Hey Scotty I have a 99 ford ranger with 87,000 miles and I want to lift it and throw bigger tires on it. Can i still do it and have it be a reliable truck?
gianni from montana
Hey Scotty I have a 99 ford ranger with 87,000 miles and I want to lift it and throw bigger tires on it. Can i still do it and have it be a reliable truck?
Why do you want to lift your truck? Mechanical engineers designed your truck to be stable at the stock ride height. Lifting it will lessen its stability and could cause it to tip over more easily. I have a 1999 Ranger Off-Road package. It came with a lift from the factory. The same engineers designed it to ride like that and the drive shaft is more or less even with the differential. Lifting it produces an awkward angle that will prematurely cause wear to the transmission, driveshaft, and differential.
You're also altering the gearing of the truck by increasing the tire size. The transmission would need to work harder to drive the truck, lessening its reliability.
The Ford Explorer during that period was also built on a Ford Ranger chassis and the more top heavy Explorer caused many tipovers.
Why the downvote? All of what I said is true.
Can i still do it and have it be a reliable truck?
Maybe if it's really mild mod, and you don't push it.
But most of the time ... no. People usually buy cheap off the shelf parts without giving any thought to engineering or reinforcement, so it's going to break and wear out more often.
