Clearance

just wondering how much i can go as far as articulation with a 3.5 inch lift on a 66. im just curious cuz i want to get one of those kick ass pictures of its all jacked up on a ramp. thanks

That is a loaded question. Depending on whom you talk to you can get 10 different answers from 10 different people. As far as the absolute best articulation goes? Well are you willing to spend money or are you just wanting to do an economy lift? I can tell you how to go about getting the best articulation, in my opinion anyhow, but to get there you are looking at a price tag of roughly 5-grand to get close. For the economy, you can get away with going with the Cage lift kit. Cage has probably the best flexing lift on the market at current time. For the extreme, you have to go with a 4-link with coil overs that requires a little enginuity to do it yourself or quite a bit of money to have someone else do it for you. If you want to go that way, Google 4-link. That is as far as suspension goes.

You can get more articulation out of your rig if you are locked. If two vehicles are identicle with the exception of 1 is locked f & r, and the other is open, the locked rig will have more "articulation" because the locker forces the vehicle up the ramp with all 4 tires vs. the open carrier doing it with only 2 tires.

So, in all reality, how much money do you want to spend?

S_bolt19 said:

That is a loaded question. Depending on whom you talk to you can get 10 different answers from 10 different people. As far as the absolute best articulation goes? Well are you willing to spend money or are you just wanting to do an economy lift? I can tell you how to go about getting the best articulation, in my opinion anyhow, but to get there you are looking at a price tag of roughly 5-grand to get close. For the economy, you can get away with going with the Cage lift kit. Cage has probably the best flexing lift on the market at current time. For the extreme, you have to go with a 4-link with coil overs that requires a little enginuity to do it yourself or quite a bit of money to have someone else do it for you. If you want to go that way, Google 4-link. That is as far as suspension goes.
You can get more articulation out of your rig if you are locked. If two vehicles are identicle with the exception of 1 is locked f & r, and the other is open, the locked rig will have more "articulation" because the locker forces the vehicle up the ramp with all 4 tires vs. the open carrier doing it with only 2 tires.

So, in all reality, how much money do you want to spend?

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well RIGHT NOW nothing as far as suspension its the least of my worries right now cuz i need some other junk more than i want to do this but i do want to get a nice suspension for it that i know can articulate well. right now i have just plain old rancho 9000 shocks. im assuming they dont do much for hard stuff such as this?

Shocks are the least of your problems and have very little to do with the actual vehicle articulation. With those you just have to make sure you have a long enough one. When I went from 3.5" lift in the rear to my current springs, I had to get a shock that was a 32" shock. My old ones were only 24" and they wouldn't let the axle drop far enough to take advantage of the flex the springs actually offered. The 9000's are one of the best shocks out there, just are they long enough for what you want? The other thing is that DO NOT buy a lift from Rancho or Superlift. Those are pretty well garbage lifts except for the average joe who wants to sit up higher and doesn't take it off the pavement. They do not have the functionality of one from BC Broncos, Wild Horses, James Duff, Tom's Bronco or Cage. The ones that these companies offer have actual functional value in wheeling. They also cost more than one you can get from 4-Wheel Parts Wholsales or other big box chain stores, but they are 10 times the lift kit.

I'm no expert but I just put on a 3.5" lift from Wildhorses for under 500 bucks which include everything necessary for my application. In other words I didn't need some of the things that you run into like extended break lines, drive shafts, longer radius arms, so on and so on. The system I installed was fairly simple and I've never installed a 'suspension system' on a bronco. I did one on a friends suzuki samari that was harder a few weeks later. Anyway, another note, most of those rigs you see doing extreme articulation have the more extinsive system, such as new rear leafs. I think most may agree that the more extinsive system you install, the more extreme articulation you can have. That being said, the simple system I installed is safe, looks good, and does the job. I use my bronco off road more than on pavement being on a ranch and it works fine, however you probably won't see me in the Bronco Driver magazine doing cool wheel stands on 55 gallon drums. My advise is to research the different systems offered by BRONCO type venders (Duff, Jeffs B Graveyard, Toms, Wild Horses, BC, or Cage...may have left a couple out). Check your budget and get the best system you can because you don't want to upgrade 6 months later, at least I don't. If money ain't an object, by all means, get an advanced system from a good vendor and I think you'll be well satisfied. Here's one tip...stay away from blocks on the rear leafs if possible. Hope this helps and good luck...

What coils are you running? If they are old ditch them cause they are only $110/pr. for long travel type.

I used to run a wristed radius arm for more flex and to keep cost down. Take a look at my gallery, they're my old photos with that set up.

I now run the Cage extended arms which do very well but do not give as much flex as the wristed arm. The downfall of a wristed arm is only one radius arm is controlling axle wrap. I beefed mine up by wrapping the arm with 3/16" thick 2"x3" angle. This is plenty beefy. You will need extended brake lines from the frame to axle. The shocks you need have to be able to extend to 35" for all the travel you will get. I use Duff's 70/30's that they call their 15" throw shocks. I then used their Stage II shock hoops that utilize a 2" body lift to gain the height I needed for these tall shocks. I also used Wildhorses rubber strut bushings at the frame end of the radius arms to get more flex vs. the stiff poly bushings that don't flex fell.

The trac bar bushings will fail quickly with this kind of flex at the frame end. Best thing is to get a new trac bar with heims on both ends.

As for the rear its a toss up. If you have stock leafs I'd say to do a shackle flip and ditch the blocks under the leafs to get up to height of the front. Its usually 3-4" gain in height and doesn't break the bank. If you wanna keep the blocks I've seen other cut off the ends of the loverload bottom leaf on the stock leaf pack but leaving a portion of the leaf still in acting as a small block. This give quite a bit of flex for the stock springs but they will weaken over time and can break. I run the 10 packs but they are spendy. If I was to do it again I'd just get some Bronco coils back there.