Hell for stout vs skyjacker 4 inch lift? (1 Viewer)

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Pura Vida

What an absolute noob
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Jun 16, 2020
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Raleigh, North Carolina
I have heard good things about both lifts. What is muds opinion on them? I'm deciding on a 4 inch lift.
 
I have the 4” HFS lift. Everything is well made and I’m very happy with the setup, springs, and shackles, minus the shocks they provided. I got 2000 miles out of them before they were completely shot. Switched to Bilstiens and couldn’t be happier. Remember to buy 4° shims for the front and rear to prevent a slight vibration from the drive shafts.
 
I'm running Skyjacker springs up front with Bilstein shocks, had OME's before and the ride quality improved greatly with the Skyjackers. No experience with the HFS springs.
 
I'm running Skyjacker springs up front with Bilstein shocks, had OME's before and the ride quality improved greatly with the Skyjackers. No experience with the HFS springs.
Softer than OME? I heard skyjacker has good flex too....skyjacker is sounding Inciting
 
X3 on 4 degree steel shim, I had to replace the center pin on my Skyjacker springs with a longer one so that it was tall enough to recess into the axle perch with the shim in place (flat side forward on the shim)
 
Softer than OME? I heard skyjacker has good flex too....skyjacker is sounding Inciting
Noticeably more spring movement, I only have a few hundred miles on them and have not wheeled them yet but I expect to see better articulation than the old set up.
 
Skyjacker here as well, plan on extended shackles.

@brian runs the same lift also.

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Move so far: skyjacker with 4° shim and extended shackles and break line
 
HFS 4 inch springs, shackles and greasable hardware on 35s. Tried it with 33s but they looked too small with the amount of lift. First pic is from 2004 about a month after installation, 2nd pic is from last summer and around 3k more miles on it. Good flex and long life.

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@Pura Vida ....I have HFS 2&1/2 inch lift installed by the PO. I like the springs and shackles. Will be replacing shocks as soon as possible. The shims sold by CCOT are aluminum. I recently ordered steel to swap them out.
 
@Pura Vida ....I have HFS 2&1/2 inch lift installed by the PO. I like the springs and shackles. Will be replacing shocks as soon as possible. The shims sold by CCOT are aluminum. I recently ordered steel to swap them out.
Hmmm. Seems shocks are a weak part of that lift
 
@Pura Vida ...I can’t be the judge of that as the lift on my rig was put on in 2010. I have only owned 15 months now.
 
Skyjacker here as well, plan on extended shackles.

@brian runs the same lift also.

View attachment 2636322


Guess I'm confused, thought shims were needed for longer shackles to keep the steering caster correct plus the diff and transfer case flanges parallel to each other. Correctly made lift springs would think both these would still be correct? Longer shackles lowers the spring on one end and changes the steering and flange angles. Seen plenty of super long shackles use as a poor man's lift.
 
5 years and 15k on my skyjacker nitro shocks, still look good and work like the day i installed them. Ride quality is fine 2.5" kit though.
 
Skyjacker here as well, plan on extended shackles.

@brian runs the same lift also.

View attachment 2636322

yeap 4" sky jacker some shackles and a few degrees of shim for front caster correction ....i dont recall how many...maybe 2* it's not much.

no need for rear shims.
i did move the rear axle aft about 0.75"....but i really cant see that making that much of a difference.

rides what i would call pretty good for a swb with leaf sprung axles at both ends...does 75mph effortlessly with no vibes.

apr21.jpg
 
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Guess I'm confused, thought shims were needed for longer shackles to keep the steering caster correct plus the diff and transfer case flanges parallel to each other. Correctly made lift springs would think both these would still be correct? Longer shackles lowers the spring on one end and changes the steering and flange angles. Seen plenty of super long shackles use as a poor man's lift.
With the Skyjacker lift you need to run longer shackles to allow for full flex of the leaf springs. Which leads to needing the shims, front and rear.


Oddly enough I run stock length shackles in the front, extended length on the rear. Both front and rear have steel shims installed to correct driveline angles and caster.
 
Guess I'm confused, thought shims were needed for longer shackles to keep the steering caster correct plus the diff and transfer case flanges parallel to each other. Correctly made lift springs would think both these would still be correct? Longer shackles lowers the spring on one end and changes the steering and flange angles. Seen plenty of super long shackles use as a poor man's lift.
I ended up with shims after installing my suspension and measuring drive flange angles, I had vibes above 45 mph. I used them to get the output flange angle back in line with the pinon flange on the rear, but adding them up front improved steering return to center and straight line tracking. I haven't measured my caster but simply like the way my rig handles.

I think all these springs are a little different, be that length or relative position of the axle under the truck. My front axle came forward about 3/4" from where it was with 2.5" OME's and I went down in shackle length to 2.75” up front
 
My 40 skyjacker springs are 20 yrs old still no sign of weakness after a lot of trailer tow with heavy load and rock crawling

Nice flex , I like the open clamps vs close clamps of some other brand

Longer shackles is not an option , stock one max out on compression making the spring eyes hit the hanger

On this pic you can see where it was hitting on the hanger in the past with stock shackles , those home made are 4" bolt to bolt

20200110_162956.jpg
 
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