Spacer Lift for Dummies 2023rev

[Snacktime]

Hope to put everything in one place for what we know about spacers lifts. This is an update to what was previously thought since we are now a couple of years in.

We have the cv axle thread and travel here if you want aftermarket shocks!
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/some-stock-suspension-calculations-and-measurements.73917/
Front Differential thread here (cv axle comparison inside)
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/front-differential-discussion.79723/

SAS-Bronco's/Broncos with a factory front locker
What we have learned, you can add a 1" spacer (1.6" of physical lift) to SAS-Shock and be in the safe zone. This means your fine running all Zone lift and Icon spacer lift on a SAS-Bronco. The rest of the lift has to come from collar or spring side spacer. SAS-Bronco has a physically bigger cv axle with deeper cups allowing for safe operation. Once you exceed this you should be carrying spare cv-axles.

NON-SAS Bronco(every bronco that doesn't have a front locker)
You can run a 1.4" spacer (2" of physical lift) you however are not in the safe zone! The smaller cv axles are nearing over extension and tend to have the issues(internal moving parts can touch the retaining ring causing it to come loose and poke a hole in the cv-boot). Almost all the manufactures are providing this 2" of physical in the form of a spacer, a certain percentage will have issues. Safe zone for the stock Hitachi shocks is actual in the 1" spacer area(1.6" of physical lift) this is more in line with a leveling kit like Zone or Rough Country. This is where the ICON 3" lift is a good option if you want more lift, it comes with a 1" spacer and a spring spacer.

Facts
Spacer lift will increase your CV-Axle angles at ride height and at max droop. Both decrease the life of the CV-Axle and increase the chance of failure. The harder you wheel the more likely you will damage a cv-axle with a spacer lift.

Upper Control Arms
Upper control arms serve to purposes at this stage. One is to help with alignment and the other is to help pull the CV-Axle in a little(help get the lower a-arm adjuster back to a more normal setting). This is why most lifts recommended the control arms. Don't ask me which ones to buy as I am still trying to figure out which ones are worth the money. Upper Control arms are not required for this level of lift.

Footnote
I define safe as your not going to drastically increase your chances of failure. This is in line with what I would recommend without fear of retaliation and internet trolling in the future. My education has been my own person experience with M190, Hitachi's, 5100s and stacking spacers(I have had zone 1.4" pucks, zone 1" pucks and rough country leveling kit).

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[87-Z28]

Another way to define SAFE would be to reference design limits. It has become more clear that the design limits are tight and very close to what is described here. Exceeding these limits drastically reduces your factor if safety and can cause premature failure. Thus doesn’t mean impending doom, just increased risk of failure depending how hard you push

Many of us are going to push the design limits regardless. This merely defines those limits more clearly.

 

[Aonarch]

Just say no to a spacer lift. You lose precious down travel with a spacer lift (Not total travel, that is the same as without spacers). You can bottom out the coilovers, you add additional stress to the ball joints, binding the UCA ball joint is terrible, UCAs are not designed to handle the vehicles weight, they only help locate the wheel.

Now to contradiction myself, a small spacer lift is fine. I have .5" thick spacers on my Ranger to bring the nose back up and probably will do the same on my Bronco. But these 2-3" spacers are ridiculous. Remember, you basically double the thickness of the top hat spacer to figure out how much lift it provides.

You also put more stress on the coilover, a ton of Toyota Tacoma people ended up bending/ destroying their coilovers running spacers, because you are effectively lengthening your coilover, but not adding additional bump stop length, nor adding total travel. Not sure if that will be a problem with the Bronco, but those coilovers and front end design are very similar to the Sasquatch shocks and the Bronco.

 

[PWillette]

SAS-Bronco's
What we have learned, you can add a 1" spacer (1.6" of physical lift) to SAS-Shock and be in the safe zone. This means your fine running all Zone lift and Icon spacer lift on a SAS-Bronco. The rest of the lift has to come from collar or spring side spacer. SAS-Bronco has a physically bigger cv axle with deeper cups allowing for safe operation. Once you exceed this you should be carrying spare cv-axles.

Just for clarification...is it just SAS that has the bigger CV axle w/ deeper cups or is it the 4.70 gears in general?

 

[Snacktime]

Just for clarification...is it just SAS that has the bigger CV axle w/ deeper cups or is it the 4.70 gears in general?

It's the deeper cups that allow the axle to have more droop before touching the internal retaining ring.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

SAS-Bronco's

NON-SAS Bronco(every bronco that doesn't have a front locker)

Where would Non-Squatch Badlands place?
I'd think in the Squatch category, but it does have it's own peculiarities.

 

[PWillette]

It's the deeper cups that allow the axle to have more droop before touching the internal retaining ring.

Agreed on the deeper cups allowing more droop. Let me rephrase my question...Are the deeper cups exclusive to SAS or are they the same on all that have 4.70 gears? I'm non-SAS BL 7mt w/ 4.70s...I assumed all w/ 4.70 gears (SAS or non-SAS) would have the same axles?

 

[HPNQ420]

Hope to put everything in one place for what we know about spacers lifts. This is an update to what was previously thought since we are now a couple of years in...

A bit off-topic, but related...

I have a BD. It did some trails that I thought not possible at the WI Bronco Super Celebration. But, there was one point I couldn't top a climb because I was getting high centered and if I sent it too hard I could have gone off the trail on the other side. Also, I was dragging my skid plates a ton. Otherwise I was going everywhere the Sasquatch Bronco were going, sometimes easier because I had more experience with tire placement. I figured 1.5" of extra belly clearance would do it.

My plan is to go with 1" of lift with coil-overs like the Bilstein 5100's and run 33's instead of 32's in the summer. I need to drive to Manitoba several times per year and also need to make the Milwaukee-Chicago commute at least four times per month. I want to keep the smaller tires for the winter (eventually to be replaced with dedicated winter tires but I want to use up at least a bit of the stock Generals). Eventually I might add the M210 but I don't think I really need the front locker.

Do you have an opinion of how safe this is?

 

[Snacktime]

Agreed on the deeper cups allowing more droop. Let me rephrase my question...Are the deeper cups exclusive to SAS or are they the same on all that have 4.70 gears? I'm non-SAS BL 7mt w/ 4.70s...I assumed all w/ 4.70 gears (SAS or non-SAS) would have the same axles?

Your SAS just not the actual package. Let me update the thread a little. You have the bigger CVs which come with 4.46/4.70 badlands with front locking diffs.

A bit off-topic, but related...

I have a BD. It did some trails that I thought not possible at the WI Bronco Super Celebration. But, there was one point I couldn't top a climb because I was getting high centered and if I sent it too hard I could have gone off the trail on the other side. Also, I was dragging my skid plates a ton. Otherwise I was going everywhere the Sasquatch Bronco were going, sometimes easier because I had more experience with tire placement. I figured 1.5" of extra belly clearance would do it.

My plan is to go with 1" of lift with coil-overs like the Bilstein 5100's and run 33's instead of 32's in the summer. I need to drive to Manitoba several times per year and also need to make the Milwaukee-Chicago commute at least four times per month. I want to keep the smaller tires for the winter (eventually to be replaced with dedicated winter tires but I want to use up at least a bit of the stock Generals). Eventually I might add the M210 but I don't think I really need the front locker.

Do you have an opinion of how safe this is?

Bilsteins(5100, 6100 and SAS Shocks are all the same length) are 100% safe, they are only 1/2" ish longer than Hitachies and will not put your CVs out of range on M190 differential. I was extremely happy with them over stock.

 

[PWillette]

Your SAS just not the actual package. Let me update the thread a little. You have the bigger CVs which come with 4.46/4.70 badlands with front locking diffs.

Thanks for the clarification my man and thanks for the detailed threads, great stuff.

 

[dgorsett]

A bit off-topic, but related...

I have a BD. It did some trails that I thought not possible at the WI Bronco Super Celebration. But, there was one point I couldn't top a climb because I was getting high centered and if I sent it too hard I could have gone off the trail on the other side. Also, I was dragging my skid plates a ton. Otherwise I was going everywhere the Sasquatch Bronco were going, sometimes easier because I had more experience with tire placement. I figured 1.5" of extra belly clearance would do it.

My plan is to go with 1" of lift with coil-overs like the Bilstein 5100's and run 33's instead of 32's in the summer. I need to drive to Manitoba several times per year and also need to make the Milwaukee-Chicago commute at least four times per month. I want to keep the smaller tires for the winter (eventually to be replaced with dedicated winter tires but I want to use up at least a bit of the stock Generals). Eventually I might add the M210 but I don't think I really need the front locker.

Do you have an opinion of how safe this is?

Take @Snacktime s council. He knows of what he speaks. I have the 5100s on a non Sas Big Bend set at 1.5" up front and 1.75" in the rear, and I'm still running 32 inch tires (Falken Rubitrek). i find it near ideal, getting the sprung components up a bit while not having a giant tire. Next round of tires will probably be 33"s if I can find the one I like.

 

[BroncoRebelRunner]

I have a non-Sasquatch Black Diamond that I just threw some Sasquatch takeoff’s on, along with an MZS Tuning 1” front spacer lift. In the rear I threw what was about a 5/8” spacer that came with the takeoffs, hoping to not completely eliminate the rake. I also threw a set of Spidertrax 1.25” wheel spacers on in preparation for 35’s in the, hopefully, near future. I still have the stock Generals on for now.

I could’ve sworn I read that I was at the max safe zone with that setup, but now am reading that it is the max safe zone for an M210 equipped Bronco. The shocks were from a SAS 2.7 Badlands, so my front is probably a little higher than it should be (I plan to add a winch down the road, so I figured I’d be fine with these shocks now). After installation I’m measuring insanely high. I measured 4” higher than stock in the front and 2” in the rear (both in my hub to fender flare and floor to fender flare). I’m really hoping that is some sort of measuring mistake. My garage is heavily pitched towards the drain the the center, so that may have thrown my stock measurements off.

I know that the suspension will likely settle quite a bit. I drove it around a bit, intentionally loading and unloading the suspension as much as possible. Im at the alignment shop now, but how much am I in the danger zone and need to take some of those spacers out? Has anyone seen that much additional lift out of a spacer and shock lift that settled out?

edit to add: @Snacktime if I need to reduce the amount of lift from currently 2.1” ( 1.1” from shocks plus 1” from spacers, of which there is one plate below the lower shock mount and two equal thickness plates above the top hat) to 1.4”, that would mean removing 2 of the tree plates, correct? If I can get away with only removing one, which would be easier to remove in your experience?

 

[Snacktime]

@BroncoRebelRunner

So SAS shocks are roughly 5/8" longer and you added 5/8" or so of spacers. I would pull 1 to 2 spacers of the 3 spacers you used the leveling kit. I would pull 2 spacers if you plan to wheel. 1 spacer if you just plan to daily drive.

I ran the same setup for 2-3 trips before doing a differential drop. Just with 5100s instead of SAS shocks which are the same length.

 

[BroncoDymond88]

What about the Hoss 3.0 on the Wildtrak? Seems like it’s an inch or two lower than the others. What’s the safest way to get an extra inch on the Hoss 3.0?

 

[FreddieLee]

What about the Hoss 3.0 on the Wildtrak? Seems like it’s an inch or two lower than the others. What’s the safest way to get an extra inch on the Hoss 3.0?

Don't know why you keep saying that, but the Wildtrak sits just as tall as all other Bilstein-equipped Sasquatch models.

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