How much should I spend on a lift kit body lift and mud wheels and tires?
I want to go mudding how high should I lifted it and what would I need also how much would it all be
2006 ford f150 xlt
Well unless you are a rich kid who is spending daddy's money (which is generally the case when people want to lift and mud a new ford) I would suggest a serious reconsideration of how you are going about this.
1) mudding is incredibly hard on a vehicle… Stuff breaks… A lot. Specially on a little half ton Ford, you'll be replacing CV shafts, wheel bearings, sensors, air filters, ball joints… You name it, muddying will break it.
2) Ford is a PAIN IN THE A** to work on. If you are going to be breaking something all the time, it's kind of a must that its easy to fix, old Fords are bad enough, new Fords are even worse. Now you have electronics and sensors and pollution control and traction management… When it comes to a gear grinding hobby like this… Simple is better.
3) Ford is expensive to work on. If you are going to be breaking things all the time, the cheaper it is to fix, the better. Ford doesn't standardize anything, which means parts are specialized, and therefore expensive. The newer you get, the more expensive to fix.
4) if you are dumb enough to try and turn your driver into a mud truck, the kit itself, a respectable 4 inch lift will cost about 2k, to have someone install it, since I get the sense you are not mechanically inclined, will cost you another grand. A set of 33 or 35 inch tires will run you between 1200 and 2k depending on what you get. With bigger tires, you need your speedometer recalibrated, so that's more money. Since your truck doesn't have the power to turn tires like that in the mud, you either need to change your front and rear end gears, or start doing some power bolt ons and chip it to try and make up for the extra torque required to roll a bigger tire. You are looking at another few thousand.
What I suggest, being someone who has done this for a lot of year, it's take your money and go buy an old truck that is just for playing. A mid 70s to late 80s 4x4. I recommend Chevy because there are way more parts and they are way easier to work on, but if you're a ford guy, then by all means. For a few thousand dollars you can get a truck that is already lifted, has decent tires on it, and with straight axles, a lighter body, and no electronics, is far better suited to be an offload toy. They are easier and cheaper to work on, and if you break it, you still have your daily driver to drive to work and you are not out a vehicle till you get it fixed. You can buy a rust older truck with a ratty body so when you scratch and dent it (and believe me, you will), you don't care. Even if you don't find a lifted truck you want, it's much easier and cheaper to lift a straight axle truck. It can be done for a few hundred bucks with some steel or aluminum lift blocks on the axles, and a few hockey pucks or a body lift kit, you can easily get 6-12 inches of lift for next to nothing in cost. It's also a truck that can grow with you as you become more experienced in the hobby. You can make it lighter by stripping body panels, run exhaust stacks to keep them out of the water, move the radiator to the back, increase power, etc etc. All things that would be impractical in a driver are all practical on a mud truck… So spend some time on Craigslist, find an old truck you like, and go buy it… Or spend 5 grand to ruin your new truck. Either way.
Lift as high as possible. (Don't expect to drive it on pavement.)
Run the biggest/widest tire your engine/tranny can handle.
Add a tranny cooler
Rip out the interior/carpet and reroute all electrical as high as possible
Move all breathers to top of engine compartment. Throw on an intake snorkel.
Buy a locking rear differential and make sure front is LSD.
Buy a pressure washer.
Buy extra drive shafts, axles, knuckes, etc.
Figure $5,000 for some light mudding (if you can get deals, buy used), plus budget a couple hundred+ a month if you do an hour a weekend.
1. Skip the body lift and get a suspension lift. Body lifts do nothing for off-road ability, your ground clearance is the same (other than what you get from the tires), suspension articulation is unchanged from stock, plus you get the added bonus of misaligned bumpers and snapped electrical wiring. Body lift = poseur. Expect to pay around $2000 for a decent lift kit. With lift kits you get what you pay for. You'll also want a steering stabilizer which will be around $150
2. For tires, if you get 4 inches of lift or more and your truck is 4WD, You should be able to fit 35's without any issue. However you'll also want to regear. For 35's. If you have the 5.4L then 4.10's should be okay, if you have the 4.6L (which is hilariously underpowered in the 2004-2008 trucks), then you should go with 4.56 gears. Expect to spend $1200 for this if you have 4WD. Expect to pay around $1600 for a set of tires, and another $1000 for a set of wheels because the stock ones won't be wide enough to accommodate the larger tires.
3. Rear locker or limited slip. If your truck has the optional stock trac-lok LSD, then I would skip this, but if it doesn't you'll definitely want this. I had a Powertrax-No Slip on my Bronco, it worked well, expect to spend around $400.
So to do this right. You're at around $6000-$6500 that figure does not include much of the labor. A realistic total would be closer $8,000.
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