3” ADVENTURE SERIES LIFT KIT FOR SASQUATCH AND BADLANDS

[Blksn955.o]

I am holding out to see some articulation and travel comparisons and or measurements. I at some point would like to go to a 2-3in lift but I want one that offers more travel over the stock non sas badlands.

Really like the idea and conversation of this type of thread thanks for everyone the details. Glad to hear about the 4wd parts lift input.

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[nikkgmm]

Sorry to hijack this, but I am in a similar situation with a badlands, non-squatch. I am wanting to do a small lift, say around 2 inches, and don't plan to go above 35" tires after I wear out my stock 33s. With all this overloading of information from the other threads, I haven't seem a good option for what I am looking for. Is there even any good options for 2 inches on a badlands?

 

[RubiconSasquatch]

I am holding out to see some articulation and travel comparisons and or measurements. I at some point would like to go to a 2-3in lift but I want one that offers more travel over the stock non sas badlands.

Really like the idea and conversation of this type of thread thanks for everyone the details. Glad to hear about the 4wd parts lift input.

spacer lifts won't change articulation or travel by themselves. to get more travel, you need more spring. more spring generally also means you need more shock. This is why most people don't do spacer lifts on off-road vehicles - they're not really off-road products. yes, you gain a bit of ground clearance, and can fit slightly larger tires, but a Badlands with Sasquatch already has enough of those things. To make use of more tire and clearance you need to change quite a bit... point is, spacer lifts and off-road capability don't really belong in the same line of thinking.

 

[zuke]

spacer lifts won't change articulation or travel by themselves. to get more travel, you need more spring. more spring generally also means you need more shock. This is why most people don't do spacer lifts on off-road vehicles - they're not really off-road products. yes, you gain a bit of ground clearance, and can fit slightly larger tires, but a Badlands with Sasquatch already has enough of those things. To make use of more tire and clearance you need to change quite a bit... point is, spacer lifts and off-road capability don't really belong in the same line of thinking.

I think your disdain for spacer lifts might be misplaced, These aren't the 2.5" pucks people used to put on TJ Wranglers. They actually are a pretty good option on the Badlands and Sasquatch, Where they'll let you fit 37's and gain better approach, departure and breakover angles, all of which I'm sure you'll agree are going to be performance improvements.

Because the Bilstein system already provides as much travel as you can use without making more modifications than a $5000 coil over system is gonna provide by itself anyway, this makes a spacer kit at 1/5 the cost a very appealing option for those of us who want to run Blue and Black trails in our Broncos.

I do agree that you can get more articulation with coil overs, and the tunability is something you can't achieve with spacers and re-engineered strut angles in those kits, But if you want more droop with coil overs, you're also going to have to address the CVs and Tie Rods, And if you want more up travel on those same 37s you have to make alterations to the body (Pinch Seams, Crash bar and Fender Deletes, etc.)

Point being, what you're advocating for would cost $8000 to $10000 to achieve any more articulation than the $500~$1200 "Spacer" kits... These kits definitely have a place, and it can be off-road.

 

[longwoodknight]

I think your disdain for spacer lifts might be misplaced, These aren't the 2.5" pucks people used to put on TJ Wranglers. They actually are a pretty good option on the Badlands and Sasquatch, Where they'll let you fit 37's and gain better approach, departure and breakover angles, all of which I'm sure you'll agree are going to be performance improvements.

Because the Bilstein system already provides as much travel as you can use without making more modifications than a $5000 coil over system is gonna provide by itself anyway, this makes a spacer kit at 1/5 the cost a very appealing option for those of us who want to run Blue and Black trails in our Broncos.

I do agree that you can get more articulation with coil overs, and the tunability is something you can't achieve with spacers and re-engineered strut angles in those kits, But if you want more droop with coil overs, you're also going to have to address the CVs and Tie Rods, And if you want more up travel on those same 37s you have to make alterations to the body (Pinch Seams, Crash bar and Fender Deletes, etc.)

Point being, what you're advocating for would cost $8000 to $10000 to achieve any more articulation than the $500~$1200 "Spacer" kits... These kits definitely have a place, and it can be off-road.

As someone with a non squatch badlands I agree with this sentiment. I went with the fab tech 3inch lift. I think this solution will give me what I need and should be plenty capable. I can’t justify spending the cost of a crazy coil over lift when the badlands already has a lot of articulation.

 

[Hernandezn17]

As someone with a non squatch badlands I agree with this sentiment. I went with the fab tech 3inch lift. I think this solution will give me what I need and should be plenty capable. I can’t justify spending the cost of a crazy coil over lift when the badlands already has a lot of articulation.

Do you have pictures with the fabtech kit installed?

 

[Dusty]

spacer lifts won't change articulation or travel by themselves. to get more travel, you need more spring. more spring generally also means you need more shock. This is why most people don't do spacer lifts on off-road vehicles - they're not really off-road products. yes, you gain a bit of ground clearance, and can fit slightly larger tires, but a Badlands with Sasquatch already has enough of those things. To make use of more tire and clearance you need to change quite a bit... point is, spacer lifts and off-road capability don't really belong in the same line of thinking.

Except that spacer lifts allow bigger tires, bigger tires provide more ground clearance, more ground clearance equals better off-road capability. For me, it made the difference between getting denied trying to make it up to the top of Bronco Knoll, and making it. I have a couple of videos on it.

I agree, it's not optimal. But there's more reason to use a spacer lift than just fitting big tires for looks.

 

[RubiconSasquatch]

I think your disdain for spacer lifts might be misplaced, These aren't the 2.5" pucks people used to put on TJ Wranglers. They actually are a pretty good option on the Badlands and Sasquatch, Where they'll let you fit 37's and gain better approach, departure and breakover angles, all of which I'm sure you'll agree are going to be performance improvements.

Because the Bilstein system already provides as much travel as you can use without making more modifications than a $5000 coil over system is gonna provide by itself anyway, this makes a spacer kit at 1/5 the cost a very appealing option for those of us who want to run Blue and Black trails in our Broncos.

I do agree that you can get more articulation with coil overs, and the tunability is something you can't achieve with spacers and re-engineered strut angles in those kits, But if you want more droop with coil overs, you're also going to have to address the CVs and Tie Rods, And if you want more up travel on those same 37s you have to make alterations to the body (Pinch Seams, Crash bar and Fender Deletes, etc.)

Point being, what you're advocating for would cost $8000 to $10000 to achieve any more articulation than the $500~$1200 "Spacer" kits... These kits definitely have a place, and it can be off-road.

First, I fully appreciate your ability to disagree civilly. Props on that - it's a skill that seems to be woefully absent on these forums, and really in society as a whole.

While I reserve the right to be wrong , I don't think the spacers in question are realistically any better than the pucks you referred to. I've seen more than a couple modern spacers break on the trail, on obstacles that the vehicle could have handled just fine without the spacers. The gains in approach and departure are obvious, but IMO not necessary. Neither are the larger tires - the angles and tires on a stock Bronco w/ Sasquatch are substantially better than a stock TJ, to use your example. Those improvements don't become necessary until you're tackling things that require a whole lot more than just departure/approach and tire size. The biggest gains come from articulation, travel, etc and - as you pointed out - those require significant supporting mods to be effective.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that for offroad use, the sasquatch configuration is incredibly capable. An experienced driver can successfully take that truck over a lot of terrain most folks would never attempt. Adding spacers and 37" tires don't add to the capability. I suppose there is an argument to make that they move the limiting factor elsewhere, but those limits still exist. And they're still pretty damn high, considering. If you want to push past the limits of a sasquatch bronco, spacers aren't the answer IMO.

 

[RubiconSasquatch]

Except that spacer lifts allow bigger tires, bigger tires provide more ground clearance, more ground clearance equals better off-road capability. For me, it made the difference between getting denied trying to make it up to the top of Bronco Knoll, and making it. I have a couple of videos on it.

I agree, it's not optimal. But there's more reason to use a spacer lift than just fitting big tires for looks.

I looked at a couple of your threads, and I agree that for your truck, these added capability. I would argue though that (if budget allowed) swapping into the sasquatch parts would have been a better choice for roughly the same increase in ground clearance. More spring/shock versus simply more height.

 

[Dusty]

I looked at a couple of your threads, and I agree that for your truck, these added capability. I would argue though that (if budget allowed) swapping into the sasquatch parts would have been a better choice for roughly the same increase in ground clearance. More spring/shock versus simply more height.

There's no doubt that a Sasquatch-equipped Base Bronco has more capability in every aspect, than my non-Sasquatch with the spacer lift and 35's. But the gain in suspension travel is almost negligible, as it's the same in the rear and less than a half inch more in the front. But shock performance at speed I'm sure is much better with the Bilsteins versus the Hitachi's, no argument there.

I believe we're in agreement on everything, except your earlier statement that "spacer lifts and off-road capability don't really belong in the same line of thinking". There is a valid use-case for spacer lifts that includes better off-road capability. Perhaps you didn't mean to be so absolute in that statement though.

I do have access to a set of Sasquatch shocks sitting on a shelf, and I think it would be fun to stick those on there to try them out. I did borrow the Sasquatch wheels and tires for one run and was happy to put my Nitto's back on afterward.

 

[zuke]

First, I fully appreciate your ability to disagree civilly. Props on that - it's a skill that seems to be woefully absent on these forums, and really in society as a whole.

Thanks, I'd much rather have a useful discussion of Pros and Cons than the shouting matches so frequent on forums these days, and I appreciate that you obviously are the same.

While I reserve the right to be wrong , I don't think the spacers in question are realistically any better than the pucks you referred to. I've seen more than a couple modern spacers break on the trail, on obstacles that the vehicle could have handled just fine without the spacers. The gains in approach and departure are obvious, but IMO not necessary. Neither are the larger tires - the angles and tires on a stock Bronco w/ Sasquatch are substantially better than a stock TJ, to use your example. Those improvements don't become necessary until you're tackling things that require a whole lot more than just departure/approach and tire size. The biggest gains come from articulation, travel, etc and - as you pointed out - those require significant supporting mods to be effective.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that for offroad use, the sasquatch configuration is incredibly capable. An experienced driver can successfully take that truck over a lot of terrain most folks would never attempt. Adding spacers and 37" tires don't add to the capability. I suppose there is an argument to make that they move the limiting factor elsewhere, but those limits still exist. And they're still pretty damn high, considering. If you want to push past the limits of a sasquatch bronco, spacers aren't the answer IMO.

I think we actually agree on a whole lot more than we disagree on!

The Sasquatch is extremely capable out of the box, and amazingly, the Non-Squatch Badlands is actually an even more sensible setup (The Nonsquatch Badlands actually has more articulation than the Sasquatch), But in 4 door guise, the 33's of the Badlands are a pretty big handicap, especially in Breakover.

For ANY inexperienced wheeler, I will always advocate going out and wheeling their stock vehicle before making any changes at all, Learn the vehicle, figure out what you want to do with it, Then modify to achieve it.

For those who just want a little more, and have a good idea of what they can achieve with the stock setup already, the 3" lift allowing 37"s on a stock BadLands is going to provide a significant upgrade at a fairly low cost, and will provide as much benefit as much more expensive options

I can't speak to the durability of the zone spacer kit, Ask me again after I install it this weekend, and next fall after I run it for a year, But I can guarantee that the engineering in these is a lot more advanced than a 2.5" Delrin coil spacer.

I've seen lots of components fail on the trail, and I suspect the stock tie rods are going to be a lot more of a handicap on the Bronco than the components of this particular lift kit. I've seen quite a few Coil Over and Shock failures too, Actually, more than spacer failures, but most of the people I wheel with aren't using spacers for all the reasons we've both cited.

As to your opinion that a non-coil over isn't the way to go past stock abilities, I think we'll just have to disagree on that I think it's a practical way to get that next step of performance.

 

[RubiconSasquatch]

I think there is only one way to settle this once and for all. Let’s go wheelin

 

[longwoodknight]

Do you have pictures with the fabtech kit installed?

Not yet. It’ll be a few weeks till they ship it to me. I’ll post a full write up once installed

 

[Desert_6G]

Hey guys. Anyone try this lift yet on a non squatch badlands? Says it'll work and give it 3inches of lift. Enough for 37's with some trimming and offsett wheels.

• This lift system WILL fit a Bronco Badlands Model without Sasquatch with the Bilstein Struts. This kit will provide 3” of lift on this vehicle.

https://zoneoffroad.com/products/3-...-sasquatch-only-4-door?variant=39760030072920

ahh finally a lift for the non sas BL that isn't 1" or more than 4". good find

 

[zuke]

I think there is only one way to settle this once and for all. Let’s go wheelin

Yay! Look me up next time you're on the Right coast and let's do that! And If I make it down your way first (Likely in the next year or two), I'll do the same...

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