edehn

I've done a search of the forums and it seems that the majority are against body lifts. My dilema is that my truck was purchased with the snow plow group and the camper group. At the moment, I have neither a camper or a snow plow I guess my question is this: If I go with a mild suspension lift, will I get comparable perfomance from the aftermarket suspension? I was seriously considering a body lift until I did my search here. Thanks, in advance, for you advice.

displacedtexan

If you are serious about the ride and handling, take a look at Kore. How much are you wanting to lift it? You could just have a set of custom front coils made if you just want to be able to clear 35's.

Diesel Dummy

I had the skyjacker 5.5 lift in my 1500 wich is basically the same as the 2500 just heavier coils. It handled like the stock truck and looked cool. The price is a lot lower since i got mine, Customer service is awesome too, just stay away from the body lift.

schaef_12

The skyjacker Flex series is a great lift, becuase of the adjustable radius arms witch allow you to alighn the castors on the front end. The only problem with this is the new radius arms have steel eyelets and witch make it "pop" inside the cab when going over small bumps. Other lifts come with non adjustable radius arms and make alignmen more difficult witch can cause premature tire, and stearing componet wear.

Gotlift01

Well no matter what all of these other guys say.........a body lift is no big deal!!!!! I happen to have installed one on my truck and I have had ZERO ZERO ZERO problems with it. The only thing I can see ever being a problem with the body lift being on there is you cannot pull a 5th wheel or gooseneck. Which with my truck would be impossible as is.

The reason I went with the body lift was because I already had a 5" suspension lift and wanted to go bigger. Well instead of ripping a lift off that I had already paid a fortune for, and buying one that cost twice what that one did, I was able to gain 3" for less than $300 bucks. Plus I didn't create anymore screwed up driveline angles.

My biggest reason I did it was because of the driveline angles......I didn't want to have some nasty driveline vibes and have it wear my parts out like crazy..........especially wanting to add some power.

The body lift was a piece of cake to install, took me and a buddy about 4 hours ( granted we have done many lifts ) but the only thing I had to modify was the intercooler piping on the driver side. I had to cut off about an 1 1/2" off of it and that was it. Everybody told me the horror stories about the diesel vibrating the bolts loose.........hmmmm mine are as tight as the day I put them on almost a year ago. Also that the intercooler won't be able to cool as well.......hmmmm haven't notice a difference what so ever.

Also everybody will say ohhhhh what if you get in a wreck, the body will fly off......yeah not true. I was in a wreck in one of my old trucks with a body lift and hmmmmm......body stayed just as straight and true as it did before the wreck.

A mild suspension is a more wise choice to go........but in my case already having one and wanting to go bigger.....it just wasn't smart on my part to go out and buy a bigger suspension lift and loose my butt on my old one.

So anywhooo, that's just my opinion on body lifts........I'm sure I'll get slammed about it and told they are a bad idea........but I ACTUALLY have one and I know how it works.....not just telling horror stories.


~Nick

Gotlift01

But to answer your original question, I have a 5" superlift and it's a pretty decent lift. Handles great and I don't really have any complaints about it other than the piece of junk track bar that it came with.......but that is a common problem with all lifts!!!



~Nick

Rattlerattle

A BL should would make it easier to work on the #5 & #6 cylinders.

Camper package is overload springs in the back. Air bags IMHO are a lot better than overloads. With the snow plow prep it is a slightly stiffer front coil. You could either use a spacer or aftermarket coil. Spacer you will keep the coils the same. Or you can get a stiffer aftermarket coil as well.

JAX

Body lifts have really evolved over the past 20-30 years. They got a bad rap in the late 70s and early 80s because of all the home grown body lifts that were being installed by idiots. People were doing things like drilling holes in hockey pucks and stacking them to achieve the lift, as well as just using longer bolts and stacking large flat washers underneath the factory mounts. Well, when people start playing with thinks like that without any engineering, then they get in accidents and their grade 3 bolts shear off like twigs and they blamed body lifts. It's a Ralph Nader witch hunt in my opinion. Todays body lifts have been engineered to meet and/or exceed OEM body mount strength and durability testing. I too can attest as to their strength even in crash situations (try rolling a Toyota 150 feet off a cliff ). If you want to lift the truck for off road performance, then a BL is not the right choice for you because you haven't effectively increased your suspension travel. All you are doing is creating more space between the body and frame (duh) to allow fitment of larger tires. If this is the result you are going for, then I would have no reservations about installing a body lift. Just make sure and do it right and relocate the bumpers as well. That really gets under my skin when I see a truck with a body lift and a 3" gap between the top of the bumpers and the body

edehn

Great info, guys! Thanks for the help. My truck is pretty much a highway queen. I do a little hunting, so I do get into the dirt occasionally, but nothing too radical. From what I've read, it sounds like a body lift would be acceptable for my application. My truck has the 6-speed manual. Will that cause any problems?

Sixpack

I agree with Jax in regards to the bumpers. One more thing to consider, You will most likely have to do some mods for the shifters. By raising the body 3" you shorten the shifters by 3 inches and now they hit the floor board. Granted the last and only one I installed was on an 81 Toyota P/U not a Ram. With the fiasco of the shifters and the Micky Mouseing of the bumper/winch mount, I would go with a suspention lift. I can't comment on the newer BL's they may be better. Just my 2 cents. Benn there done that.

Phil

LanceD

nothing wrong with a body lift, I have one on mine and haven't had any problems with it even through stuff like this:

MegaRam

Lance those photos are KILLER...!