sorry man cant say. but i know my wife gets pissed when i aske her to start the truck up and hold the phone close to it so i can listen to the exhaust lol. at least i got internet hear dont know for how long but its nice to still be able to talk fords with ya. to many chevy guys hear!

 

Well don't let'em give you crap. I hope you aren't anywhere hostile. Got the biggest love in the world for armed services / public services (paramedics, fire fighters, police, military).

People don't get enough recognition. It's sad.

BTW, my longest and strongest dream as a little boy was to "grow up" and become a big bad Marine

Actually it still is. There's only one thing keeping me here. (Guess. It consists of two overies and a really cute smile. And it smells like Heaven.)

 

thank you for your service hill jack...much respect for you guys

 

Hey amigo! Do you ever come to WV??

 

I don't like um. Why? I'm a mobile mechanic and work out of my F150. Bed is constantly loaded and I'm constantly climbing in and out, so yea, lower is better haha. Ranger will probably get lifted a little bit.

 

It's all good man, to be fair my comment about driving cars was probably uncalled for.. My apologies...

As far as the big trailers go I would still shy away from any type of body lift even a 2"with a standard hitch... Once upon a time I worked at a big RV dealership installing 5th wheels and any good installer will bracket to the frame but thats only a couple bolts and the lift will add too the shear force effect... I mentioned my friends brother and that accident and I have no idea how his lift was done though it was almost a brand new truck at the time so I would imagine it was an off the shelf lift...but who knows how the hitch was installed..... If it were me and i had to have a body lift on a tow rig I would fabricate a heavy channel beam cross member between the frame under the bed for the hitch to bolt too.. In that case if its done right would be much stronger than even a standard setup...

I will say that their are some sorry assed suspention lifts out their as well, some of the Tuff Country kits come to mind...

 

sorry man been many years sense i ben to WV, I do have famiely in Crewe VA though.

 

its all good man you do have some very good points. and yes the tuff country i had on my 89 f250 7.3 was horrible the front springs sagged after about a year of wheeling. thanks man

 

Thanks man dont realy know what to say to people when they tell me that other then i love what i do. and wouldnt give it up for nothing. I am proud to do what i do and im honored to do it exspecially when there are so many people out there backing us. Im proud to know that my family and yours are safe. Thank you sir.

 

not sure if u were talking to me or hill jack 6cylbill, but no im not down that way too often just MD every now and again

 

Yeah I was talking to you!

 

whoops sorry 6cylbill my bad.

well talked to my dad yesterday asked him how his body lifted 1500 cheby was doing and he did me a favor and sent me this from his drive way after a trip to NY to NC. 287,000 miles on the truck with roughly 204,000 of it with a body lift. hope yall injoy and sorry its a chevy.



in my defence though i did tell him he could barrow my truck any time he wants lol.

 

I love some of the older chevy's. Mainly the heavy duty ones with the wheel well moldings.

What engine is in your daddy's truck? The truck looks friggin' clean my friend.

Kinda makes me feel better about my body lift.

 

the factory 350. it is a good looking truck and as you can tell he is proud of it.

 

I work for Performance Automotive Group. We are the parent company of one of the oldest manufacturers of body lifts. We are also the largest by far.

There is some truth in this thread, and a few things I'd like to addresss.

Just like with suspension lifts, there are high quality products, and low quality products. There are also home-made products that can be good or bad depending on many factors. Unfortunately for us, the term "body lift" is somewhat of a generic term, and many people don't differentiate between them. If you're sitting at a stop light looking at the truck next to you and the body is 3" higher than the bumpers, and you can see through the gap between the body and the frame to the car on the other side, all you know is that it has a body lift and it looks like crap. That make an impression. On the other had, I'm pretty sure every person who reads this has been next to a truck or SUV with a proper body lift and not known it. Like plastic surgery, a good body lift is not easily noticed. My own neighbor, who drives a suspension lifted truck, just assumed that my old F150 had a 6" suspension. He had no idea that it was a 2" leveling kit and a 3" body lift. It rode on 35"s just like his, and unless you looked under it for the cross member, you would not have known.

Most of the myths about body lifts come from the home-brew variety. Case in point is the post here about the Superduty, and the issues with the bed. We don't make a body lift for the Superduty, nor do any of our competitors that I'm aware of. There is an issue with the intercooler lines. A body lift is much more than just blocks, bolts, and brackets. It's also the product of almost 30 years of experience, and some actual engineering. It is a "system". So to say that you don't like body lifts because that's your experience with them is not unfair, but it is one sided.

I also saw some comments about the materials used in body lift kits. The fiberglass reinforced blocks that we use have a crush resistance of 50,000 lbs. The fact that they are not metallic means that they will not corrode. Our kits use both grade 8 and grade 5 hardware. Just because grade 8 has a higher tensile strength (150,000 psi vs 120,000 psi for grade 5), does not make it inferior. The particular application determines the proper fastener to use. Our years of experience, the fact that we have engineers invloved in process, and our relationship to one of the most respected fastener distributors in the industry should give any customer comfort with the quality of our product.

Lasty, I saw an interesting post about body bolts and sheer factor. What was not considered, was the number of places that the body was attached to the frame. That's one reason we don't make body lifts for some vehicles, such as the Toyota 4Runner. The 4Runner's body is bolted to the frame at 8 places. Not enough in our opinion, to handle the stress. We have a competitor that makes a kit for that vehicle, but you have to weld additional body mounts to the frame. But with a vehicle like the F150, there are enough body mounts to distrubute the load across safely.

So if you have questions about body lifts, consult a shop that installs them. Don't waste your time with one that does not, they will just repeat what they've heard, not tell you what they know. There is a huge difference. Or call a manufacturer with your questions.