Hey guys got a question for ya. I got a 2006 F150 FX4 with 35's (Nitto Trails Grapplers) I am thinking about a suspension lift. 4 or 6 in lift havent decided yet. Just wondering what are the pros and cons of lifting my truck? Thanks Ron. BTW I got a 5.4 and 3.55 gears

 

The only cons of my lift I found was I lost a few mpg to the bigger tires which shouldn't matter for you since your already rollin 35's and it won't fit in a garage anymore. The only pro's other than looks I've found are I don't have to jack my truck up to change the oil and when we had those 30 inch snow storms a few years ago I had no issues getting around... that's what comes right to mind

 

Any performance loss? and i keep it in my shop with a 13ft door so no issue there lol. and if there is and perfomance loss what can i doo to get it back without changing gears? also is it hard on the driveline?

 

You should really look into gears since you are running 35's on 3.55 gears.

 

Add police attention to the con list. I always got pulled over in my lifted trucks.

 

Whats wrong with the gears i got now? and where do i buy them? and my moms a cop around her so... lol

 

Use a gear calculator and you'll find out.

 

I run the same tires that you have, but my truck has 3.73s. It still has a good bit of power even with the 35s. I will be picking up a tuner over the summer months to improve the shift points.

 

With 35" tall tires you are approximately 4" taller than the original size tire. That's quite a lot of difference. That would be a lot like running a 3.15 gear ratio from a 3.55. Your engine will be running below the power band during normal driving. You will lug it down more which will put an additional heat burden on the transmission and possibly cause gear hunting. At 65mph you'll be turning around 1500 rpm instead of 1700 rpm. That's right at the bottom of the rpm range that torque band starts to work for you. You'd be much happier if you installed 4.1 or 4.56 gears and so would the truck. The biggest con to a lift and 35" tall tires besides needing the right gear ratio is the negative effect it'll have on handling. Your truck will be a little more top heavy than stock and as such would roll over a little easier.

 

here's a place where you can calculate ratios with tire changes:Gear Calculator: Use Our Gear Calculator for Proper Gear Ratios

I assume your truck came stock with the 275/65/18 tires which are 32.1" tall and if you put 35's on it would be like having roughly 3.31 gears with stock tires. Thats kinda fast, but would probably work as long as you reprogram the shift points and speedo and don't plan on towing a bunch. Too bad your truck doen't have 3.73's, with the tire change it would be like having a truck with stock tires and 3.55 gears, which is a pretty common setup these days.

 

it had 275/55/20's and one of the guys on here dtermined it had a 3.55 how do i find out for sure?

 

I had a little performance loss but I didn't think it was enough worth worrying about I still pull my camper fine. I'm still running the stock 3.73 gears but I would think the only way to get back what I lost would be to change gears. If your running 35's and not changing your tires it really shouldn't change from what you have. As for the driveline I dont think it's hard on it I turned 130,000 today and everything in the driveline is still OEM and I did the lift at 18,000 miles.











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There should be a sticker in the door that has the axle code....

 

my wife has a 3.55Ls in her '07 and the code is H9
my '05 has a 3.73LS and the code is B6

your's should be one of those since these were the only two axle options for the FX4. Also the stock 275/55/20 tires are around 31.9" dia.

 

i got a H9 so i guess i got 355's