ATV Florida Forum

i have a 96 chevy 1500, im trying to put a 6-9" lift on it but i dont know which one to choose.
any suggestions?

Rancho


Rough Country is garbage

thanks man, thing is I'm looking for a descently economic one too. is rancho good with prices?

i have a rancho, its one of the beefiest kits iv seen, it puts my buddys skyjacker to shame. the only lift with the front and back drop bracket 1 piece for superior strength. as for price, tis not as reasonable as some of the cheaper lifts, but you get what you pay for. and by the way, just say no to spindle lifts. full drop bracket is the best way, you dont need to have retarded offset wheels to clear the massive knuckles, and if your looking for low cost this means that you cant use a stock rim becasue its not offset enough.

iight man ill keep that in mind. I been thinking about putting a skyjacker but you just reconvinced me. Thanks btw. lol i wasnt planning on keeping the stock rims either... there ugly as crap. so I was thinking of puttin heavy duty black 18's on 35's.

my buddy has a skyjecker, and when we go wheeling, he rides in my truck, his front end is falling apart from that crappy lift. the problem is mainly that they tell you its a 6" when really its a 4" that you have to crank the torsion bars out to get 6", and not only do you crank the bars, but the differential isnt dropped as much as the lower a-arm is, so it alows you to crank your cv angles till they are practically 45 degree angles. it just really tears up your front end in several different ways. say no to skyjacker unless you want to treat it like a 4" lift.

I love my 99 Silverado z71 but the lifts are brutal on the wallet,wanna lift mine but can't spend 1300/1600 on a lift :'( :'( :'(

THANK YOU CHEVYZ71!!!! you just saved me about 3 thousand dollars!!! LOL im keeping that into consideration for sure.. so rancho it is! unless anyone else proves me wrong.. anyways, lifts are a pregnant dog, but w/e dude their worth it! thats for sure.

just put  dyna 44 under the front   with  leaf springs  will never break  and it is very cheap  handle best off road  ifs  sus   stinks

well, of course we're got the one hardcore guy thats gona say solid axle lol. yea, he is right, solid axle is the best offroad, but if you have to ask yourself if you want a solid axle, then a solid axle is not for you. ifs is a smoother ride, more practical. solid axles are for the hard core offroaders.

the rancho is the only lift kit for the 88-98 chevys with the bottom drop brackets being one piece, it has by far the beefiest stearing setup, it is full drop bracket, its not ugly like the spindle lifts were there is a mile between the uper and lower a-arm. there are other very good brands for your truck besides rancho, but id have to say rancho still comes in #1.

o yea, and if you can, try to avoid blocks in the rear, all the kits come with blocks, but getting some add-a-leafs are way beter, im sure you know all about why blocks are bad already tho...

i say  go big or go home  lol     i am finaly   hardcore sweet    lol if those kids from highschool   can see me now   ifs   sucks   irs also   sucks  just my 2  cents   

the design of ifs is actually superior. its the parts that it uses that makes solid axle so much beter. there are more parts, and they weren't designed for hardcore offroading, like ball joints, cv shafts, ect. the fact that solid front axles are simpler is what makes them better for mudding. but if you dont understand what im saying about how the design of ifs truly is superior, go on youtube and check out some videos of military issue hummer h1s, those things have ifs, and irs and they will do things you couldnt dream of with solid axles becasue they are built with bullet proof parts.

dude, i've been trying to find a rancho lift kit for the past two days for my chevy and i still can't find one.
thing is they make them for the K model, and i have the C.

any suggestions? or websites?

your best bet will always be chevy truck forums, when people switch to solid front axles, guess what they have left over to sell, lift kits. i remember there is a guy over on a truck forum that i go on alot that had a 6" rnacho kit for sale.

wait a second. you have a 2wd truck? that changes things... alot....

EXACLY!

the biggest deal about lift kits is you cv angles, if you have a 2wd, you don't even have cv shafts. also, cheep lifts make you crank your torsion bars, you dont even have torsion bars with a 2wd. so you can see, you can get away with a little lower quality lift kit.

your looking for a used lift kit right? ill keep my eye out on some of my truck forums.

New, used, I don't care.
perferably new but hey tell me whats out there so i can get a look see!

how much are you wanting to spend?

Fabtech would be a good choice for the Chevy. It will have front coils, steering knuckles, drop brackets, impact struts, and the rear is a add a leaf and block combo.

yea, i was just about to say. the 7.5" fabtech looks pretty nice.

What is your opinion of Pro Comp, thats what I been lookin at for my 97 Z71?

my opinion? if you have a 4x4, rancho is the best one out there. for the 2wd, the fabetech looks like a good lift. for 4x4 i don't know, it wont show any good pics of how the fabtech is layed out. a good cheaper company i hear alot of good things about is rcd, go on fullsizechevy.com and do a little research, the search bar should get you tons of info.

The only thing I dislike about the ProComp is the fact that you bolt in brackets to move the upper control arms down and that is where your alignment cams are, so in time bolts tend to loosen up ( and usually make the bolt holes out of round)and guess what the brackets begin to shift and there goes your alignment. I have install almost 1000 Fabtech 6" kits on the Chevy, It is the only kit I will install on a Chevy, not nocking the Rancho but to me it is over priced.

 a lil bird just came in    and said    SOLID   AXLE   IS ONLY WAY TO GO  ON 4X4   or fabtech on 2wd

i disagree, i think a uper a-arm drop bracket lift is hands down the best kind you can get. you dont have huge knuckles that make you use offset wheels and then your front is wider than your back. my rancho full drop lift has been on my truck for id say about 10 years, the lift is bullet proof. not to mention, my truck has everything 100% in factory location, just 6" lower, no drop the lower a-arm 6", drop the diff 4", make up the difference with a huge knuckle, and then crank the crap outa the torsion bars to get it to really sit 6" taller. not all knuckle lifts are like this, my buddy's skyjacker is like this and its a piece of crap... skyjacker is also one of the only ones that doesn't give you support bars to the back of the drop bracket to keep it from folding back when your offroading... my point, just dont get skyjacker lol and theres nothing wrong with a knuckle lift, but a full drop(uper and lower a-arms) lift is the strongest, most well thought thought lift kit you can get

If you install a Fabtech on a 1500 it will not make the front offset wider than the back, that is on the 2500's. The only thing I would use a Skyjacker on is a Dodge.

yea, some knuckle lifts are different than others, the idea of a knuckle lift really isn't bad at all. its companys like skyjacker that make them horrible. i know alot about chevys, but nothing as far as lift kits go and what not on dodges, so idk.

my buddy has a fabtech 6" on his 01 f150 and it looks like a really nice, well thought out lift. no insane cv angle, torsion bars arent cranked just to make it sit at a true 6" in the front to make the truck level. another friend of mine has an 01 chevy with a skyjacker, and it is just horrible as iv said in my recent posts, insane cv angles, ball joints at their limit, after market torsion keys maxed out to barley fit 35s and make the truck sit level.

yea, 3500 is a rip, you can get somethign like an rcd, or rough country, or something like that for about 1800$...

bds is the best and the warranty is no questions asked  if part fails they replace it for the life of ur ownership  doesn't include labor obviuosly  6" chevy  4" on my yota  cost affective also compared to pro comp

so i should be looking at rough country or rcd?