Im looking at getting a 3" lift for my truck and I think I'm going to go with Rough County. What is the difference between these two kits? Is one better? Does one give me better ground or tire clearance? Which one should I get?
Normal 3":
Series II 3":

 

Ive been eyeballing the exact same kits. I was leaning towards the series 2 because it replaces the front coil springs.

 

How much of a difference is that going to make?

 

To be honest not a ton with my usage. I dont work my truck too hard or take it off road a ton, but I dont want to limit anything either. It's not that much more for the spring kit so thats why I was thinkng of doing it. I havent ruled out using front spacers.

 

I dont tow anything big and I only have the 5.4. Im not sure if that makes a big difference wait wise.

 

Usually an aftermarket spring is going to flex better when you take it off road. Plus if you ever decide to go higher than the 3 inches you could always add a spacer to the new spring to increase your clearance. For the 120 bucks I would rather replace the springs, however I don't have front coils in mine so I am not sure how great the aftermarket springs are compared to the factory coils.

 

I went with the normal (stock spring) setup on my 07 F350, I wanted to maintain the stock ride. It has worked well so far (10K) miles since install. The purpose in my case was to level the truck after installing a winch and bumper combo. I like the Rough Country products for the Ford line.

-Mark

 

Did you install it yourself?

 

I did not, it was in conjunction with front and rear differential lockers, which exceeds my ability level, so had it all done by a local shop while it was there for the lockers.

-Mark

 

Could you have done it by yourself? Is it worth the money to bring it to someone or should I do it by myself?

 

Yes, I could have done it at home assuming you have a jack and jackstandsthen driven it to check the alignment. Hand tools will do it, however reccomend you have an impact wrench. It does require trimming a small tab from the radius arm, so you'll need a sawzall or other tool capable of trimming 3/4" of material to fit the new radius arm brackets. I have the install instructions for this kit installed on my truck Kit 509S, or they are available at this link: http://roughcountry.com/install/509s.pdf
Like I said, differentials is something I never mastered and was not willing to screw this up, considering the cost involved in the lockers, otherwise I would have done the lift myself, but it was there anyway for the lockers and tires, and only cost $240.00 in labor for them to do it plus the alignment. I'm happy with this setup.

Happy motoring,

-Mark

 

for the small price difference id go stage two. Plenty have done spacers but id go full spring, less chance of problems

 

i find it funny how they give you all these parts for coil spring kits, yet for us leaf spring guys a level kit is almost a grand ? didn't know making century old leaf spring technology was that difficult these days....

 

I went through the same on my Excursion, the 6" lift I had on this vehicle for a while cost 1800 plus. It ended up back to stock then leveled with an Add-A-Leaf. I did the leveling for the 2007 F350 with front coils and the whole kit and install was less than the lift kit or the Add-A-Leaf was for my leaf spring Excursion. Go figure!

-Mark

 

What do you have for a lift?