Custom 1" Spacer and Detailed Level Kit Install Instructions

[Bluestra1n]

I was looking for a mild 1" lift but all i could find was Ranger lifts (2 1/4" welded steel plates). I wanted something in aluminum for corrosion resistance and i also wanted a little fun designing something of my own. I created a design for 6061 Aluminum and had it laser cut by Send Cut Send for $73.00 (free shipping). New shorter flange nuts will be required to ensure proper thread engagement and can be found on McMaster-Carr (95003A216 Pk of 10) for $7.96 ($10.01 Shipping).

After install and some driving to settle the suspension, the result was a +7/8" in the front. Ill edit this post later to add before and after side views and wheel well measurements.

Anyway, during this whole process i couldn't find an all in one guide for all info related to installing a level kit using the Lower control arm method on a 6th gen ranger (I didn't want to mess along with UCA ball joints and the spindle/CV method) , so i whipped up a guide while i was doing the install.

I think this how to guide is the real benefit of this post, more so than showing off the "custom" spacer.

PDF attached because i don't want to mess around with how much a hassle phots are to attach to the forum. Please read entire PDF before asking questions that might already be covered.

Sponsored

 

[Bluestra1n]

the rear did not change at all and remained at 38.25" so i now have about 1.625" rake.

It may not look like much of a difference from the pictures, but in person there is a lot more room in the front wheel well and I also noticed a decent change in my position from the drivers seat.

 

[embedded rock]

Nice work.


Also, with the dimensions of the spacer included in the doc, it appears that spacers for a Tacoma will work. I have a set here from a former Tacoma with dimensions of 117mm and 75mm. Would need to drill a hole for Ranger's locator pin at the top.

 

[Jasonkflo]

Id like to lower my rear to level it but im
Not sure there is a kit for that

 

[superj]

i don't think there is, that is the way i originally wanted to do too. the rear shackles are already very short so it would be hard to get shorter.

 

[Maybe]

Looks good. But Ranger Lifts does have a 1” lift.

 

[Arsenall11]

You can also use the Bronco ones.

 

[Bluestra1n]

Looks good. But Ranger Lifts does have a 1” lift.

They do. I said in my original post they have a 1” lift. But is 2x 1/4” steel plates tacked together( good chance for un-powder coated steel between the spacers) and it’s also $140 shipped and from what I can tell from the kit, they do not include additional hardware for proper thread stick out. From my testing, the stock top hat nuts would maybe engage one full thread in the stock hardwares nylon portion, but you will have no thread sticking past the nut. So no visual cue to tell you if the thread of the stud is backing out.

 

[Bluestra1n]

You can also use the Bronco ones.

Yes, you could use the 1.25 aluminum level kit from superlift and not install the strut lca spacer in that kit to get a 1” level. I actually used that install guide for some of my write up on the level install process, but it was missing some details I thought were important. And also obviously didn’t have Ranger specific torque values.

 

[Maybe]

They do. I said in my original post they have a 1” lift. But is 2x 1/4” steel plates tacked together( good chance for un-powder coated steel between the spacers) and it’s also $140 shipped and from what I can tell from the kit, they do not include additional hardware for proper thread stick out. From my testing, the stock top hat nuts would maybe engage one full thread in the stock hardwares nylon portion, but you will have no thread sticking past the nut. So no visual cue to tell you if the thread of the stud is backing out.

Misread it as a 2 and 1/4” lift lol since there wasn’t an x there

 

[Wolfman00]

i use SCS a lot for stuff, but suck at cad. i see now you can do a drawing and their Ai program converts it. is that what you did?
Also, very nice work. i love it when people can’t find what they want, and just do it themselves!

 

[Bluestra1n]

i use SCS a lot for stuff, but suck at cad. i see now you can do a drawing and their Ai program converts it. is that what you did?
Also, very nice work. i love it when people can’t find what they want, and just do it themselves!

I always do model based drawings so i modeled the actual part in Fusion 360. I also needed the model for the 3D print test part i did before i sent it off to SCS. Ive tried attaching STEP(Generic 3D model Data) files before to the forum and it is not an allowed type of attachment.

It seems like the forums allow .OBJ and .STL which would get you approximated CAD geometry, but SCS doesn't not accept those file types.

I tried making a video guide on how to model this part in fusion but the file size is too large for the forum even after compressing. If you wan to learns CAD, this would be a good part to learn on because of its simplicity and all dimensions needed to model the part are in the drawing.

Also, i didn't know SCS had an AI assistant for converting drawings to models, that's pretty neat if it works reliably.

 

[cc1999]

the rear did not change at all and remained at 38.25" so i now have about 1.625" rake.

It may not look like much of a difference from the pictures, but in person there is a lot more room in the front wheel well and I also noticed a decent change in my position from the drivers seat.

Nice work!
‘Looks great

 

[Lion77]

Just be aware that if you have full payload in the bed, you'll have negative rake and the front end is going to wander all over during acceleration and braking. That's the reason for the factory rake being a bit more aggressive, to account for max payload in the bed and still be about level.

If that's NOT a condition, you'll ever see or it's a very rare condition (99% of the time you're not close to max payload), I think this looks great and adds a tad of clearance + approach up front, there's still mild rake, so it won't affect handling with moderate to light payloads.

Sponsored