6" Lift Wheel Travel

[Car1]

I've been considering a 6" lift for a 2021 Ranger for wheeling. However, I'm confused as to how these loft systems work. It appears that the actual springs don't measure 6" more than the stock springs. In fact, I believe that one of the options for a 6" lift actually uses the stock springs. As such, I'm wondering exactly how these lifts work. Do they use a spacer inside the coil to push the coil up? If so, is it at the bottom or at the top? Or does it pull the spring upward?
And how does it affect droop and uptravel?
If it gains uptravel does it matter or will you hit the bumpstock prior to benefitting from this added uptravel?

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[D Fresh]

Kits like the BDS kit accomplish the lift by basically moving the mounting points.

If you want height AND travel APG and others make true long travel kits.

 

[Frenchy]

Unless it is somehow a long travel suspension anything bigger than a 3 inch lift is useless for Offroad. Now if you want a good lift kit without breaking the bank the basic Old Man EMU lift kit will do what you need. The front is lifted by 2.4 inches and the rear is lifted by 1.6 inches. You also gain travel with the kit and can use the truck as a truck still.

 

[Car1]

Unless it is somehow a long travel suspension anything bigger than a 3 inch lift is useless for Offroad. Now if you want a good lift kit without breaking the bank the basic Old Man EMU lift kit will do what you need. The front is lifted by 2.4 inches and the rear is lifted by 1.6 inches. You also gain travel with the kit and can use the truck as a truck still.

This is what I've heard but how come? They appear to have coilover springs, plus you get the extra uptravel? Just switch the upper control arms to something longer and you should be good, no?

 

[Frenchy]

This is what I've heard but how come? They appear to have coilover springs, plus you get the extra uptravel? Just switch the upper control arms to something longer and you should be good, no?

Only if the suspension manufacturer has a design for extra travel then it will work. Just because you have the lift does not mean you have the travel. Great example, if you put block on the rear for lift all you did is lift as the springs still have the same amount of travel until the springs hit the bump stops.

Make sense?

 

[DrewKD88]

Don't do it. Lifting the truck will only make things worse offroad.

There's a Lift
and
There's a Leveling Kit

A lift will throw your center of gravity off. It will be too top heavy. Your truck will not gain any actual ground clearance. Ground Clearance comes from Larger Tires.

There are two reasons that you "Lift" your truck.

1. Too fit bigger tires
2. For the look when cruising the mall or revving down the boulevard.

Leveling the truck will allow you to fit larger tires while increasing the approach angle. Your Rear Differential will remain the same height unless you go with taller tires. So if you have 30" tires and go with new 33" tires then you have effectively raised your truck 1.5" It may not sound like a lot but it is a huge deal when offroading. Leveling the truck will maintain a low center of gravity while giving you increased performance offroad. Travel will remain the same unless you get extended travel Coilovers (OME, Icon, Fox, King)

 

[Frenchy]

Don't do it. Lifting the truck will only make things worse offroad.

There's a Lift
and
There's a Leveling Kit

A lift will throw your center of gravity off. It will be too top heavy. Your truck will not gain any actual ground clearance. Ground Clearance comes from Larger Tires.

There are two reasons that you "Lift" your truck.

1. Too fit bigger tires
2. For the look when cruising the mall or revving down the boulevard.

Leveling the truck will allow you to fit larger tires while increasing the approach angle. Your Rear Differential will remain the same height unless you go with taller tires. So if you have 30" tires and go with new 33" tires then you have effectively raised your truck 1.5" It may not sound like a lot but it is a huge deal when offroading. Leveling the truck will maintain a low center of gravity while giving you increased performance offroad. Travel will remain the same unless you get extended travel Coilovers (OME, Icon, Fox, King)

Even a leveling kit will still mess with the center of gravity. Why do I say that? Simple with lifting the front the center still goes up. As much as a lift kit would do? Not really but it's still messes with Center gravity. Also the ome lift kit doesn't change the center of gravity enough to cause big problems. I know because I run it

 

[Car1]

Don't do it. Lifting the truck will only make things worse offroad.

There's a Lift
and
There's a Leveling Kit

A lift will throw your center of gravity off. It will be too top heavy. Your truck will not gain any actual ground clearance. Ground Clearance comes from Larger Tires.

There are two reasons that you "Lift" your truck.

1. Too fit bigger tires
2. For the look when cruising the mall or revving down the boulevard.

Leveling the truck will allow you to fit larger tires while increasing the approach angle. Your Rear Differential will remain the same height unless you go with taller tires. So if you have 30" tires and go with new 33" tires then you have effectively raised your truck 1.5" It may not sound like a lot but it is a huge deal when offroading. Leveling the truck will maintain a low center of gravity while giving you increased performance offroad. Travel will remain the same unless you get extended travel Coilovers (OME, Icon, Fox, King)

So something like this:
https://www.roughcountry.com/ford-s...d=2020-ford-ranger-4wd-740556#278=517&266=734
It's not for the Ranger, it's for the F-150, but assuming that it was for the ranger it's not a 6" extended travel coilover? It appears to be but does it just add 6" to the strut portion at the bottom and not to the actual coilover?

 

[DrewKD88]

Even a leveling kit will still mess with the center of gravity. Why do I say that? Simple with lifting the front the center still goes up. As much as a lift kit would do? Not really but it's still messes with Center gravity. Also the ome lift kit doesn't change the center of gravity enough to cause big problems. I know because I run it

Of course your center of gravity will be increased when leveling the truck but at a maximum of 2 - 3" in the front, the pros outweigh the cons. I leveled mine to fit larger tires, and increase travel slightly. Check Out Thread:
https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/threads/my-overland-build.11942/

 

[DrewKD88]

So something like this:
https://www.roughcountry.com/ford-s...d=2020-ford-ranger-4wd-740556#278=517&266=734
It's not for the Ranger, it's for the F-150, but assuming that it was for the ranger it's not a 6" extended travel coilover? It appears to be but does it just add 6" to the strut portion at the bottom and not to the actual coilover?

I can't tell by the description. It doesn't look like it's extended travel. It is most likely a 3" leveling kit combined with a 3" lift kit. Your truck will look pretty badass with this kit though. But also consider the BDS version for what I think is a better quality kit.
See Thread:
https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/threads/bds-6-ifs-lift-systems-now-available.4384/

 

[NvrFinished]

This is what I've heard but how come? They appear to have coilover springs, plus you get the extra uptravel? Just switch the upper control arms to something longer and you should be good, no?

No. A longer upper control arm by itself changes the geometry, it will cause binding, and will create loads of positive camber that you cannot adjust for.

Take a look at the images below. It's a great example of what happens when you install adjustable coils and just crank them up. Yes, you get more up travel, but it does you no good when you loose most of your downward travel. Plus, it rides like crap. You have to find a good balance between the two.

One way to achieve this balance is with aftermarket UCA's. They allow for slightly more downward travel. You get the most out of this additional downward travel when combined with an extended travel shock as others have mentioned. Otherwise, the downward shock limits are reached before the control arm limits are.

Long travel suspensions require longer upper and lower arms as well as longer axle shafts. The shocks don't travel a longer distance since they use the same mounting points. However, because the end of the upper and lower arms extend out approximately 3", the resulting arc that the tire follows travels a further distance up and down.

If you extend the arms out in the images below, you can see how the arc of travel increases.

A 6" lift for the Ranger does not increase wheel travel. It just lowers the mounting points (as stated previously) and raises the vehicle. Great for a street truck, not great for an off road truck. The benefits of getting the additional height does not outweigh the benefits of creating slightly more travel (as explained above) combined with larger tires. It keeps your center of gravity lower and creates a much more compliant suspension that works properly off road.

 

[Car1]

No. A longer upper control arm by itself changes the geometry, it will cause binding, and will create loads of positive camber that you cannot adjust for.

Take a look at the images below. It's a great example of what happens when you install adjustable coils and just crank them up. Yes, you get more up travel, but it does you no good when you loose most of your downward travel. Plus, it rides like crap. You have to find a good balance between the two.

One way to achieve this balance is with aftermarket UCA's. They allow for slightly more downward travel. You get the most out of this additional downward travel when combined with an extended travel shock as others have mentioned. Otherwise, the downward shock limits are reached before the control arm limits are.

Long travel suspensions require longer upper and lower arms as well as longer axle shafts. The shocks don't travel a longer distance since they use the same mounting points. However, because the end of the upper and lower arms extend out approximately 3", the resulting arc that the tire follows travels a further distance up and down.

If you extend the arms out in the images below, you can see how the arc of travel increases.

A 6" lift for the Ranger does not increase wheel travel. It just lowers the mounting points (as stated previously) and raises the vehicle. Great for a street truck, not great for an off road truck. The benefits of getting the additional height does not outweigh the benefits of creating slightly more travel (as explained above) combined with larger tires. It keeps your center of gravity lower and creates a much more compliant suspension that works properly off road.

If you put a spacer on top then yeah you change the geometry because you're basically extending the spring and shock to simulate downtravel which is why the vehicle is lifted. But with coilovers such as the ones form DBS isn't the actual coil spring longer to obtain the lift?

 

[NvrFinished]

If you put a spacer on top then yeah you change the geometry because you're basically extending the spring and shock to simulate downtravel which is why the vehicle is lifted. But with coilovers such as the ones form DBS isn't the actual coil spring longer to obtain the lift?

Are you referring to their 3.5" lift? If so, then no. They use a spacer for initial lift gain of approximately 1.5" and then the Fox 2.0 coilover for the additional 2". Longer coil springs are not used. The Ford Performance Fox 2.0 coilover kit uses springs that are 2" longer, but it does not increase height or droop. Shocks and the suspension geometry control droop. An IFS suspension can only droop so far.

As far as I can tell from the 6" lift that I saw, they don't even use aftermarket coilovers. They use the stock setup and just drop the mounting point 6". The kit only includes rear shocks.

 

[Car1]

Are you referring to their 3.5" lift? If so, then no. They use a spacer for initial lift gain of approximately 1.5" and then the Fox 2.0 coilover for the additional 2". Longer coil springs are not used. The Ford Performance Fox 2.0 coilover kit uses springs that are 2" longer, but it does not increase height or droop. Shocks and the suspension geometry control droop. An IFS suspension can only droop so far.

As far as I can tell from the 6" lift that I saw, they don't even use aftermarket coilovers. They use the stock setup and just drop the mounting point 6". The kit only includes rear shocks.

This is the one I'm referring to:
https://bds-suspension.com/product?ma=3&mo=59&ty=1&yr=2021
It's for the F-150 but assuming that it's expanded to the Ranger it appears to use no spacers, only coilovers. Does this one use extended travel springs and shocks then?

 

[Frenchy]

Unfortunately it is still only designed for lift and not travel. I can determine that from the spindals. It does have better travel than stock but not enough for an extra 6 inches. Also the rear is lifted with blocks wich again only lift. Blocks do not give more travel. Tomorrow in the afternoon I will have time so give me.a call then and we shall discuss some options.

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