I want to add more lift to my exsiting lift kit but im not sure how to go about that. I belive it's 6.5 to 7 inch lift but i want to go to a 10 plus inch lift, could i add drop hangers since i dont have those, or do i just add longer leaf springs and bigger blocks? plus i would have to do this on a budget, plus how high can you go before you have to extend the drive shafts?

 

That's a lot of weight to put up nearly a foot over stock. I'd start worrying about center of gravity on anything past 5-6 inches of lift.

Just my 2 cents.

 

belive it or not it still handels pretty good with the lift i have

 

The least expensive way would be a shackle hanger flip and extended shackles but as Hybris stated, don't go higher without looking at an engineered system. You might find the truck handles great lifted 6-7" but it will be a different animal at 10-12".

My humble opinion would be, unless you can afford a 4 link lift system, be happy with what you have and keep you and your family safe.

 

Agreed and remember they don't make the X anymore so there is no replacement.

 

all of this 411 is appreciated, i am aware that the higher you go the more your center of gravity is thrown out of wacked. the reason i was asking isnt really for more bragging rights(hell i already drive a ford excursion) with hey my lift is bigger then your's, it's that my lift and 37x13.50 r17's are great on road and light off road but the second i try to step it up with some articulation and some whoops at any thing more then est.5 to 10mph they start rubbing a little nothing that bad, untill you catch a foot of air and you stuff a 37" tire in the fender. anyways i just want a little more tire clearence, and for on road saftey i drive slow anyways im a truck driver and used to it, hell im in a lifted truck why should i be speeding around to begin with. oh and im not going to a smaller tire, their still brand new.

 

it's a stretch but you could look into fiberglass fenders like prerunners use. i have seen trucks in magazines with them they bulge out so you can stuff the tire with less lift, or maybe just a set of bushwacker cutout fender flares. just a few options you might not have thought about

 

BRM, I took a look at your gallery pics Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums - bigrigmike's Album: Off road pics

You are not afraid to make that Ex work!

Where are the tires rubbing?

Here's some ideas to avoid sky-hi:

• x2 on fenders/flares, like fatdan said
• change wheel backspacing, move tire in or out
• extended bumpstop mounts
• air bumps
• combinations

7" should be plenty of lift, but those tire are pretty wide. Maybe you need to cut the fenders and find a way to make it look right.

 

they used to rub on the running boards in the back but i fixed that issue with a quick trim, but they still rub on the inner fender well during articulation on the back which i think i can trim but not sure about the right side rear because of the rear A/C lines. the front rubs as well but not that bad unitll you stuff the tire in there. i've thought about cutting the fenders like the X you see on youtube, the iceland X i think it was

 

My other truck can be too tall, so I'm leery of adding more lift.

Sounds like it's not hitting too much, that you can use a combination of small steps to make it right.

BTW, don't feel that you need to eliminate all rubbing. Occasional, light polishing is OK.

 

Mike if i am not mistaken if you have a 6 1/2 - 7 inch lift your tires are actually a little too big for that. You really need to be at 8 -81/2 for 37's to properly fit. But of course you could do some minor things but as everyone knows in the lift biz there is no such thing as minor or cheap without sacraficing the rig or folks in it. Also remember if you do go with a hanger kit you will need new brake lines most likely. I would have to agree with CanadianSmoke that if you reallwant to do it rigth and do use it offroading then go with the properly engineered link system.You will get best performance and saftey from it on offroad and on, but that does start the register adding up the dollars quickly. I have alwasy believed do it righ or dont do it. As one person said they dont make our beloved Ex anymore and from what i see your looks really nice.

 

While I agree that a properly engineered system is needed to lift Mike's rig even higher, I'm not convinced that more lift is required, or desirable. 8" of lift + 37" tires would put the roof over 10" higher than stock. That's a huge change in the COG of an already big rig.

Since he noted "catch a foot of air and you stuff a 37" tire in the fender" but did not mention any body damage, maybe it just needs some tweek. That's why I suggested stuff like bumpstops, flares, backspacing. They will not compromise safety.

 

check this out when i bought the X i had to go thru the wife cause the husband wasnt around at the time, so of course the wife didnt seem to know much about the lift and some other stuff like how to turn on the fog lights, all she knew was all of the maintenance was done at a ford dealership which i have the reciepts for. so in actuality im not sure on the height of the lift, the wife couldnt find any paper work on it all she knew was it was done at 4wheel parts in san diego and they originally put procomp Xterran 37x13.5R17's on it, they were gettn bald so i bought tire's of the same size. Now if someone has any 411 on how i could figure out the lift, im all ears. i just guessed it was 6.5 to a 8" lift due to the tire size

 

Mike just measure the bottom of the door to the ground and subtract the difference of the satock height. I believe the stock height was 22inches from bottom of door to ground. Double check on that though. I would think you definately have more then 6 inches as 37's would rub really bad. By looking at the pics of your truck i am going to say 8 inches of lift. Do you even know what kind of lift or is it custom?>

 

You need to figure in the extra height from the tires too:

Suspension Lift = current height - stock height - ((new tire diameter - stock tire diameter)/2)