I wheeled the Trailmaster lift for years. Out of all the bracket style lifts I would recommend it the least. However, if you do purchase it, take time to weld the front and rear crossmember brackets together and massively reinforce the rear crossmember bracket. That lift is very fragile. Otherwise, you'll be realigning your truck every time you wheel.

Now for the question that defines lifts, are you ready to accept body damage to your rig? No, you don't *need* a solid axle swap 'cause the trails that require it will dent your rig. Yes, you might was well skip the entry level lifts and do straight to SAS. If you go the SAS route you will spend WAY over $3K when you are done with gears, etc...

The bracket style lifts have one advantage, you can easily modify all except the Procomp Stage II to have a load of travel. I had a solid 14" on mine and never bottomed out the supsension unless I really launched my truck. However, on trails in slow speed situations, I would use at most 7" or so of travel because the stock torsion bars are quite stiff. I don't believe the extra travel was worth the higher center of gravity and issues that causes. Expect driveline vibes if you exceed 4".

Now that I have a new truck I'm going to take what I have learned and go with the least possible lift. I plan to take that saved money and invest it in traction aiding devices and body protection.

One thing you will observe, lockers beat lifts always and higher lifts (solid axle type excluded) lean you closer to rocks and cliffs thus tearing up sheet metal sooner (assuming you have rock sliders which you good no matter what lift). Money in lockers and protection will yield a street friendly yet capable vehicle.

Frank

^^ Yes! i ran a trail master 4" drop bracket lift for about a year before doing my SAS. if you go easy on it, you will be fine. but if you jump your truck ('cmon, everyone does it once..... or alot <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />) or say, slide off the road in the winter and catch a banking the wrong way. they WILL bend. there is just so much more leverage on the frame with the drop brackets.

doing a body lift and bj spacers is good for up to a 35" tire. itll be a decently rugged setup, and if you want to do an sas down the road, you always can.

I found that if I bumped my trailmaster on a rock it would shift stuff around. I hit it hard it would bend/break something.

Just from looking at it, Blackdiamond's kit looks really strong if you are dead set on the 4" lift.

Frank

Eliminate the Downey long arm kit right away, they dont offer as much as advertised...if your going long arm go total chaos...like everyone else said for light wheeling id go BJ spacers and Body lift.

the superlift bracket kit offers a 1 piece crossmember...
if i where to do it all again..i'd just do bj spacers and 1" body lift with 33's

The budget is just for the lift i will worry about getting money for goodies after i get the lift put in. The wheelin is not crazy serious, mostly just mud and loggin trails. Proly equal amounts of time on and off road. As far as shop accessability and skills go, i am a mechanic at a trucking company and i have my own shop i could almost handle anything.

If i were to do a 4" drop down bracket lift and a 2" body how big of tires could i fit under it???

Also who makes good nerf bars???

alot of ppl said the xmembers for the drop down bracket lifts, like the trailmaster one, r weak but heck im sure i could weld on a piece of box tubing or flat stalk to strengthen it.

This is what i have to work with:





Doug <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

with 6" of lift you could fit a 35" tire with very minor trimming.....but with that comes gears and other mods. it wont drive the same with the heavy tires...
honestly man id keep your MTRS they are awsome tires, and go with the BJ spacers and some shackles or leafs in the rear, then get a 1" BL if you wanna goto 33" tire but they will require gears also...forget nerf bars there uslesss get a set of rocksliders they have both functionality and looks, with all that money you will have extra buy lockers and hell get a snorkel so you can go scuba diving in mud

I was looking over one of the links to and IFS truck on the 'con and in one of the pictures one can see the IFS flexing well for IFS. This is because the truck has no lift and so there is less weight transfer from the wheel you wish would stuff to the one you wish would extend.

When you go with these 4" lifts typically the rear parts is only 3.5". I found that going over 4" cause driveline vibrations.

With less lift comes better street manners and increased reliability. Investing in gears, lockers, sliders, etc... will make for a very capable truck.

Frank

I currently run 6ö suspension lift on my 4Runner and just clear 35Æs. The mix includes 4ö Pro-comp stage II, 1.5ö BJS and Rancho T-bars cranked .5ö for the front. 5ö Superlift rear springs, 1.5" shackle lift, and Jeep TJ front coil springs to help keep the rear end up as my rear bumper weights around 350 lbs. For me, the set up works well for what I do which is running some of the local trails around Las Vegas and DD to work. I do plan to go the SAS route but for right now, IÆm in no hurry to do so.

Take you time and look for a good used lift. I found mine minus the coils and BJS for $400 and that included a 5.29 front diff. $200 more for a V6 rear 5.29 (used) and the ARB for $475 (new). The deals are out there, with everyone doing SAS that you can get a good set up and save some green.

BJ spacer, 63inch chevy's or just a shackle out back, lock the rear, sliders, and go have fun till you figure out what you want to do with it.