6in Lift... Lessons Learned and BDS Lift Review
04-08-2012, 09:20 AM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
6in Lift... Lessons Learned and BDS Lift Review
I posted this in another thread and thought it would be better served here...
I'll start by saying I’m deployed right now to Afghanistan and I’ve made a bit of a habit of buying things for my truck while I’m over here and sending them home. Well I finally decided to just go with lifting it and going with bigger tires. I spent about $7,000 just on parts alone for everything I've done to it. Luckily..... I had a nice place to work on it. And didn’t pay anything in labor. Realistically speaking it might have been cheaper for me to sell my truck, take the money I spent on all this and just buy one with everything done to it already. However, due to attachment issues and knowing the history of my truck and basically babying it all the time I didn’t want to risk it.
LIFT KIT:
After much deliberation, and internet searching, and reading reviews i decided to go with BDS. They where kinda a midle of the road price wise at 2,300. That included replacement 6in lift springs, and fox shocks w/boots, and steering Stabilizer. This is a review of the lift kit itself. It is advertised as all inclusive and has everything you need minus torsion relief tool.... You could buy one of these for about 80 bucks, or if you already had some kinda puller set you could make one with a U-Bolt. Realistically, you COULD conceivably install the entire lift kit in 10 hours as advertised. However having a 1998 F150 that has had some run in's with salt water in its day I decided to take some time and clean all that off and under coat it as well. The entire process took about 5 days... It didn't help I was trying to do this in January and it took forever for the paint to dry in the cold. All said and done the lift kit has a Lifetime Replacement Warranty for the original purchaser. That Being said this thing is a beast. I could not imagine what it would take to break any of the pieces that came with it.
My biggest discrepancy with the lift kit was the brake line lowering part. It comes with this small little L-shaped part that lowers the mount for your brake lines theoretically extending them downward... Well... the truth of the mater is your going to have to modify your steel lines a little bit and bend them around and straighten them out some. I didn't want to do that. So i went down to a local Line/hose maker in town and had both lines made with steel braided line and extended 10in over stock for 60$. It took me an extra day but i would rather have the quality, and i had them made at my local CARQUEST. The Leaf springs are another factor.. They are advertised as "Glide Ride Leaf Springs"....But in fact they are not. These things are stiff as bricks... We tried everything from loading them up to backing them on hills to get them to flex but could not come up with an answer. I got it, its now more of a toy but i still like driving it around town. I would assume that the blocks would have kept the original ride but with something advertised as "Glide Ride"; i couldn't pass it up. Now on a side note… The instructions that come with this beast leave a little to be desired. I worked in a mechanic shop for three years while I was in college, but this was the first lift kit I ever installed. I would like to think I’m mechanically inclined but you definitely had to do some thinking on it. I also had access to a ton of tools and a lift. I didn’t require any special tools other than the ball joint press and micrometer for the rear end. Now… Since I was removing most of the main suspension pieces anyway I felt I might as well take the opportunity to replace the upper and lower ball joints. I went with MOOG parts and FYI, in order to replace the top Ball joint you replace the entire ‘A’ Arm.. Sooo you might spend a good bit of time beating it out before you figure that out if you didn’t know ( I was irritated when the new part came in). Also by doing this I needed to get a realignment on it; which I already planned on doing because of loosening the torsion bars and the bigger tires that where going on it.
Now you might be thinking, tires probably cost around 1900 ish so where is the other money you put into it. Well various nic nacs but the bulk of the rest of it was put in the front and rear end. I decided to go with 4:56 gears and a Tru Trac LS in the rear end and an E-Locker in the front. All said in done.. i wish i would have just put another Tru Trac in the front. It would have saved some time and a couple hundred bucks. But I can completely control it from open to full lock. If you have never installed a Set of Gears before I would recommend you have someone with you that has. It can be extremely tedious and will make you more aggravated than most anything you have ever done before. After all said and done I took apart the rear end and put it back together almost 16 times. The front end was easier to get lined up, however playing with and installing the E Locker made up for that.
Misconceptions: Well I Assumed since I could fit 33in tires on it without a lift I should be able to have 37in tires on it with it. Well truthfully if I bought different Rims with Less Back Spacing I Probably could. But I was already Way over my budget. I thought the 4:56 Gears would be WAY ‘peppier’ over the stock 3:55s I took out. This was not true. Although, my speedometer was finally closer to being accurate its actually over speed. So when I’m going 60 I’m really going somewhere in the Mid 50s. Looking back I would have rather just went with 4:88s. Keep in mind I have a 4.2L v6 with a manual transmission… So take it for what it’s worth but I was looking to have woods monster that could zip around mud holes and still tow something reasonable, along with being able to travel easy on the interstate. Going back I would go with 4:88s for that reason.
Everything Installed:
BDS Suspension Lift: $2300 with military discount including Replacement Leaf springs and Fox shocks
35x12.5 Nitto Trail Grapplers- $1900 with install weight and balanced at Discount Tire with replacement warranty
Steel Braided Brake Lines- $60
Tru Trac LS- $450
E-Locker- $750
Mag Tec Rear Diff Cover-$250
4:56 Gears reverse cut front & Rear- $500
Half a Gallon of Gator Liner- 100$
1 Quart of Chassis Paint- 20$
Combination Soda and Rough Grit Blaster with all necessary Equip and Media- $850
Front Disc’s and Green Synthetic Pads- $150
Torsion Bar Relief Tool- $80
Seals & Miscellaneous parts- $100
Please keep in mind some Items I purchased at Shop Cost from the shop I used to work at. Not everything here is required just to lift the truck. However, Changing Gears Distinguishes between a lifted truck and a functional off-road vehicle. If you have any specific questions at all about process, or anything feel free to ask. I will try to put pictures in when I can.
I'll start by saying I’m deployed right now to Afghanistan and I’ve made a bit of a habit of buying things for my truck while I’m over here and sending them home. Well I finally decided to just go with lifting it and going with bigger tires. I spent about $7,000 just on parts alone for everything I've done to it. Luckily..... I had a nice place to work on it. And didn’t pay anything in labor. Realistically speaking it might have been cheaper for me to sell my truck, take the money I spent on all this and just buy one with everything done to it already. However, due to attachment issues and knowing the history of my truck and basically babying it all the time I didn’t want to risk it.
LIFT KIT:
After much deliberation, and internet searching, and reading reviews i decided to go with BDS. They where kinda a midle of the road price wise at 2,300. That included replacement 6in lift springs, and fox shocks w/boots, and steering Stabilizer. This is a review of the lift kit itself. It is advertised as all inclusive and has everything you need minus torsion relief tool.... You could buy one of these for about 80 bucks, or if you already had some kinda puller set you could make one with a U-Bolt. Realistically, you COULD conceivably install the entire lift kit in 10 hours as advertised. However having a 1998 F150 that has had some run in's with salt water in its day I decided to take some time and clean all that off and under coat it as well. The entire process took about 5 days... It didn't help I was trying to do this in January and it took forever for the paint to dry in the cold. All said and done the lift kit has a Lifetime Replacement Warranty for the original purchaser. That Being said this thing is a beast. I could not imagine what it would take to break any of the pieces that came with it.
My biggest discrepancy with the lift kit was the brake line lowering part. It comes with this small little L-shaped part that lowers the mount for your brake lines theoretically extending them downward... Well... the truth of the mater is your going to have to modify your steel lines a little bit and bend them around and straighten them out some. I didn't want to do that. So i went down to a local Line/hose maker in town and had both lines made with steel braided line and extended 10in over stock for 60$. It took me an extra day but i would rather have the quality, and i had them made at my local CARQUEST. The Leaf springs are another factor.. They are advertised as "Glide Ride Leaf Springs"....But in fact they are not. These things are stiff as bricks... We tried everything from loading them up to backing them on hills to get them to flex but could not come up with an answer. I got it, its now more of a toy but i still like driving it around town. I would assume that the blocks would have kept the original ride but with something advertised as "Glide Ride"; i couldn't pass it up. Now on a side note… The instructions that come with this beast leave a little to be desired. I worked in a mechanic shop for three years while I was in college, but this was the first lift kit I ever installed. I would like to think I’m mechanically inclined but you definitely had to do some thinking on it. I also had access to a ton of tools and a lift. I didn’t require any special tools other than the ball joint press and micrometer for the rear end. Now… Since I was removing most of the main suspension pieces anyway I felt I might as well take the opportunity to replace the upper and lower ball joints. I went with MOOG parts and FYI, in order to replace the top Ball joint you replace the entire ‘A’ Arm.. Sooo you might spend a good bit of time beating it out before you figure that out if you didn’t know ( I was irritated when the new part came in). Also by doing this I needed to get a realignment on it; which I already planned on doing because of loosening the torsion bars and the bigger tires that where going on it.
Now you might be thinking, tires probably cost around 1900 ish so where is the other money you put into it. Well various nic nacs but the bulk of the rest of it was put in the front and rear end. I decided to go with 4:56 gears and a Tru Trac LS in the rear end and an E-Locker in the front. All said in done.. i wish i would have just put another Tru Trac in the front. It would have saved some time and a couple hundred bucks. But I can completely control it from open to full lock. If you have never installed a Set of Gears before I would recommend you have someone with you that has. It can be extremely tedious and will make you more aggravated than most anything you have ever done before. After all said and done I took apart the rear end and put it back together almost 16 times. The front end was easier to get lined up, however playing with and installing the E Locker made up for that.
Misconceptions: Well I Assumed since I could fit 33in tires on it without a lift I should be able to have 37in tires on it with it. Well truthfully if I bought different Rims with Less Back Spacing I Probably could. But I was already Way over my budget. I thought the 4:56 Gears would be WAY ‘peppier’ over the stock 3:55s I took out. This was not true. Although, my speedometer was finally closer to being accurate its actually over speed. So when I’m going 60 I’m really going somewhere in the Mid 50s. Looking back I would have rather just went with 4:88s. Keep in mind I have a 4.2L v6 with a manual transmission… So take it for what it’s worth but I was looking to have woods monster that could zip around mud holes and still tow something reasonable, along with being able to travel easy on the interstate. Going back I would go with 4:88s for that reason.
Everything Installed:
BDS Suspension Lift: $2300 with military discount including Replacement Leaf springs and Fox shocks
35x12.5 Nitto Trail Grapplers- $1900 with install weight and balanced at Discount Tire with replacement warranty
Steel Braided Brake Lines- $60
Tru Trac LS- $450
E-Locker- $750
Mag Tec Rear Diff Cover-$250
4:56 Gears reverse cut front & Rear- $500
Half a Gallon of Gator Liner- 100$
1 Quart of Chassis Paint- 20$
Combination Soda and Rough Grit Blaster with all necessary Equip and Media- $850
Front Disc’s and Green Synthetic Pads- $150
Torsion Bar Relief Tool- $80
Seals & Miscellaneous parts- $100
Please keep in mind some Items I purchased at Shop Cost from the shop I used to work at. Not everything here is required just to lift the truck. However, Changing Gears Distinguishes between a lifted truck and a functional off-road vehicle. If you have any specific questions at all about process, or anything feel free to ask. I will try to put pictures in when I can.
04-29-2012, 10:37 AM
#4
Senior Member
Thread Starter
08-27-2013, 09:31 AM
#7
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Leaf springs
Ok so i know its been a hot minute since i posted this however i thought i would try to provide some more additional guidance on the stiff leaf springs I had. After Much Flexing, off-roading, and driving the springs where still stiff... Soo i spent literally a few weeks on the phone with BDS complaining about it. On the flip-side the guys there where awesome. They always called me back, and gave me reasonable guidance. The solution we came down to was loosening the Shackles on the leaf springs! Guess I put'em on a little too tight. However, even though that helped tremendously. The springs are still purty stiff. But way better than before. Anyways I hope this helps if anyone reads this stuff. 
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09-23-2014, 07:49 PM
#8
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I am looking into this kit for my 2003 and it says that stock rims can be reinstalled with this kit, is this true? I know that most people get wheels that have an offset both for looks and for safety reasons. I am just curious because I REALLY like the look of my stock rims and I do not want to pay for aftermarket rims if it can be helped.