body lift or lift kit?

[Kingbman1]

Whats the difference between a lift kit and a body lift?>

[UNISCAPER]

A lift kit raises the suspension by using springs, or blocks. A body lift is nothing more than rubber bushings with longer bolts that you put between the truck body and frame, raising the body...Both seriously screw up sterring geometry, and make your truck dysfunctional for any serious work purposes...If you are using you truck for work, keep that junk off of it

[Kingbman1]

I want to make my 2 door blazer 4x4 capable of offroading.

[UNISCAPER]

Ahhh, then go with suspension lift, but don't take it so high your centers of gravity effect the way the truck handles. A body lift will do nothing for suspension, just raise the body higher than the frame.

[EagleLandscape]

your truck is jsut as capable for offroading stock, than it is with 300 ft of lift. why do you want a lift? to look cool? WRONG ANSWER, a lift's purpose is to gain height to clear bigger tires.

bigger tires = more contact area with the ground, therefore more traction.

[UNISCAPER]

Actually, one would use suspension to allow travel when we come off jumps at 120 MPH. With a stock suspension, you would trash your truck. Most off road trucks here are just that, and as soon as you begin to mix business and off road usage, you create something that only works half the time, half as good for it's intended purpose.
Most Unlimited class trucks now are pushing 850HP and use travel of over 17" front and 14" rear. They are not street legal, and basically worthless for anything other than flying.

So, I guess you need to assess what your real function is going to be here before you even think of lifting it....

[EagleLandscape]

thats only if you were building a pre-runner. aka dune jumping car. the main purpose for lifts is to clear bigger tires.

[Kingbman1]

So basically i could just get a body lift to put bigger tires on?

[mag360]

Use a body lift on top of a mild suspension lift and upgrade your WHEELS and tires to make your track wider.
OR,
If you are not looking to spend alot of $$$ use a 3in body lift and put bigger tires on. It will not affect your steering geometry and will only minimally raise your center of gravity. Your only side expenses would potentially be having your steering shaft lengthened (make sure it's done right) and having your automatic shift rod lengthened (if you have an older K5 blazer) Overall height increase would be a noticeable 4-5 inches.

What worked pretty well for me was a 3in body lift and heavier duty springs front and rear (to minimize body roll) and a wheel and tire upgrade that widened my track by over 6 inches overall. You dont want a tall truck with stock springs and stock track width as it will roll easily and handle badly on the road. My fullsize Dodge sits 7-8inches taller than stock and takes turns better than stock.

[EagleLandscape]

what year blazer do you have? and what size tires are you wanting? do you want to trim some of your fenders, that would save having to get a lift.

go to this site, we can help you more at this link.

http://bbs.off-road.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=offroadchevstandard&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31

[lawn perfection]

6inch skyjacker suspension lift. Works hard every day, no problems ever. Most kits now days are excelent, not like in the early days. I lift everything i get, like the look for the truck not really for any off road purpose just looks. I have a jeep that i use for heavy off roading.

[EagleLandscape]

stay away from whiplash and pro comp lifts, they all suck. skyjacker is one of the best. ranchos are good also. the best thing to do is just get new springs, but if you blazer is post '87 then its got independent front suspension and you'll need to move a bunch of stuff. dont lift anything with ifs, the components suck.

[Potchkins]

i am pretty up on lifts
let me know some details
i will stear you in the right direction
just as i have many others

i have a 93' ranger supercab
4.0 ohv 5 sp 4x4 skyjacker 6" classII
4.10 gears 98'explorer rear end
31 spline axle shafts
factory limited slip , rear disc
warn lock out hubs up front
33 x 12.50 x 15 BFG MT TA
centerforce duel friction clutch

[dirtbikernas]

I got a 94 dodge ram 1500 with a 3 inch body lift and 33's. I am planning to get a bigger suspension lift. All of my customers love my truck. it always gets their attention.

[Potchkins]

what year
S-10
K-5
K-1500
?

[Scag48]

Lifts really don't serve any purpose except to add bigger tires. My friend just bought a '93 Jeep Laredo and lifted it 3.5 inches and put 31's on there for his primary tire. My advice, don't do it to a work truck, it's pointless. You're steering gets screwed over and when you put the bigger tires on there all you can hear is the roar of them going down the road. I suggest lifting a recreational rig other than your work truck. Most vehicles are plenty off-road worthy stock, especially trucks.

[GrassBlaster]

finally...a subject I know something about...

A body lift is fine for bigger tires, but a suspension lift is good for both big tires and wheeling. The suspension lift gives you more flex and greater wheel travel. It also includes long travel shocks that offer much better performance than stock shocks. Another bonus of the suspension lift is getting your rocker panels higher off the grounf for clearance. Bigger tires offer more traction, however, they are also the only way to gain more clearance between the ground and your differentials.

For my jeep, I use a combination of body and suspension.

A suspension lift will almost always make a vehicle wheel better, especially on jeep wranglers and blazers. My next project is a 2 door blazer, 4.3L. I'm gonnna make the doors removable and go for at least 33" tires if not 35's

[BrandonH]

If all you want to do is clear slightly larger tires just go with a body lift. It is much cheaper and you want be changing any of the drive angles. If you have the $$$ do both. I had a '97 2 door tahoe that I had a 6" suspension and a 2.25" body lift on and I had 36x12.5 swampers on 10x15" weld wheels.

One thing to remember is depedning on how much larger you go on tires you may need to change your gears out to a lower ratio. I ony had 3.73's in mine with 36's and it was sluggish. Ideally I needed 4.56's to run slightly above stock.

-Brandon

[Scott Wachtel]

If you just want the look of a lifted ride go with the body lift. It doesn't affect the work capabilities of the truck as long as you get a few things lengthened and still gives you some added tire clearence. If you go with the full suspension lift your going to encounter some not so fun problems when daily driving and work come into play. Not only that, suspension lifts require a whole lot more work and a whole lot more money.

[TRex]

Kingbman,

First is this a full size blazer or a s-10 blazer. If it is a full size blazer and you want to do some 4 wheeling all I did was put 285/75/16 M+S tires on it and cranked the torsion springs up about 1" and off I went to the rocks. I do not care for mud but I can get through most of it and when we had a winter storm down here last year I pulled everything I tried to pull out except semi trucks. I climb my truck through just about anything it will fit through with little problems. My 4 door tahoe is a Z-71 so it has all the skid plates and push button 4 wheel drive, but other than that it is pretty much the same as any other full-size 4x4 chevy. On the edit the next best thing I did to the tires was adding some rancho rs5000 adjustable shocks. Setting 3 normal driving, setting 5 major off roading( no wheel hop and little spinning).