Hey all,

Well I got prices from a local shop to buy and install a lift kit with tires and I am wondering what I should do. They really recommend going with RCD but it is alot more expensive and I just wanted to get peoples opinions of each kit.

This is what they said in a email to me.

Now Prices

RCD:

Lift Kit - $2600
New Drive shaft - $400-600
Install - Max $750
Tires - $920 (33 BFG AT's)

Total with Tax - $5503.10

Notes: Need smaller brake pads, install is 10-12 hours @ $75 an hour, Drive shaft has lots of options so that why price is what it is.


Super Lift

Lift Kit - $1450 - With drive shaft
Install - $600
Tires - $920

Total with Tax - $3356.10

Notes: Install time is from 6-8 hours @ $75 an hour

Now you can see the prices, what would you do? They recommend going with RCD but I am not sure if thats for money reasons or because the RCD is truly a better product. I will drive on road 99% of the time and I will be moving to the city so I will only be able to go off-road on weekends instead of everyday as I do now.

Now, would I need new rims with a lift also or are the stock 16" rims good enough?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

i dont kno anything about the lifts but if im on a budget i would go with the cheaper one and with the rims i would go for a 15 instead of a 16 just because there are more tires and i belive the tires for a 15 inch rim is cheaper than a 16

 

You should do some serious "search + read". The rcd kit eliminates the torsion bars, and replaces em with coil overs. There's a lot of cutting/welding and I would have to be 112% certain the guys you're about to drop almost 6 grand with know what they're doing.

On the other hand the super is brackets that drop your torsion bars down away from the frame. A lot cheaper and imo more foolproof way of doing it. I think it's less of a challenging install and from what I've seen can be done in a weekend with some buddies and hand tools.

 

Does anyone know whether or not 15" rims will clear the caliper on trucks that came with 16" I was wondering this the other day.

 

yea i went from 16 to 15 no probs

 

Yeah me too

 

Hey,

Yes I do know alot of what is involved with both kits. I have read tons of threads on here about both kits. Some people like RCD and some like Super Lift. I will also not be doing the install so I don't really care whats involved in the install as they will have to worry about it, not me. As long as it works and doesn't break and is reliable, I will be happy.

I also know I should go down to a 15" rim but I would try to do that down the road when I have money again. I would get the 33" AT's for everyday driving which I can hopefully use my stock rim and down the road, go with some 35"s Super swamper's or BFG MT's for a dedicated off road tire on a 15" rim.

But what do you guys think of the kits, I know each as their pro's and cons but is the RCD kit worth the extra $2 grand?

 

15s will work

also you will need the same size pads just smaller rotors you gotta go back to the 02 rotors..

i have the rcd runnin 37s on my DD and i love the way it handles its smooth rides great for what i have..

many options on the driveshafts?

explain that one..get them to explain your options im curious..im running the stock shaft on the RCD and its been say 5K and no problems..

i say if your going to do it..do it..RCD is a better kit IMO the superlift just drops the tbars and seem like if you wheeled they would just get in the way...but thats just my opinion..

if you have to save a little more money to get the better kit..if your not in a rush or anything..

 

Why do you have to do this? To clear something in the kit?

Not trying to steal your thread C. just curious. My warranty only hase 40000km left and one of these kits is going on the day it's over.

 

In mid-year 03 ford jumped from the 11.28 inch rotor to a 12 inch rotor. The RCD kit comes with new spindles. The placement of the brake caliper on the spindle will interfere with the larger rotors.

A lot of cutting........well you have to cut the stock bumpstop location and the lift points of the lower control arm, but I wouldn't call that "a lot" of cutting.

A lot of welding......you have to weld 4 shock tower gussets (2 per side of vehicle) for reinforcement of the shock tower bucket.

Well let's see, the 'old' FX4 off-road package came with 16s, but the FX4 LevelII package came with 15s. It's not a matter of the rims being 15 or 16per se, but rather an issue of back spacing and/or offset.

Cereal...something else to think of. $65/each for #1 rated torsion bars (if you go with the superlift) or $53/each for new coilover springs to replace the RCD coilover springs.

This thread is making me wish I would have stopped at the Boston Market in Albuquerque and parked next to the superlifted ranger I saw there. Oh well.

 

I have a comfortable opinion that had I gone with the superlift I would have smacked the t-bars or bracketry by now. There's a slightly less worry with the RCD compression struts, but I'm a little more confident in the RCD design after having taken out 1 t-bar plate when I was on stock suspension.

Of course the better options to these lifts are either SASing or long travel. A SAS'd truck is not practicle for what I do and long travel was pushing 8-10K to do. The RCD kit gives me the ability to do a little of both, mild pre-running and rock crawling. Basically enough of the 2 to be a more capable "expedition" vehicle.

 

That's a lot of cutting/welding to me. I have an inherent fear that when doing something I don't know how to do, I'll find at least one way to do it differently (ie wrong) and will have to trial/error it until it's 100%. Now I'm sure I can do it, but I'd hate to be wrong at a cost of 5000, see what I mean?

 

Tires - $920 (33 BFG AT's)



That shoudl onyl be around 572 for 4 33' BFG's

 

Well for $5000, that comes installed so you don't have to lift a finger except to come up with the money.


I am in Canada, it's $230 a tire plus tax installed and this is the cheapest I can find new. Maybe I can buy them from the US and have them shipped but then I have to pay extra for mounting/install but I am sure it would come around to the same price with boarder fee's and shipping.


Alot of good info in this thread, I just need to finish up work before I can start reading into detail. Thanks

 

good god...I just paid $168 per tire for 33x10.50x15 BFG Mud-terrians. The ATs run $148 or $156, something like that.

 

Ohh okay, gotcha! :-) I forgot to peek at where you were from.. was thinking it was a tad bit killer for the tires.. Dang good choice on the BFG A/T's though :-)


Perhaps maybe all you might think of looking at first for the vehicle woudl be some 33's and a 3" Bodylift perhaps? It'll give you more of a run for your money, and less risk with a brand new rig... give you lots more time to think about what type of kit you really want! Plus, the bodykit works hand in hand with the Superlift and the RCD.. give you a tad more clearance for those tires! :-)

 

Thing is he doesn't NEED the 3inch body lift to run the 33s, so long as he can go 33x10.50x15 or the metric equivalent for his 16 inch rims. Then he can save a little longer to afford either kit.

 

yeah... 33x10.5 look so skinny on a good truck though

 

and they weigh less than a 12.50 wide tire, cost less, cost less on wear and tear, and through properties of physics grip better than a wider tire.... http://www.expeditionswest.com/resea...tion_rev1.html

Honestly, they don't look skinny to me, neither when I had them on my 15x7 alcoas (factory wheels) or my 15x8 eagle alloys. I'm not about aesthetics, but about function. I baby my truck, but I also use her when needed too.

Per discount tire's website for zip code 88001....

BFG AT in 33x12.50x15 = $154/tire
BFG MT in 33x12.50x15 = $204/tire

BFG AT in 33x10.50x15 = $153/tire
BFG MT in 33x12.50x15 = $171/tire (I paid $168/tire, saved $12)

IMO, a 12.50 tire is for street queening (on trucks our size) or for fullsize trucks that have the axles, beefed suspension, and engines to turn them with ease.

 

If you do go RCD then make sure you have them weld a gusset on the diff bracket.

 

Look around... a lot of people have had to put extra modifications into the RCD to make it work. They've broken hanging brackets, had to buy new rotors, had to replace coilover springs, etc. I rolled my truck 3 times with my superlift and it's still in perfect shape to be on 2 other trucks after mine. For the price it's a no-brainer; you simply can't beat the superlift, especially if you'll be on the road most of the time. Save the extra 2 grand, buy some better sway bar links, and put the rest of it towards college lol. The RCD is a cool kit and I like the idea of coilovers (in fact, I'll 99% likely be using them on the off-road truck I'm building now) but the difference in cost vs. the difference in performance is just miserable for the RCD. Feel free to ask me about it in more detail, but based on what I've seen and experienced with these trucks, I'd buy superlift before RCD everytime.

 

Reading that same article.. they only recommend narrower tires to an 80/20 offroad/onroad, whereas wider tires are the opposite, an 80/20 onroad/offroad.. skinny tires mean less grip, which results in worse traction on pavement of any sort. Skinny tires do dig down for traction, but I suppose its also where you live.. in m y area, skinny tires will get you stuck in a heartbeat.. lots of clay, and soon as it gets wet up here, you have to be moving at a good pace, because if you dig down your done for.. no amount of digging can get you out, all you can do is pray you have a winch, or a couple buddies doing the push/pull method

 

And a somewhat neat thing is on explorer forums there's a thread where people are going with fox shocks as replacements to the RCD bilstein coilovers AND to boot have modified their explorer super lifts to utilize the coilover and delete the torsion bars. I honestly think torsion bars were about the gayest thing ford could have done to a 4x4 vehicle. They should have stayed TTB or looked into a coilover suspension.

 

As said in the thread, there's 4 gussets you have to weld to the OEM shock mounts. Not hard... Running 4 8in beads isn't exactly the hardest task lol. The only thing you have to cut can be done with a torch and it's to the Bump stops.

Torsions aren't fool proof. They also hang down with the superlift and hit on just about anything because they put them back at stock height from the ground.

It can be done in about 8 hours if you have a heated shop, hydraulic lift, and all the tools you can ever need including air tools. That made my buddy's truck WAY easy to do. The kit is a no brainer.

I too would like to know the options for the drive shaft. I have about 7k miles on my RCD and so far, no problems with the stock shaft, although everyone tells me it's gonna **** on me at no later than 10k, so we'll see. Trust me ya'll will know when it does, there will be a thread on it!

I'm with Evan on this one. The RCD is a much better ride IMO, compared to the Superlift. I just like the fact I don't have to rely on the dumb idea of torsion bars for the height of my truck. IMO, the RCD kit is doing a suspension lift right if you want to keep the IFS. SAS is the real right way to do a Suspension lift lol

I've actually thought about running the 6.5" Fox 2.0 C/O with res on my truck and running a 14in coil. It's a big topic on the explorerforums and a lot of people have done the coil overs from either fox or bilstein with awesome results. I am actually going to just upgrade my 12in coils and call it good til my SFA is done.

I'm with you on how you feel about torsion bars. They're the dumbest thing ford has done so far, IMO.

 

i cant say anything on how the superlift rides never rode in or drove one..but for what i have with the rcd im very very happy