What gives with these lift kit companies?

[blakshukvw]

ok so I’ve had several X’s. Lifted all of them. My last 2nd gen had reached rear leafs with AAL and the front had aftermarket keys with maxed out twist on the torsion bars without destroying the front axles.
I just got a 100k mile 99 all stock and I’m looking to lift it properly with knuckles and diff lowering brackets. So I see rough country now has a 98-11 ranger kit. Call them and they say won’t work. Call superlift, they say won’t work. They both say the explorer and ranger front suspension is not the same. I ask what’s different and of course the phone jockey doesn’t know he just knows it won’t work. I call BS.
I know the rear is different so I’m not interested in those theories plus the phone jockeys both claimed that the ranger and X front suspension aren’t exactly the same. This sounds like BS to me and that they just didn’t do any research to see if the front end parts would interchange. As far as I knew the front ends were the same.
So what’s the consensus? I know I’m not crazy.

 

[410Fortune]

Superlift or Rough country will work on your 99 in the front
the trucks are identical from the front bumper to the rear of the drivers door as far as suspension/frame/engine cradle is concerned
98-2011 Ranger
95-01 Explorer, mountaineer
SAME FRONT IFS suspension, torsion sprung, dana 35 diff, same engine cradle, same control arms, same wheel bearings, same same same. The only difference is the 98-99 ranger had vacuum hubs which are garbage anyways and have nothing to do with a drop bracket / taller knuckles lift.

Some 2wd 4cyl rangers are different, they have coil springs, but the lift kits in question are not for those trucks so........
If we always believed everything the vendors tell us we would get nowhere with building our trucks

You are correct in your thinking, those lifts WILL FIT YOUR 99 EXPLORER

 

[blakshukvw]

The next question I have to get answered is why RC knuckles require 17” wheels. I wonder if they even have the answer to that or if they’ll just because they do. Phone jockeys.

 

[410Fortune]

interesting first I have heard of that

 

[blakshukvw]

Yeah, they say if you have the 11.25 inch rotors you have to swap to the 12.1 inch rotor and then use 17 inch wheels to clear the knuckle. I guess I’m just not very smart because I don’t see how the wheel is going to hit the knuckle and what the rotor size has to do with it. By the time the hub/wheel bearing is on the knuckle the rotor and wheel are so far away from the knuckle I just don’t see this being a problem. I guess it may make more sense once I get my hands on a set of their knuckles. Of course superlift doesn’t require the rotor swap or 17” wheels making this even more odd.

 

[410Fortune]

It must have something to do with the casting of their knuckle and the caliper mounting location
Either way 12.1 rotors are way better then 11.25! and ranger/explorer brake parts are cheap so...........at least they give you these details up front they may have atually done some research!

Kidding if course. We have been very happy with the rough country drop bracket extended knuckle style lift that is on my wifes FJ cruiser, it works great. My only gripe was the rough country rear shocks lasted about a year before one blew a seal. So we replaced with fox shocks instead and all is well

 

[blakshukvw]

Only thing I can figure is they thought you should upgrade your brakes for the added unstrung weight being added with big tires so they built that into the kit.
Superlift doesn’t require this but their kit is a little more money. If I go with the RC kit any savings will be ate up with the brake parts I’ll have to purchase. Plus I was hoping to run my current 33’s on my stock wheels until they’re done. Can’t do that on the RC kit either.

 

[410Fortune]

nope you cant
My stepson has the superlift on his ranger with 16" wheels
Superlift may be worth the extra $$$$
I am shopping for one of these lifts for a customer right now also, so we will debate this until the trigger is pulled
I was happy to see RC offer the Ranger lift since Superlift has basically never had any competition for the IFS ranger/Explorer
Trail disaster with their upper ball joint extension does not count, I see that as a death trap

 

[blakshukvw]

The RC kit looks very nice. The Superlift has the advantage we spoke of. What the buyer has to answer is does he spend extra to run a stock wheel size and brakes or spend less but buy wheels and brakes. I don’t mind buying wheels at some point it would just be nice to not have to absorb that expense at the same time as the lift kit.
The decision is tougher considering you’re gonna throw half the parts in a corner of the garage.

 

[410Fortune]

well tires for 17" wheels are more available and cheaper then tires for 16" wheels anymore, the 17" wheel became the new "15" wheel
I went with 16's on my wifes FJ to keep more "rubber" for off roading, well I wish I would haev gone 17" every single time it comes to buy tires. Lucky for me I already have some 17" for my B2 I kept when I sold my explorer. So factor that in you will save a few bucks over year putting tires on 17's instead of 16

 

[blakshukvw]

So true. I remember when I put 17’s on my GTi over 20 years ago. That was unheard of. Now a 17 is rare on most new cars. I can’t seem to wear out these Cooper stmaxx tires though. They’re awesome and I’d suggest them to anyone wanting a great hybrid MT/AT with great road manners.

 

[DintDobbs]

I realize I'm 2 years late to this thread, but I have a thought on this exact topic.

I've been weighing the positives and negatives of the Superlift vs. the Rough Country for a few months now; the guys at the local shop I deal with suggested the Rough Country 5" (43130) over the Superlift 4" (K357/358) for dollar-per-inch value and for the quality of the crossmember (one piece vs. bolted together). As noted by both of you, Superlift expressly states that its K357 is compatible with 15" or larger wheels while Rough Country's 43130 is stated to be compatible only with 17" or larger. Nevertheless, I am positively, absolutely, not disposing of my 15" wheels, which is where my question comes in.

Let's say I have wheels with zero or negative backspace (or running idiotically wide spacers). I can't see that clearance would be a problem, if the brake calipers are far enough outside the rim - clearance is clearance, whether vertical or horizontal.

Ultimately, price notwithstanding, I dearly hate putting on any more or less lift than what I need; and my heart was set on the Superlift 4" before a visit with the experts, who DID NOT tell me that the Rough Country lift was not compatible with the 15x10 wheels very obviously sticking three inches out on every corner of my very wide Sport. Look at my profile. You can read the tire size from a quarter mile off...

They also did not tell me that I would need to switch to the bigger rotors, although when I called them just now and asked about this exact thing, the guy who recommended the kit on my last visit told me that they could test fit it and see... but I'm not ready to dump $1000 just to see if it will fit. Although, these guys can (and have!) fabbed up some rad custom lifts for cars that... should... theoretically... never need them, and are legendary in the area for their custom suspension fabrications. If it doesn't fit, they can probably make it fit anyway.

I apologize for any inconvenience, but hours of research led me to this thread, which came the closest to answering the questions that the manufacturer "phone jockeys" (as Blak calls them) never have answered.

My only question is, does Superlift's kit come with an extended brake line? I didn't see one in their parts list, just checking.

 

[SWIGIN]

I realize I'm 2 years late to this thread, but I have a thought on this exact topic.

I've been weighing the positives and negatives of the Superlift vs. the Rough Country for a few months now; the guys at the local shop I deal with suggested the Rough Country 5" (43130) over the Superlift 4" (K357/358) for dollar-per-inch value and for the quality of the crossmember (one piece vs. bolted together). As noted by both of you, Superlift expressly states that its K357 is compatible with 15" or larger wheels while Rough Country's 43130 is stated to be compatible only with 17" or larger. Nevertheless, I am positively, absolutely, not disposing of my 15" wheels, which is where my question comes in.

Let's say I have wheels with zero or negative backspace (or running idiotically wide spacers). I can't see that clearance would be a problem, if the brake calipers are far enough outside the rim - clearance is clearance, whether vertical or horizontal.

Ultimately, price notwithstanding, I dearly hate putting on any more or less lift than what I need; and my heart was set on the Superlift 4" before a visit with the experts, who DID NOT tell me that the Rough Country lift was not compatible with the 15x10 wheels very obviously sticking three inches out on every corner of my very wide Sport. Look at my profile. You can read the tire size from a quarter mile off...

They also did not tell me that I would need to switch to the bigger rotors, although when I called them just now and asked about this exact thing, the guy who recommended the kit on my last visit told me that they could test fit it and see... but I'm not ready to dump $1000 just to see if it will fit. Although, these guys can (and have!) fabbed up some rad custom lifts for cars that... should... theoretically... never need them, and are legendary in the area for their custom suspension fabrications. If it doesn't fit, they can probably make it fit anyway.

I apologize for any inconvenience, but hours of research led me to this thread, which came the closest to answering the questions that the manufacturer "phone jockeys" (as Blak calls them) never have answered.

My only question is, does Superlift's kit come with an extended brake line? I didn't see one in their parts list, just checking.

My Superlift kit has brake line relocation brackets

 

[410Fortune]

the late superlift and new rough country SLA IFS drop bracket kits use the later model 2002+ explorer sport and sport trac brake caliper position with larger rotors. 15" wheels will not clear those rotors, at least not MOST 15" wheels.

Rough country says you MUST use 17" wheels, well I know for a fact MOST 16" wheels will fit with the RC lift. I am NOT sure if 15" wheels would.
This has been debated ALOT on Ranger forums
The RC lift is only 2 years old, maybe 3 now, at first there was no info. Now I have seen trucks with the RC lift running 16" wheels.
I do NOT think your 15's will work
The old Supoerlift knuckles had holes for both size rotors, if you are dead set on keeping 15's then I would go this route, if you can find some of those knuckles.
Guess who has a pair of them?
I do!
Contact me if interested.

 

[waren]

Rough Country 5 Inch Lift Review - Ranger-Forums - The Ultimate Ford Ranger Resource

Suspension Tech - Rough Country 5 Inch Lift Review - Hi I'm new so I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section but here we go, I recently installed the RC 5 inch lift on my 1998 and had some info to share about it. Quality: I thought the overall quality of the lift was good. The drop brackets were...

www.ranger-forums.com

This review says 15” steel wheels fit a 1998 ranger with no issue. I’m hoping 16” aluminum wheels will fit

 

[Explodemylifepls]

Don’t bother with RC junk, get some real control arms built that are longer to facilitate more travel, get some coil overs.