I'm sure you have considered this but you will be out $1-2K in gears and lockers alone. An IFS rig with minimal lift locked and geared will WAY outwheel an SAS'd truck.

Frank

check the forsale forum there is a ifs lift available, might be what your looking for.

well thats not a very fair comparison if the SAS does not have atleat lockers either, I.E. apples and oranges.

yes the solid axle will be stronger there is no doubt about it, its simple geometry there. The IFS is designed for better road capability; better ride and better handling ability basically( dont jump yet, im not saying the solid axle cant handle or have good road manners either, remember i have a SAS rig).

you can make the drop bracket stonger by boxing in the cross members, but the question's are more like how much wheeling will you be doing, and with 35's you will want around 6" of lift. with you saying you dont want any body lift, finding a 6" lift for the ifs is going to be even more expensive and higher chance of bending those brackets if you take it wheeling more than logging roads.

Since i have done more than a few SAS, including my own truck which i daily drive, i would go for the SAS. with that budget you can do at least the suspension up right and put gears and lockers in a budget as well, especially if going to 35's. Atleast get the gears first and than work on lockers for more serious wheeling. If you dont do the gears, before you know it its time to replace a clutch, and you will be lugging the engine all the time and wont be able to use all of your gears, also if you have an automatic it can very easily take that out to.


so to sum it up, and i know this one from experiance as i have put the big rubber on her and am trying to save up for the gears, make sure you are going to go all the way with it. most people just think its all lift and big tires and dont relize all the other parts that need to be upgraded as well.

An IFS lift will hold up fine providing you leave your ego on the pavement. I have had the same IFS lift on my '90 going on 12 ys now, and I wheel in the rocks. As long as your are nice to you don't abuse your rig on the trail the IFS will/can hold up. Granted the IFS can't wheel the rocks as well as an SA rig, but for a DD, that spends most of its time on the road, it is best to keep it IFS, until you are sure SA is the way you want to go.

You could easily run 33's with BJ spacers and a 2" BL, rebuild the rear springs, which will cost about $250. Several here like the 5.29's for 33's(you will need them for 35's), so you should go ahead and install the 5.29's now. You could get a rear ARB/5.29 equiped diff anywhere from $1150(DavezOffroad.com) up, and you can usually find 5.29 equiped IFS difs for about $2-250. This still comes in shy of the $2k you have set aside for the SAS or IFS. The rest of the money for the lift could go to dual T-cases, need anotehr $3-400 or so for driveline mods and dual t-case x-member.

Pick up a welder, take some lessons, fab up some sliders and bumpers to help your welding skills, for the eventual SAS if and when you feel the need.

That was just labor right?, parts alone run more than $1200.

If you can't fab a lot of your own parts, a complete kit from Marlin runs $1,449(includes front springs and Hi-steer x-over steering), then you still need an axle another $250 or more plus a rebuild kit, and gears. Easily looking at more than $2k.

Add 2K for gears and lockers (unless you find them used), and $1k for sliders and front/rear bumpers and you are up to $5K. You now have a truck that can wheel some seriously hard trails that will cause body damage. But if you aren't up for the body damage.... that $250 lift starts to look good especially since you really need the gears and lockers.

Oh I forgot, lift over 4" and there is a strong likelyhood you will need a custom driveshaft to handle the angles otherwise driveline vibes can happen. That's $500.

Also forgot, that stock Toy axle's birfields are far weaker than the IFS CV joints and I think those are around $250.

There are many other little things that tend to bite you when you lift high. For a dialy driver you just aren't going to wheel trails where you need a solid axle or your truck will not be a daily driver for very long.

What I'm trying to say is consider carefully what you choose to do with your truck because there are a lot of hidden costs associated with high lifts and big chassis changes.

Frank

Labor only. I have the receipt provided by the previous owner. The point being that it's not cheap, but it is under 2K. I've welded hangers on for people and have done SAS's for people who have had the hangers and shackle tubes taken care of by someone else. The rest, for the most part, it just cutting. Shock mounts can be added after the rest is done and "drivable".

I have my IFS lift for sale, Im sasing my 89. look it up on the for sale section. 450 OBO with lots of extra parts.

I completely dissagree, On my 91 with bald 33ats I cant keep my ifs togather on anything but the road. If im in rocks I had better have a spare hub or 2 at home, if im doin general trail riding I need cvs and if im in mud its a front diff. Granted this truck doesnt get driven easily but ive taken out at least a cv every time I got out wheelin

Do you have your torsion bars cranked up a lot? That is really weird.

Frank