what do you guys recommend for leveling these trucks? a rancho quick lift or the bilstein kits or the steel/aluminum/plastic spacers for the struts.

THX

Ken

2008 F510 FX4

 

It all depends on how much money you want to spend. If your struts are not worn out then I would say do spacers. You can get them for about 100 bucks and I would recommend Hell Bent Steel or Autospring. If your struts are shot, then go ahead and buy some Rancho or Billstein quicklifts. That way you can knock out two birds with one stone. I am fairly certain though that the billsteins will only give you about 2" of lift max, while you can get all the way up to 3" with spacers.

 

Like Clint said, depends on the $$ you want to put in and if your current setup needs replacement. I'm in the boat currently of replacement, thus the Bilsteins at a 1" setting are appealing since I want a touch of rake still. Their max height is claimed to be 2.5" at the top setting.
The Ranchos will net you right about 2". Check out Bigunit54 and the pics of his truck. He just put Ranchos on this year.

 

Have had A/S spacers and now have Quicklifts. Agree with DieselBeast01. I found that there are some slight geometry differences between the two options, with the QuickStruts being slightly better. Either works well though.

 

I had the HBS spacers and now the quicklift struts. It is probably unrelated but my coil spring broke on the LF when i had the spacers. With over 100k on factory struts and needing to replace the coil springs I decided to go ahead and buy the quicklifts. I much prefer the fit of the quicklifts as the upper control arm contacted the spring when fully extended with spacer.

 

As was mentioned earlier I have the Rancho quicklift struts. I do really like them. They do net about 2" of lift. On my 04 that left a very slight rake, I think it takes 2.5 to level the 04's. On your 08 that should set you pretty much level, as I think the factory rake was a bit less on the later years. I am very happy with the ride and the adjustment settings are nice. I think the Bilstein's would be a good set-up too, I just went with the Rancho because I wanted the preloaded strut and liked the idea of getting new coil springs. I had 88,000 when I changed, so I figured the factory struts were ready to be replaced.

 

I recently bought the spacers from hbs, but if I had to do it over I think I would go with the quick lift struts. Nothing to really base this on, but I will likely make the switch in the future

 

Yes I have spacers on mine, but like what dano said, when my struts finallly need replacing I will most likely get the Quiklift struts. That will probably be awhile for me though considering my truck has less than 50k on it. It only had 39k when i did my level kit, so I had no need to buy new struts.

 

Thanks for the replys. I have 90k kilometers on my truck and am going to be needing tires soon. So because I want a 275 65 or 285 65 I'm gonna need some lift. And i thought here would be a good place to wonder aloud about the merits of each. Im leaning toward the Ranchos but may get the spacers as they are about 100 bucks and the quicklifts are 2-250 each. Also im getting the ibe that H.B.S. spacers are the prefered spacer and someone told me that 2 inch is enough and wont put to much of an angle on my half shafts. Oh yes and ill probably put a couple inches in the rear too because i like a raked truck

Ken

2008 F150 FX4

 

I would definitely stay with the metal spacers, and not the polyurethane or whatever the others are made with. I think my HBS kit was like 85.00 bucks shipped from ebay.

 

Autoshepherd.com has the quickstruts for 177 a pop. Here's the link.
Rancho QuickLIFT Strut and Coil Spring Assembly | Shocks & Struts | Free Shipping over $50 | AutoShepherd
Try typing NEXTAG into the promo code area if you order from them, when I got mine that got me a discount, might work, might not.
Also, I went with 275/70/18's on mine after the level, turned out good, IMHO.

 

I have an AutoSpring 2.5" leveling kit that does just fine at a fraction of the cost of bilsteins.

truck looks good

 

Just a heads up, I found the Rancho quicklift for sale with an instant rebate on website that has them for $240 bucks right now. Might want to check it out!

Rancho Quick Lift for Ford 2004-'08 F150 4WD