford Racing gloves, their great =)

 

oh ya, where did yall go wheeling?

 

Not very good for the leaf pack to weld to it.

Why would you stiffen it so fawkin much and you go off-road? If anything I would make it softer...

 

I don't wheel like you do all rock crawling and stuff going slow and articulating. I'm working toward the prerunner type setup. It rides real good on the road too. It's not all super stiff, it works well on large stuff off-road. I like how it is.

 

Ha ha! It's a case of "you had to be there". If you look at video (hosted online somewhere...) of our last Centralia trip, there's footage of Joe BANGIN' down the quarry roads, lol. He's not kidding.

 

Yeah he's not... cause I'm usually the kid in the passenger seat bangin' my head off the ceiling...

 

Yeah Joe needs a longtravel kit bad. He doesn't wheel like an East Coast kid.
Yeah Shane that cap rocks. It doesn't affect my gas mileage in any way. I plan on painting it this summer. Just gotta make some money first so I can buy paint. I don't want to krylon this one too. Although, anyone that saw my old one couldn't tell I rattle canned it. I got skills