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3 Inch Body Lift Installation
by: David Meisner
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Jack Up Your Truck:
A Collection of Useful Body
Lift Tricks
By: Mat Riddle
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Submitted to Explorer4x4.com by:
Mat Riddle
Well, youve finally decided to lift your Explorer and if youre
like me you have opted for a body lift. Hey, its cheaper and youll still
get the beefy, big tire look that you want. For myself I had driven my
92 Explorer XLT around for about a month before deciding that I was fed
up with the 29"(P235R65) tires. My Explorer just seemed so small and lacked
the clearance I wanted off-road. I went to the local store and bought a
2" Performance Accessories body lift for about $100. There are other companies
(Trailmaster), and other sizes too (3", 1"), but I went with the 2" because
it isnt as extreme as a 3", and I was somehow thinking I could get by
without having to fix the bumpers (yeah right). Needless to say, I wanted
to install the lift myself to save money and with an undertaking such as
this, I trust myself the most.
First off, be prepared to spend a good day on the lift. I had
a heated garage and air compressed tools and it still took my dad and I
about 8 hours. This may vary for you, but if it is your first time, it
probably wont. The PA lift comes with detailed instructions, but I am
going to elaborate on it more. There are 10 body mounts. The two under
the front bumper are easy to find and should be no trouble. The next 2,
if you move from front to back, are under the floor mats. To get to them
youll have to lift up the carpet on both sides and remove a rubber type
cap that covers all of the inside body mounts. The third series of mounts
are a pain. They are just under the front seats, and you will most likely
have to remove one or both of the back bolts on the seats. For the fourth
series you will need to remove the bolts that hold the rear seats in. These
ones are hard, but not nearly as difficult as those under the front seats.
Lastly, youll need to remove the rear carpet to get to the mounts in the
back. Its pretty easy, and if youre lucky like me you might find a present
from the people at Ford. When I removed the carpet padding I found a teal
stained glove that had obviously been used with my truck.
One main concern with a body lift is the bumpers, and they can
be difficult. The brackets that come with the 2" PA lift are actually for
a 3" and they recommend that you skip using brackets at all. Thats wrong.
Anyone with a drill press or even just a drill should be able to fix the
brackets. All you need to do is just cut a little off the top of the plate
and make new holes 1" farther down. The back brackets arent very hard
as you can see from the picture and in the before and after pictures you
can see I managed to fix the gap quite nicely. The back brackets work well
because of the way they brace against the frame, and I can easily jump
up and down on the back bumper (picture). The front bumper is a little different
from the back in how you can choose to attach it. You can re-drill the
holes and it will work pretty well. I had more equipment at my disposal
though, so I Arc Welded the bracket to the bumper. For those of you who
dont know, Arc Welding is a very powerful electric welder used on conductive
metals, that practically fuses the pieces together. My dad handled the
welding since he is very experienced with it and I can honestly say I think
it is stronger than stock (picture).
The last stage will be modifications around the body. The steering
extender works well and I had no problems with it (picture). The mounts
for the fan though, are a little cheesy and you may want to just replace
them with some scrap metal or something lieing around (picture). Lastly,
the rear brake cables, and emergency brake cable are fixed, which dont
need a picture. As you can see from the pictures of my engine compartment
there is a difference in height, but it is nothing to worry about.
I guarantee that nothing will feel better than when you finally
get your bigger tires on. Unfortunately, you may experience tire rub. This
of course varies with the size of the body lift and the tires, but I did
have rubbing because despite what everyone said I decided to run 32x11.5
BFG ATs with my 2" lift. This caused a small problem with the back of the
front wheel wells, which I fixed using a small rotary grinder. All you
need to do is cut the plastic at the back of it for the clearance needed
(picture). Be careful though, because you will probably not want to cut
into the metal. As for the final word on my truck it looks GREAT! I do
have a little rubbing when I turn tightly, but if I had stiffer shocks
it would probably stop. I will mention though, that I am installing a suspension
lift soon, though not because of rubbing, but because I need new shocks
and with how much a Duff 2.5 costs I might as well spring for it. I hope
these tips help.
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