Leveling a Hoss 3.0 Wildtrak

[CatMonkey]

Thought I'd post this up as a teaser of what I did in my dive to leveling a Hoss 3.0 with existing lift options. I'll be back later to go into the nuts and bolts and perches and pucks. In stock trim, my '23 was about 1.5" higher in the rear at the fenders just before I did this. Truck is a little over a year old and some settling on the front end has occurred over the first year of ownership.

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[Dog]

Thought I'd post this up as a teaser of what I did in my dive to leveling a Hoss 3.0 with existing lift options. I'll be back later to go into the nuts and bolts and perches and pucks. In stock trim, my '23 was about 1.5" higher in the rear at the fenders just before I did this. Truck is a little over a year old and some settling on the front end has occurred over the first year of ownership.

Looks perfect as it sits.

.

 

[CatMonkey]

When I bought the truck a year ago, I was looking to level it because it had a lot of rake and while I'm not rake averse, this was over an an inch. I bought the Rough Country leveling kit before they added a note that it didn't fit Hoss 3.0 models. I read some had success with a 2.5" lift that Rough Country made but I wasn't really looking to add more height, as I have no intention of going to a taller tire. I got all that out of my system 30 years ago. I ended up getting a RPG 1.5" perch and then we had the heat dome issues over the South and I gave up doing anything until things cooled down. I also got a par of Icon's UCA (tubular steel) to go with the level.

The Bronco suspension geometry is not a whole let different than the previous IFS F-150s I've had in the past. There's only so much lift you can add before you start pushing the design limits for axle shafts. From everything I was seeing for the Bronco I was unsure why the typical puck/spacer type arrangement wouldn't work on a Wildtrak, since the only differences I could see were the strut and the spring on other Sasquatch offerings. I thought I'd try and sort it out once I got the suspension apart.

A few weeks back I was doing some engine mods that were more easily accommodated having the inner fenders off the truck. I ran into a few snags on those parts, so my time allotment ran over and I needed to get the truck back together, so I went ahead and installed the UCAs while the inner fenders were removed. I would make access easier and those stupid little inner fender clips drove me nuts, so I didn't care go through that again. I'd tackle the lift aspect later

To my surprise, the UCAs dropped the height of the front end and added an extreme amount of negative camber to the OEM suspension. I think the camber change had more to do with the decrease in height, but that made doing something on the front all the more urgent.

With a little relief provided by some cooler, drier weather, I had roughly 2" of height I needed to restore to level this truck. I had decided I was going to add the RPG 1.5" perch collar and one of the 4 discs that mounted on top of the strut on each strut from the RC kit. If advertised ride height adjustments were to be believed, I would be adding something in the 1.5" to 2" range.

Rough Country's level kit is similar to Zone's in that they use a spacer at the base of the strut and a disc on top of the strut mount. There only so much you can add to either end and Rough Country uses two thinner discs to Zone's single thicker disc. I don't have Zone's product, so I can't compare them. RC's two discs allow for a little less "level" if you didn't need a whole inch. These discs also fit on the rear strut mount, so I figured I could add the other disc to the rear if my rake switch ends.

After removing the strut and separating it from the spring, I have no clue why RC says it won't fit a Wildtrak. It absolutely will. However, I also discovered something I didn't like with the bottom spacer that is provided with the spacer lift. RC, and I suspect Zone does too from the youtube video I watched, is that the two studs at the base of the stut are to be pushed out of the bottom mounting bar of the strut. The stud is held in place by a larger knurled end that is pushed into the strut bottom mount. The stud diameter is a 12mm bolt size, but the knurl would be a larger diameter more like 14mm. I don't like the fact that they use a longer 12mm through a larger diameter hole to hold the base of the strut in place. I would feel much better if they provided a bushing to fit in the knurled area to take up the excess hole diameter. But the level kit is sparce and cheap to do a minimal amount of work to get some amount of marginal lift.

What I ended up doing was just adding the RPG perch and one disc to my strut. The camber issue is resolved within reasonable limits and I have yet to check toe. However, I'm liable to let Ford do an alignment. I'm guessing I got ~1.5" of lift out of this setup.

I'm sure everyone is more interested in what it did to the plush Hoss 3.0 ride. The preload on the spring did increase the spring rate. I've read some say this is a progressive rate spring. It is not. The preload makes It a little stiffer, which I'd guess at about a 10%-15% increase with a lot less body roll. I think the poly bushings in the UCA is also a little less forgiving than the squishy rubber factory bushing too which also firms up the ride. While I earlier installed a Hellwig rear bar on my rig because it had so much body roll, it still had more than I cared for with the rear bar. The ride is no where as harsh as my brother's Outer Bank's Sasquatch in stock trim. It's about perfect for me. And while adding weight back there will reverse any rake, I don't use my truck to haul a lot of weight. I do have the "towing capability" option which likely adds higher spring rates out back too.

I did not not do a very good job of getting before ride heights and I was not expecting the drop from the UCA which really caught me off guard. I'll post where they are now, but I don't have that handy at the moment.

 

[Strykerwsu]

When I bought the truck a year ago, I was looking to level it because it had a lot of rake and while I'm not rake averse, this was over an an inch. I bought the Rough Country leveling kit before they added a note that it didn't fit Hoss 3.0 models. I read some had success with a 2.5" lift that Rough Country made but I wasn't really looking to add more height, as I have no intention of going to a taller tire. I got all that out of my system 30 years ago. I ended up getting a RPG 1.5" perch and then we had the heat dome issues over the South and I gave up doing anything until things cooled down. I also got a par of Icon's UCA (tubular steel) to go with the level.

The Bronco suspension geometry is not a whole let different than the previous IFS F-150s I've had in the past. There's only so much lift you can add before you start pushing the design limits for axle shafts. From everything I was seeing for the Bronco I was unsure why the typical puck/spacer type arrangement wouldn't work on a Wildtrak, since the only differences I could see were the strut and the spring on other Sasquatch offerings. I thought I'd try and sort it out once I got the suspension apart.

A few weeks back I was doing some engine mods that were more easily accommodated having the inner fenders off the truck. I ran into a few snags on those parts, so my time allotment ran over and I needed to get the truck back together, so I went ahead and installed the UCAs while the inner fenders were removed. I would make access easier and those stupid little inner fender clips drove me nuts, so I didn't care go through that again. I'd tackle the lift aspect later

To my surprise, the UCAs dropped the height of the front end and added an extreme amount of negative camber to the OEM suspension. I think the camber change had more to do with the decrease in height, but that made doing something on the front all the more urgent.

With a little relief provided by some cooler, drier weather, I had roughly 2" of height I needed to restore to level this truck. I had decided I was going to add the RPG 1.5" perch collar and one of the 4 discs that mounted on top of the strut on each strut from the RC kit. If advertised ride height adjustments were to be believed, I would be adding something in the 1.5" to 2" range.

Rough Country's level kit is similar to Zone's in that they use a spacer at the base of the strut and a disc on top of the strut mount. There only so much you can add to either end and Rough Country uses two thinner discs to Zone's single thicker disc. I don't have Zone's product, so I can't compare them. RC's two discs allow for a little less "level" if you didn't need a whole inch. These discs also fit on the rear strut mount, so I figured I could add the other disc to the rear if my rake switch ends.

After removing the strut and separating it from the spring, I have no clue why RC says it won't fit a Wildtrak. It absolutely will. However, I also discovered something I didn't like with the bottom spacer that is provided with the spacer lift. RC, and I suspect Zone does too from the youtube video I watched, is that the two studs at the base of the stut are to be pushed out of the bottom mounting bar of the strut. The stud is held in place by a larger knurled end that is pushed into the strut bottom mount. The stud diameter is a 12mm bolt size, but the knurl would be a larger diameter more like 14mm. I don't like the fact that they use a longer 12mm through a larger diameter hole to hold the base of the strut in place. I would feel much better if they provided a bushing to fit in the knurled area to take up the excess hole diameter. But the level kit is sparce and cheap to do a minimal amount of work to get some amount of marginal lift.

What I ended up doing was just adding the RPG perch and one disc to my strut. The camber issue is resolved within reasonable limits and I have yet to check toe. However, I'm liable to let Ford do an alignment. I'm guessing I got ~1.5" of lift out of this setup.

I'm sure everyone is more interested in what it did to the plush Hoss 3.0 ride. The preload on the spring did increase the spring rate. I've read some say this is a progressive rate spring. It is not. The preload makes It a little stiffer, which I'd guess at about a 10%-15% increase with a lot less body roll. I think the poly bushings in the UCA is also a little less forgiving than the squishy rubber factory bushing too which also firms up the ride. While I earlier installed a Hellwig rear bar on my rig because it had so much body roll, it still had more than I cared for with the rear bar. The ride is no where as harsh as my brother's Outer Bank's Sasquatch in stock trim. It's about perfect for me. And while adding weight back there will reverse any rake, I don't use my truck to haul a lot of weight. I do have the "towing capability" option which likely adds higher spring rates out back too.

I did not not do a very good job of getting before ride heights and I was not expecting the drop from the UCA which really caught me off guard. I'll post where they are now, but I don't have that handy at the moment.

Is this the RC kit you bought?

 

[CatMonkey]

Is this the RC kit you bought?

Yes. The thickness of the individual components are .29" on the round discs and .265" on the bottom spacer. So the total sum of the parts added .625" to the strut using both discs and the bottom spacer. That measurement translates to about a 50% increase in ride height at the tire to get the advertised 1" level. The 1.5" perch decreased .625" of compressed spring height. Whether or not that provides a 50% increase in ride height is the same, I'm not sure. But to get to 1.5" you have to more than double that measurement. Preloading the spring could do that, but it doesn't seem most of the spring perches installs posted here reach the actual advertised increase in ride height. Add in the other single disc and it has the potential to add another .29" to the strut assembly at ride height and .44" at the tire. With both discs you're at the top of the stud where you can use the full thread contact with the nuts.

Bottom line is I don't think the perch alone added 1.5" of ride height. Likely more than an inch, but something less than 1.25". Using both discs and the 1.5" perch would seem to lift the front higher than the rear. I see Zone's new 2.25 lift for the Hoss 3.0 takes a similar approach, but adds a bigger puck on top of the strut mount to push the a total add of 2.5" of ride height up front. I think their perch and RPG's smallest perch are fairly close to the same height.

 

[Strykerwsu]

Appreciate the feedback. I have a winch with rock sliders. Getting ready to install takeoff 3.0. I already had bought the 1.5 perch for front. With this kit it sounds like I will still have rake but that's OK, just didn't want super droopy in front.

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