What is the easiest way to tell if my Ranger has been lifted?
 

Can anyone suggest the easiest way to tell if my 2000 3.0 ranger has had a lift kit installed?
I just bought it used with 33x10.5 tires on it--and just swapped them down to stock tires for power & gas mileage. But the truck still looks pretty high, and I've never seen how a lift kit works. Or are there just some easy measurements?

Also, is it common to tweak the speedometer when you put on oversize tires? I guess I need to check that out somehow to see if it needs to be readjusted.

Thanks!

Oops, the tires I took off were 31x10.5, not 33!

On my '83 Ranger the lift kit was just a set of blocks between the suspension and the frame.

You mean between the springs and the chassis? Or the springs and the axle?

There appears to be about a 2" rubber block between the rear leaf springs and the axle, I'm wondering if that is part of a lift...

And I have no idea what to look for up front!

Thanks

That is part of the lift indeed.

Up front it may be bigger springs or a spring spacer (round thing on top of the spring). They sometimes come painted, so that would be obvious. If you can get pics of your truck we can easily tell.

Though if you had 33s, you DEFINETLY had a lift both front and back.

There's 2 kinds of lifts, suspension lift, as ranger pilot alooded to, and a body lift. With the body lift, there will be a gap between the frame, and body. 31's can fit easily on a 2000 ranger 4x4 without a lift, you may just be use to seeing the bigger tires, with a piture, we might be more help. The speedo can be changed with a programer, or the dealer can correct it.

Oops I just re-read that post where he said he had 31s!

Still on the back, that block is indictive of a lift. To lift the rear (which already rides higher than the front) and not the front would look absolutely ridiculous, I would therefore assume your front is lifted. Assume nothing though, look for evidence up there.

Zach, blocks do not always indicate lift on the rear, Ford uses blocks on 4x4s to gain the little extra hieght other than that the rear suspension is the same as a 2wd. It's too costly to redisgn the suspension totally to gain a couple of inches of ride hieght so blocks were and are the cheap fix for the factories, both chev and dodge do exactly the same thing.

31's will fit w/o a lift. Still you might have a smaller lift. First place I would look is at the shocks. Lifted trucks should always recieve longer than oem shocks. If no help, swing 'er on by the local truck shop. They ought to be able to answer that for you in a matter of seconds.

The only lifts that are tricky to spot are when they are actually DONE RIGHT.

Those are done with longer brackets, and longer coil springs up front, and re-arched springs combined with longer shackles on the rear.

All of the cheap lifts are done with blocks, and frankly they are dangerous. Serious lifts involve cutting and welding. You don't just trip on down to advance auto and buy a five inch lift in a box. And one other thing:

Do not EVER use screw in blocks to stretch coil springs! They are the cheapest "Manny Moe and Jack" lifts around, and you'll break a spring sooner or later if you do that.

Hey all, thanks for the replies.

I've poked around on the truck and got a few pictures. I seem to have raised more questions to myself than answered.

First, I looked up the spec height in the users manual. It said the 4x4 supercab should be 66.3 inches high, I measured about 68" on my truck. But I'm not sure I trust the manual...

Here's a picture of the truck, maybe somebody can tell by looking if it's been lifted. These are on the stock 215/75 tires.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...id=124652&.jpg


Then I looked underneath again. I didn't see any evidence of a "body lift" as described in the posts, here's a picture of the connection between the chassis and the truck bed, no lift here:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...id=124656&.jpg


Here's a couple pictures of the "block" between the rear axle and the spring. I noticed it's metal instead of rubber as I mentioned in a previous post. Is this stock? And the springs look awfully flat compared to my old S-10, is that normal?
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...id=124653&.jpg

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...id=124660&.jpg

Here's a picture of the front suspension, passenger side from the front. No signs of a lift I can see. Hey, where's the coil spring!? I couldn't see any coil spring on the front end, is that normal on a 4x4?
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...id=124657&.jpg

Another picture of the front from over the tire, to get the top of the shock.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...id=124658&.jpg

Any further assessment would be welcome!

Those are factory blocks in the back. The front uses torsion bars not springs, and just guessing I would say someone has jacked them up (basically just tightened the bolt that is used for adjustment) so basically no it's not lifted.

Monsterbaby--Does jacking the torsion bar raise the vehicle? If so, should I "unjack" it to get it back to stock?

It raises the front of the vehicle, and that depends on whether you like it level or not and if it's riding rougher than you like. if you don't think it's riding too rough leave it, if it's real rough you can back it off some. Kinda a personal opinion thing there.

It sure does have a lift, cause the truck is level, thier not level from the factory. As monsterbaby has stated, more than likely just a t-bar crank. Iv'e had my torsion bars cranked for over a year now, the truck rides no rougher with the crank, than it did before. Ranger 4x4's are just plan stiff, but to me thats a good thing, feels like a truck.You can lower your frontend, but if you do so, you will need to have the allignment checked. I would leave it like it is, and put the 31's back on, I have 32's on mine with a 2" t-bar crank. But if your not into that sort of thing, by all means you can convert it back to stock.