Kept seeing some nice lifted trucks during last weekend. I think it’s punishment for deciding to put off the lift kit on my truck until July or August now. Saw a nice F-150 with 35s and 6 inch lift on Chesnut Street in Albany on Saturday morning. Then passed a couple of jacked up trucks on NY 30 outside of Mayfield. It was kind of weird – I wonder if there was some kind of show going on or something.

Still thinking of a 6 inch lift plus 35s. I want to re-gear with 4.88s at the same time to ensure I have plenty of power, don’t kill my transmission with the heavier tires, have more control going down the hills, and save fuel. Currently, I think the truck is geared too high, especially when I’m off-road or descending a steep hill on a rough dirt road. Maybe later on, add a 3 inch body lift and/or an Add-A-Leaf (AAL) and a leveling kit on the top of that for an additional two inches.

Maybe I should do the AAL and leveling kit when I do the lift, as that’s something that can be done relatively cheaply when the suspension is taken apart to install the lift kit. The body lift involves disassembly of the body, which is a totally different part of the truck then the suspension. The 6 inch lift kit would raise the truck’s suspension by 6 inches plus 2 inches for the 35-inch tires (35-31 stocks /2 diameter = 2 inches). That equals 8 inches of lift. The AAL on top of that would bring the total lift to around 10 inches, which seems plenty high, but not absurdly high. I want my CB antenna to still clear on the state truck trails.

The money situation for the lift kit is good now, but I don’t want to do the lift kit until I need to replace the tires, and have they have a fair bit of life left in them. Basically my goal, set about a year ago, was to have roughly 10 months of pay in cash savings in case of an emergency AFTER the lift kit is paid for. In the month of June, I’m too busy with work to do it. I don’t want to put off the lift kit until late fall, because I don’t want the factory tires to wear out and not be able to pass inspection in October. That would suck.

I want to have the truck back for a couple of weeks prior to taking any adventures far in the wilderness. I fully recognize that the bigger, heavier wheels will wear out the brakes faster – and at 30,000 miles or so, I am probably due for a brake job sooner then later. I also want to make sure everything was properly re-assembled and know the new handling characteristics of the vehicle, just be safe.

 

Then again, I am still very hesitant about the whole project. It’s a lot of money, for basically a toy that won’t last forever. A safe guess for lifespan would be 7 years, although if I still like the big truck, I could have it repaired and keep driving it even longer. Lifted trucks are forever more expensive to maintain, despite being a lot of fun. My previous truck was 13 years old when I got rid of it. Then again, I realize I am 31 now, by the time I am 40 years old, I probably won’t want a lifted truck – so I better do it while I am young, have the money, and adventurous spirit. Eventually, I probably will end up getting hitched and not end up having the money or the desire to fun.