So, I'm deciding to finally lift my truck and I'm curious about a few things. I have a mostly stock 2010 FX4 Supercab with 33's. I've been floating the idea around of lifting it with a 2-3 inch Rough Country kit, but after several months of looking at reviews, the one common problem I'm seeing is that the upper control arms seem to be at a really steep angle and the verdict seems to be out on whether or not we will lose articulation from the front suspension.

For those who have lifted their trucks, what has the ride quality been like on road and off road? My truck does really well off road and I've taken it up some pretty nasty trails and the only thing that I seem to run across is getting hung up or dragging the mid support rail for what I believe is the transmission...or it may just be a cross member. But either way, that seems to be the only problem and I feel like a very mild 2-3 inch level/lift will be the answer. What I'm worried about is losing travel, which is why to me anything that isn't a full blown long travel system seems to be a waste. Also of course, many of the level/lift systems come with new shocks as well as new struts but I wonder if these are stock length or they have additional length to allow OEM levels of travel+. I'm not worried about running 34's or 35's as the 33's do just fine for what I need. I just mainly want to stop dragging the belly so much.

 

Those lift kits you looked at are leveling kits not true lift kits. A true lift kit will be 4"minimum and raises the truck properly without screwing up suspension geometry.

I used a Rough Country 4"lift kit on mine. It does nothing to the factory ride quality, it simply raises and levels the truck. Those are 35's.

 

I would beg to differ on terminology as a lift differs from a level by which end is being lifted. A lift will lift both the front and rear whereas a level only lifts the front. With that, I would believe that's just kind of going into the weeds a bit. But, many of the lift kits don't do too much in the way of offering longer travel. I guess in my mind if I'm going to spend 1-3K on a lift kit, I want it to offer me a lot more than just spacers and drop hubs. But, I also don't need a lift higher than 3 inches because on my farm there are a lot of sideway inclines that I have to traverse to get to certain points and I don't want it being too top heavy.

 

You can offset the width of the wheels to compensate for center of gravity, which I did with those customs wheels, they stick out about 2" farther than stock giving a lower center of gravity. As for the terminology it is correct. Level kits only level the front to match the rear, they have kits like that but 2" max and even then your putting a strain on the drive axles (cv joints) and suspension components like the control arms/ball joints/bushings.

The lift kit I have raises the front 4" and the rear 2" for a complete lift that also levels without creating a geometric mess of the suspension/driveline. Which is pretty much what all true lift kits do.

What you want is a Raptor. It comes stock with long travel suspension and a wider track. There have been reports of people putting raptor components on regular F 150's but the cost is astronomical.

This is the kit you would want for your truck if you want it lifted correctly. https://www.roughcountry.com/ford-su...150-4wd-737352