Alternative Body Lift Discussion

[Brody]

Since I have used a variety of different body lifts and so have many other people on the forum, and also in the interest of cleaning up the TECH Section, I started this thread for a body lift discussion. Many of the people new to wheeling are interested in raising the height of their rig in one fashion or another, and body lifts certainly provide a cheap way to do so.

Personally, I have never had any issues with them, no matter what I have used. I have used and installed a great number of after market kits, used hockey pucks, and make steel tubing and washer body lifts. They have all worked. Do not expect to have some of the after market kits to have all the correct size bolts or decent instructions, especially if the body lift on your particular rig has to have the actual steering linkage extended.

Here is the original post with links from TECH:

This is your basic 'Po' Boy' body lift. It works and I have done it myself on at least 2 different rigs. Some people are gonna scream about this (maybe), but, like I said, it does work. I am not saying that this is the safest way to go...merely about the cheapest. You make your own call...

And you have folks saying this:

Originally Posted by jimabena74
DO NOT TRY AND MAKE YOUR OWN BODY LIFT PUCKS the hockey puck idea works for awhile, but it is rubber, and nowhere near the strength required to safely support a truck body...

check out www.4crawler.com (http://www.4crawler.com/) he sells body lifts pretty cheap and his site has tons of information on it... his body lifts are custom made and are a lot more beefy than the commercial ones made today by other companies....

Anyway, here are some links:

http://www.bc4x4.com/faqs/yj.cfm?cat=2&faqid=8

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_I_h..._a_Ford_Ranger (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_I_hockey_puck_body_lift_for_a_Ford_Ranger)

http://xfaktor.net:8082/Projects/Suz.../PuckLift.html (http://xfaktor.net:8082/Projects/Suzuki/PuckLift/PuckLift.html)

http://s-series.org/component/option...,59/task,item/ (http://s-series.org/component/option,com_tech_article/Itemid,/item,59/task,item/)

This last one mentions the use of skateboard wheels, which I only vaguely remember reading about years ago. Make since as they are more durable.

Anyway, here is some information. It might be worthwhile to price all the items needed..pucks or wheels, bolts, nuts, washers and lockwashers, then compare to a standard manufacturer's body lift. The kits come with everything you need. Also check out the 4x4crawler.com site mentioned in one of these links. He sells a cheap one.
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=616619

[Brody]

From Chris:

Chris mentions that you can also use cut down boat trailer wheels with some success.

Here is a link to some information on that as well as some pros and cons:

http://www.bc4x4.com/faqs/yj.cfm?cat=2&faqid=6

[Brody]

This is from Scout Man:

Scout Man: I will chime in and say I have been running a hockey puck body lift (only 1 inch) for 2 years now and I have wheeled it very hard with out the slightest hint of a problem. It is absolutely necessary to use steel sleeves inside the hockey puck hole though!! This way the hole wont continue to enlarge itself with the bolt running through it.

[Brody]

This is from HAKU:


Haku: Considering that Hockey Pucks cost 99 cents each at Dick's Sporting Goods, and there are usually around 8-10 body mounts. Assuming that they only last a year (which is quite conservative, I'd say its more like 3 or 4 years minimum), you could replace them for 10 years and still not spend the same as the cheaer body lifts. Seems like a no brainer to me. $8, plus $10 in reusable hardware seems much better then the $100-200 you would pay for an aftermarket kit. Only benefit I see is that the aftermarket poly bushings might not transfer vibration and noise as much, and might be a bit soft ride.

[Brody]

Just looking a little more, the boat trailer wheels are around 12" or so (I haven't been around boats for a number of years unless you call a hollowed out tree truck on a river in Venezuela a boat) so I don't know the actual length, but for $10-12 bucks per roller, that is a good price, too. You just have to have a good means to cut them to length. I know companies that actually make body mounts and kits, like Daystar and Poly Performance spend a fair amount of research on the actual density of the poly that they use.