Still shopping for my Ex, had a bad deal today, drove 90 miles one way to see an Ex advertized with 43k mi and seller described "perfect" interior. Got there to find it had 56k mi and was being used as a work truck for a contractor and the back seat was used to carry his air comp and a generator! It was trashed! The right side cargo area side panel looked like a lawn mower ran it over. Not a happy camper.
I'll be off looking at some others Tuesday, they almost have to be better....
I have looked at some with both 4 and 6" lifts, not too huge of tires, 35's or 315/65/16's. They have looked good and both trucks are very clean. My concern is how the lift will affect the towing performance. I currently pull a 5-6k boat and a 7k enclosed car trailer with plans on adding a 30' or so toybox camper (9-10k) to the fleet. I don't think the first two would be too much for an Ex with a decent lift but I am worried about loosing some TV stability when dragging the larger/heavier toybox. Are my fears valid or not? I'm not looking for a monster truck but a little lift does look good to me, but having a solid and safe reliable tow vehicle is my number one priority. I'm looking for your opinions and personal experiences with this issue, any and all comments are welcome!
Thank you,
Tom

 

A properly setup 4-6" lift shouldn't give you any problems - any may tow better than a worn out stock suspension.

I have 4" and tow the boat on my 33s no issues.
I did switch back to the factory E rated when pulling the cargo trailer at 7K so I could pump the tires up to 80psi. no troubles though - you just push a little taller hole in the air.

neighbor has a 6" lift and 37" tires, pulls his 30' camper no trouble.

 

I have 18" 275/65 Michelin LTX /AT2 10 plys on aftermarket wheels. I have towed my 12K camper with no issue. I did increase the PSI to 80 front and rear. The Ex is NOT lifter but the alternate tire size does nothing to reduce the capability.

I would not be concerned with a lift either, as long as I had a trailer dealer adjust the hitch properly so everything was level. Just my 2 cents.

 

It's not so much the lift as it is the tires...35s will make it just a little bit harder to get and keep your truck moving. If you regear like I did, (4.10 gears for 35s 315/75/16) it's the equivalent of 3.73s, the stock gear ratio.

Since I regeared, my truck's fuel economy and power have recovered greatly and towing is considerably easier. Back in January I had to pull tow a buddy's truck to a shop an hour away; the combined load was 8k...I never knew it was there and my truck never broke a sweat...

So lifted trucks aren't bad, the ride is considerably better over stock, but all you need to do is regear if you plan on towing; otherwise you'll be shopping for a new trans soon...

 

I have been trolling this question for a while. I agree that somewhere up to the 4-6" range, if set up with good quality springs and shocks, should tow fine. I ended up only doing about 4" on mine (front anyway, 2.5" in back) and towing actually improved significantly from the crap stock springs.

I too would agree its likely all about gearing and tires in the taller sizes. I am looking at 18's as ideal to reduce the typical big squishy sidewall factor. E's would be required even more than they already are stock. I also plan to move to 4.56 with my ~35" tires to make it a little above stock tire/4.30 setup (I think, I plan to re-check the math once I settle on a tire size).

I am also expecting to go with airbags to help carry the load, as I think most lift rear springs are not going to have the same overload capacity and going with a tall block could be trouble. I think the $350 you might spend on airbags is nothing compared to the lift/tire/gear money.

Also, something I thought was a no-brainer requirement, is a good WD hitch set up. Really helps to spread the load rear-to-front and smooth the truck out.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the reply guys, all good info. We bought our 05 XLT V-10 (stock suspension) last Tuesday. It has 3.73's so almost any bump up in tire size will require a gear change. We'll tow what we have with it the way it is now for a while, pretty much, a new Hellwig rear bar and tow mirrors are already in the parts pipeline. It came with new E rated Goodyear silent armors on it so so I should have plenty of time/miles to decide what the final setup will be.