Body lift nitty gritty

[T Y L E R]

A few of you guys have gone this route ... could you post a few pics of the deed? Down and dirty pics of the spacers, and most importantly those bits you had to relocate. Any pics of how you mated the bumpers up after would be helpful too.


Thanks a lot,



TY

 

[MSGGrunt]

I too would like some info on this as I'm currently running 35's with Slee's 6" lift and would like to jump up to 37's. The body lift seems like the way to go as I'm sure with more lift than Slee's 6" system steering issues must arrise. I'm thinking of only two inches of body lift. The alternative is Volvo C303 portals and some 40 + inch Michelin XZL's or XML's military surplus tires as offered by 6x6.com. She is not my daily driver any longer so the sky is the limit.

 

[sleeoffroad]

FYI, I have taken out two radiators because I did not spacer the radiator down correctly. I thought I did, but that incorrect spacing and the body that moves more on the higher spacers caused the fan to go through the radiator. If you want to do it correctly move the mounts on the frame. That is what the Artic trucks guys do. Run factory bushings, but move mounts.

MSGGrunt, everything I read points to the Volvo's being to small for the 40" tires and they will not hold up. They have a lot of benefits over the Unimogs, but they seem to be to weak.

 

[PKP80]

Christo,
Would you mind expanding on what the Artic Rigs do? Would you still be using the body lift components or is it a totally different way of getting body lift? Thanks in advance.

-Sam-

 

[MSGGrunt]

How is the flex of the body with a 3" body lift compared to a milder 2"? I have heard that the radiator should be remounted and that is the route I would go.. My concerns were with the transfer and transmission linkage. I just think that 35's look small when you look at the vehicle every day. It is about time to replace some tires and I am thinking about 37's. I'd love 9.00 x 16 Michelins with some wheel spacers to widen the stance but they all seem to be going to the middle east. Maybe a kit from you Christo would be a worth engineering...... Hint.... Hint....

 

[T Y L E R]

I'm still hoping someone that has done it already will chime in with a short write up. Christo brings up the radiator problem and sol'n. Now we need to hear about the other bits.

Again, if we can lay it all out, it'll be easier for the next 80 guy to simply walk thru the steps. No one wants to reinvent the wheel.

Now that more and more guys are successfully running 37', we need to pool their thoughts together.



TY

 

[concretejungle]

I think Christo is talking about cutting the mounts from the frame where the bushings rest and adding metal stock under the mounts, re-weld mounts at new higher position and remount OEM bushings???? maybe???

 

[MSGGrunt]

I e-mailed Action Jackson as he is one person that I know of that has gone the body lift route and asked him to post a how to on his web site. Now that my 97 is no longer my daily driver and I'll be going from 35's to 37's I will be going with a two inch body lift sometime in the future. If it hasn't been done by that time I will take lots of notes and even more photos. I know Mark's out of Australia sells a body lift with larger washers to reinforce the body to address any stress cracks caused by the added flex of the body when lifted away from the frame mounts. Additionally, there is a company in the US, I have the web site saved in my favorites at home, that addresses this same issue by using larger diameter lift blocks. The radiator does need to be raised as Christo states. I'm wondering if the shift levers will be effected by a 2" and 3" lift? Also, with a 2" body lift the bumpers may not look as bad as with the higher 3"... I would not want to mess with trying to raise my ARB 2" or 3".. I do realize that if you did raise the bumper that the front frame rails would have to be cut, raised, rewelded, etc, etc... I hope it is only a matter of time that a complete kit or the idividual pieces will be available.

 

[T Y L E R]

I corresponded with a few of the guys in Iceland over the years. This fellow 'Iceman' wasn't one of them, though he has his 80 set up like most of them do down there. He has documented his body lift, if anyone is interested .. I'll post a teaser pic, and also the link to his directory of images. It's not going to be in English so just remember to look for Iceman .. he has a number of different sub directories, one of which details the body lift.




ICEMAN



TY

PS: For whats it's worth Arctic Trucks does not make the finest aftermarket flares .. Formverks does. This comes straight from the guys in Iceland.

 

[T Y L E R]

Hmmm, Iceman seems to have seriously scaled back his bodylift pics after all these years. What I never understood, regardless, is the fact that he used square tubing for the body lift. Wouldn't it be better to throw poly spacers in there .. or pucks? Something that would flex, and take stress off everything. Or is it , as has been suggested, that these beasts do not have to flex?




TY

 

[clownmidget]

Tyler, check this thread I started asking about body lifts (https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=20488&highlight=body+lift) . Check my post from 24Feb when I did mine. The punch line is to check out Roger's site (www.4crawler.com) as he goes into detail on how one goes about doing the body lift. No there are no 80's on his site but all the same issues of a 4Runner or Tacoma.

A 1" body lift does not present the issues that a 2" or 3" one does. With the 1" body lift only the radiator position and the front and rear bumpers (& sliders) were issues. None of these were huge issues to deal with either.

The UHMW material Roger uses is by far the best stuff to put in there.

 

[brownbear]

surplus tires as offered by 6x6.com.

you might want to repost that web address as www.6x6.com comes up with a much different website than expected.

but hey each to their own.

pink or blue..........

 

[bjowett]

Superlift is blowing out a bunch of bodylifts (and suspension parts too!) on ebay. If you want a 3" kit to modify, they are $50 and down.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZscratchQ5fandQ5fdent

 

[MSGGrunt]

I've seen Roger's site before and he seems like the way to go. I really like the larger poly mounts. Clownmidget, what where your issues with the transmission linkage and transfer linkage? How were these adjusted? Will the brackets for the 4-Runner work on a Cruiser as well where they share the same transmission? I own a 97. Also, did you have to lengthen your steering shaft?

 

[clownmidget]

I went with the 1" and so there were no issues with any linkages that needed extensions or brackets. The only noticeable issue is when putting the truck in Park. It goes there but unless you give it a gentle nudge to go the last 1/4" to actually "click" into the postion it won't release the ignition key. It'll still be "in" park and won't go anywhere and you can kill the engine it just won't let it out unless it has actually clicked into place. That's it.

I was able to re-use the lower radiator brackets as they have just about exactly 1" of additional space you can use. For the top, I just mounted up the bottom after modifying them the additional inch then matching the top mounts with new holes drilled into the front bib. I re-used all the oem mounting bushings as it really wasn't that big a deal to raise it one inch. All the fuel, brake, coolant hoses looked like they hadn't moved. It was really not noticeable. I did raise the stock front bumper as I need to keep it there until I can fabricate a winch mount bumper that will deal with the 1" bodylift, hold a winch and not interfere with the re-located tranny oil cooler and intercooler plumbing. As I mentioned in previous posts, I did this mainly for the clearance of the intercooler pipes and to allow me to put 3" exhaust from the turbo outlet all the way back and route it over the frame rail. The additional tire clearance and room to change suspension mounts like the top of the rear shocks was just a bonus. I didn't touch the rear side bumpers as they just got dragged down a bit.

I've had it on since late Feb, put about 10K miles on the truck including wheeling Death Valley, the San Juans, Moab, and John Bull, etc. along with thousands of highway miles and have had no issues. I check it regularly too and nothings moved.

AMMO has a 2" or 3" body lift on top of his OME 850/863 setup and he had to go to elec cooling fans for the radiator and completely removed the mechanical fan and clutch. I don't know how he dealt with linkage issues but I've seen his truck and wheeled with him and it performs fine. He does have a wee bit of a problem with cooling in my opinion. He may disagree but his truck is bone stock in the engine and if he pushes it too hard for too long it'll start creeping up in temp. I don't think the elec fans alone could handle forced induction. Hopefully he'll chime in once he returns from the Garden State.

Here's some shots that I think got deleted.

 

[sleeoffroad]

Christo,
Would you mind expanding on what the Artic Rigs do? Would you still be using the body lift components or is it a totally different way of getting body lift? Thanks in advance.

-Sam-

Artic trucks cut all the mounts from the frame and relocate them higher up on the frame. They also add re-inforcements and then run stock bushings.

 

[sleeoffroad]

My concerns were with the transfer and transmission linkage.

You can adjust the tranny linkage since the shifter moves with the body. The transfercase requires a block of aluminum with 4 holes to move the shifter up.

The steering shaft needs to be modified. You take the shear pin out, extend the shaft and redrill and install the shear pin again.

Not sure on filler neck since I do not have one.

The biggest issue is sourcing the bolts. They are pretty long and getting them in metric was virtually impossible.

Also, I used aluminum pucks. I would not use urethane. The body moves a lot more than before. Granted with the shortbus I have less mounts and do pretty nasty trails but I also have a shorter body.

The radiator needs to be lowered. I flipped the side mounts over, redrilled them and then used aluminum pucks to spacers it to the correct height.