Newbie hear to the forum. I have an '04 SE S/C and love it. I have had it for 2 years and so far the mods have only been a 10lb pulley, up from the stock 4lb., boost gauge, and billet grilles. I have been going off-road a lot more than I have ever had to. I have a cabin in N. Wisconsin and the stock BFG's don't cut it in deep mud and snow. Last winter I buried 'er up to the frame in a mud/snow mix and luckily was able to use my floor mats to get it our with the help of 2 random snowmobilers passing by.

So here is my dilemma. I just bought a set of 285/70/17 Goodyear MT/R's off ebay so I can actually get through the mess of Chicago and N. WI snow and mud. I was told they would fit by my local NTB store, I had doubts but bought them anyway. Turns out they won't fit. What is the cheapest way to get these puppies on? Shackle lift? I am not a big fan of body lifts because of the strain thaty can put on the body mount area. I used to have a '71 CJ7 and I built a '71 Bronco with my bro that has a 6" lift.

But what is a AAL? and a PML?? I really don't want to butcher my X to throw on these tires.

You should go down to the tires forum and get alot of answers about your question. But the easy answer is that is almost a 33" tire (32.71"). They wont fit on a stock X as you will get lots of rubbing.

To fit them, the most appropriate action even though you dont like it is to do a Body lift (2") that gives room for the 33's. You could complement that with a PML (Poor Mans Lift) consisting of either longer shackles OR Add A Leafs in the rear and crank of the torsion bars up front to give you 1.5" of suspension lift.

If you are opposed to the BL, then a 32" tire is more appropriate for you. Good luck

That doesn't make sense to me... how does a body lifted truck place any more stress on the body mounts (or anywhere else) than a stock truck? There are a ton of us with body lifts and I haven't heard any complaints from anyone.

Those tires are basically 33's (32.7"x11.2" according to the tire size calculator I found). I assume they rub on the front when you turn all the way?

A 3" suspension or a 3" body lift will help - and then you can trim the fenders like this to stop any rubbing that you still have:


ETA: Or - you could Re-ebay 'em (Rebay?) and get some 31's.

Thanks for the PML and AAL ?. All I know is that for my Jeep, it was not good to go with too much of a body lift. 2" I would do, but I heard anything 3" or higher on the body, you have to start screwing with stuff. No thanks. Not worth it. I might have to ReBay these.

cash is really tight right now and the snow is about to start flying here in Chicago so I need to get some more aggressive rubber on the X.

Thanks Skaggs and Kaiser

The 2" body lift is really no big deal to do, you aren't having to mess with anything aside from making sure when you are lifting the body off the frame, nothing is getting caught.

The 3" BL requires a lot more work, extending shifter and steering linkage etc etc.

I'd trade you my basically new (Less then 1500 miles on them) Trxus MT/R 31's on 15" rims (will fit your truck no problem, no rubbing etc) for your 33"s if I had enough money to get the body lift at the same time.

But then we'd be dealing with shipping and all that cross-border BS. Mind you, you're only in Chicago, that's not that far from me, so...

The thing is I love my wheels and want to keep those. I always get compliments on them and they are one of the reasons I bought the S/C in the 1st place. One of the guys on here (Wolfman) has a 3" lift that he is selling. I might take that off his hands. I would love to jack this puppy up, but this is going from buying new tires to spending $2-3K project. I guess it is just a matter of me biting the bullet and spending the money now or later. Do you have pics of your tires and wheel set up you can email me? Where do you live?

Thanks,
Jason

ive always liked the 17 inch xterra wheels.

Me too, but tires for them are waaay to expensive.

yeah they can be, but if that's the look your going after then that's a decision the owner would have to deal with. i personally hate it when people say shit like "dont by tires for those 17"s there too expensive you should 15"s instead" its not your money so who gives a fuck. like purchasing a new set of rims is gonna be a significant monetary difference than buyin the 17" tires for the wheels you already have.

You can probably get away with those tires with just a 2" body lift and a little trimming if you stick with the stock wheels (a lot of people switch to steel rockcrawler wheels with less backspacing - so they stick out further.... if you do that you have to have more lift to clear a given set of tires because they don't tuck up into the wheel wells).

You can get it from http://www.4x4parts.com pretty cheap.

The instructions on the 2" suck though. Any local X club guys in his area that can help him slap the lift on?

AHTOXA one of xoc's "premiere body lift pimps" would be more than happy to help him a BL. and he lives in chicago.

:p

I guess that would make me a lift Ho. $5 a ride, $10 any fing you waaan. I am in the NW burbs about 5 min. away from Woodfield mall. How the hell does it work with lifting the front using the torsion bars. I have never owned a vehicle with these before. Everything has always been either spring or coil and if you wanted to jack 'er up, you bought bigger ones and bolted them on. Also, with this, I am going to need a caster/camber kit? I needed to put one on my mustang when I dropped it 2" and it was a bi@tch and a half to put on. All I am seeing right now are dollar signs. Crap. Gotta pay to play though right?? And might as well do it right the first time

the body lift kit is about $150-200 (i think)

cranking the tbars to lift the front is easy, do a search and you will find instructions.

no camber/caster kit needed.

have you joined midwestxterraowners.com yet?

Just did.

You must have me confused with someone else.

But, SupaXSE, if you need help with a BL, then I can help you install it.

EDIT: We need a pimp smiley on here.

AHTOXA, where do you live? How long would it take? Also, how does the flowmaster sound on your X? I have one laying around in my garage I want to weld on. Where should I get the BL from? FYI, I have a kegerator with ice cold miller lite in it. All you can drink. It usually helps out on all my projects.

nope not at all. truth hurts sometimes.

SupaX, you can get the Body Lift from Automotive customizers

Install takes around 5 hours or so with 2 people doing it. So far I have done 2. Mine and a fellow X owner from the club. Most of the work is actual prep work and loosening stuff. You can find my write up on how to do it in the Backyard Mechanic section on here.

I live on the north side of Chicago, basically by Lincolnwood and only 10 mins away from Skokie. I work out in Mundelein (way north) so I'm all over the place, usually.

If you need help with anything let me know.

P.S. My flowmaster sounds great. I have the flowmaster original 40 series. I've had it for over a year now. Sounds nice and deep without too much drone on the highway. It sounds aggressive but not intrusive. Same muffler is a lot more agressive with an intake on, however.

So if anything, let us know. Maybe we can make a mod day or something, if people need to get work done on their trucks. That way everyone helps one another, drinks beer and has fun.

That's it!!!

Bastard!

Thanks. I will let you know when the tires come in. I will probably order the lift tonight. Should I just get these, some 1.5" shackles from Calmini and crank on the torsion bar and call it a day? or go with the full 3" lift from WolfmanX? I don't know about buying a used lift kit though. Thoughts? 3" lift and 2" body woud be so sweet with the 33" MT/R's. Oooooooooooo.

I run the 1.5" shackle lift with cranced torsion bars (PML- poor man's lift) with a 2" Body lift. See pic in my profile. I run 33x12.5x15 tires. no problems.

If you get a full 3" lift, you will need a steering kit, which is expensive, but without it you will wear out your steering fast. 1.5" PML does not require a steering kit.

You can do 1.5" now and you can add the whole 3" lift later if you deside, as you will be using the parts that you already get for the 1.5" lift.

If you go the route of the PML for nowm you will need to get an alignment after the install, that's it. Otherwise the shackles are gonna cost you just $50.

SupaXSE, which suburb are you in?

Palatine. Nice looking truck. I appreciate everyone help on this. And remember... pimpin' aint easy, so keep you pimp hand strong. Respect.

Any place else I should check out for shackles or body lift or is this my best bet and best bang for my buck? Will cranking on the torsion bar wear out the center link?

AC (automotive customizers) are the only ones that are selling the BL.

SLR shackles, they'll run you about 20 bucks more than the Calmini ones, but in my opinion they're built a whole hellvua lot stronger.

What is you backspacing on your rims?

I run stock 15" rims from a '00 X on my '02. Looks great too! I didn't wanna mess with an offset and cutting so I bought those from SteelX

Seen anyone break either of the shackles? I haven't, so I think both are pretty damn strong. I know mine (Calmin) got beat by some rocks and are still fine, aside from the peeled off powdercoat.

OK, just ordered the body lift. Should be here in a few days along with the tires. When are we doing this??

Just went to SLR and I only see shackles for the '00 - '02 and they are the same price. 50 bones??

They are all the same from '00 to '04.

The SLR's definitely look beefier. But I do like the powdercoating on the Calminis. Hmmm.

OK, just ordered the SLR's with the Poly bushings. I am a superfan of the poor mans lift.
Thanks guys!!

AHTOXA, if you are serious about helping out, that would be sweet since you know what you are doing. Do you have a garage we can do this in if so? Mine has 2 cars and 2 motorcycles in it put away for winter storage. Otherwise, we can work on it in my driveway or I can ask one of my friends. Let me know when you would be available and how much you want for your time.

Thanks,
Jason

i was thinking the same thing when i read that.

I'm off this coming Sunday, if you get it by then. If not, I can do Sat. the 28th.

SupaXSE, I don't want anything for my time, that's not what the MXO is about. We help one another. A few beers and everyone's happy. Maybe we can have a mod day this way.

I don't have a garage to do this, since I live in Chicago in an appartment building. I can come out to your place, it's not that far.

ford blue spray paint. practically the same color. $3 at wal-mart, problem solved.

I am about 15 miles from you. Straight shot down 90 to 53 north and I am right there. Easy. I really appreciate it. I will let you know when I get the goods.

Thanks,
Jason

SteelX, you're a genius.

Gotta jet. Later guys.

PM me on MXO, Jason, when your stuff comes in.

I'm 02terra on there.

Damn, that was fast! He went from simply wanting new tires to a BL and a PML in 4 seconds flat!

Yea, the guy's got some stones, and I guess what most of us don't have that want to do mods: cash on hand.

Thats because we wheel and break shit.. Then we have to fix that and can't do any mods.. Trust me im in this circle right now..

Hawaii, watched your video climbing, cool stuff. I hope you appreciate where you live. It could be worse. You could live in Chicago where it is flat, and conjested, and cold and windy. As far as money goes, I am not broke, but far from having cash to burn. Tires were only $500, BL - $200, Shackles - $70 - $770 bucks for 4 new tires and a 4" lift, not bad!!!!!!

I will be doing this project next weekend (28th and 29th) I snap some pics. Hopefully AHOXA can help out.

You are exactly right! In the grand scheme of things, that is the best and cheapest way to get good lift and good ground clearance with those 33's You got a good plan there.

Plus, you can run that for a while and if you decide you want to SAS, you wont have wasted all that cash on an IFS lift.

BL is on. Thanks Tony and Kris.

Always glad to help.

Alright, fixed the front bumper and the rear bumper is on despite hitting the tow hitch. What a p.i.t.a. It all turned out great though and looks stock except for the bottom plastic cover piece to the front bumper that is 2" lower than it should be, still looks good though. I had to dr-drill the holes in the rear and it took some time to get them to line up. My measurements were just a tad off so I had to dremel them out. I also had to cut out 2 sections on the bottom of the rear bumper to make room for the hitch. If SLR would get me my shackles after ordering them over 2 weeks ago and they still haven't even shipped them, I could be done with this project. The KC Daylighters are going on tomorrow along with the Calmini bracket.

Awesome, you already go the idler arm brace?

I ordered it right after you emailed me. I was planning on getting one anyways. Cheap insurance. They said it should be here tomorrow but who knows.

Alright, lights are on. the wife hates them and is embarassed to drive my X so I took off the smiley covers for her. Whatever. Still no bracket and still no word on the F-ing shackles. 3 weeks and counting and they haven't even been shipped? WTF? Last time I buy anything from SLR.

any pics Jason?

Where'd you get the lights and the light bar? I'm looking into that as well.

Got the lights off eBay and just mounted them to the front bumper. There are only 2 for now so I did not want to put them up top. I think that looks better with 4 up there. Just used the extra brackets from the BL to mount them. They look great and work great. 50 bones of ebay. They are like brand new. SLR has still not shipped the shackles yet. I might give them a call right now to cancel the order. This is nuts.

Been a while. Keep in mind though, that a lot of after market companies that most X owners deal with here first receive the order and then make the parts (like bumpers or whatever). They may not have a big warehouse to store a lot of pre-made stuff. I dunno...

I don't think it took me that long to get shackles from Calmini, though.

SLR makes them as orders come in, I guess its not as easy for you East coasters to just drive out and pick them up...

SLR actually build things such as shackles in batches. When they put together the next set of ten orders they get built and then sent off to powder coat. As is the case here, they are often held up by their material vendors and powder coaters.

This batch has been built and is at powder coat and just waiting to be finished there.

Got the shackles today

MXO Mod day!!! Jason needs shackles installed and I need a PML. Too bad this weather is going into the shitter... Heated garage anyone?

I'm up for a mod day! I can always help out.

Count me in. Sound like both of you guys will be doing a PML.

I might be able to work on them in my friends garage. It is not heated but it stays warm for some reason. Brand new 11,000 sq. ft house. with a good sized 3+ car garage. I will let you guys know. Otherwise, there is always my driveway. I need a bigger garage. Maybe next summer I can bulldoze mine and rebuild. That is the plan if I can swing it cash wise. Plan on Sat.

Yeah. Outside isn't gonna work no more.

We're expecting up to 8 inches of snow on Friday. Can't wait!

Yup!! Suppossed to hit around midnight. Nothing like staying out late and hitting the streets before the plows get to them. Good times. I wish I had my tires on. Planning on Sat, missed it by 1 day. Tony, did you ever get lights?

No, I did not get lights yet. My buddy's got a pair of HELLA 500s or 550s laying around. But they don't have the mount to them. I need to see where I can find the mounts and how much they are, then we'll see if I wanna get them or not. I have not decided yet.

For now I'm in process of getting full skids for my truck.

PML is officially done!! About friggin' time. Thank god for heated/well insulated garages. It is now 9 degrees out with 12 in. of snow. I had to make some adjustments to the t bars on Sun morning. SUCKED!!!

Before the KC Daylighters



After the KCs



BL, already on thanks to Tony and Kris. Now just working on the shackles and T-bars in my friend's garage...
Before the T-bar crank...



After the T-bar crank.



Shackles...



PML is done with the 2"BL. Now just waiting to put on my tires. I am supposed to be doing it today but I got called into work.




Next mods will be the tires obviously. They are actually in the back of the X just waiting, hopefully an ARB bumper, aftermarket shocks, and I still need to put on the Calmini idler arm brace that is sitting in my basement.

Truck looks great - resize the pics to 640x480 before you get flamed down to a tiny pile of ash.

The before/after the PML pics must have been before/after both the PML and the body lift, right? That's a HUGE amount of lift for a pml..

Resizing them now. I had already done the BL, just never took pictures of it. My wife lost our camera so I had to buy a new one. So these are the pics of the PML with the BL on.

Get the tires on soon, I wanna see pics with the tires, Jason.

Yeah, me too. I just can't catch a break. You can kinda see them in the last pictures through the rear window. All four of them are in there and they barely fit.

What are those tubular things below the doors?

Looks good.

Ahhh yes. Those wonder pieces of plastic (side rails/steps) are there for my lovely wife to get in and out of the X with. She drives it in the winter while her car is in storage. I get the joy of walking to the train station and driving it on the weekends and I take it out in the summer every now and then. As soon as I can cough up $400 bucks for some shrocks, they will be on. Just not a priority right now.

I need to wash all the salt off too. It looks like crap. Not as clean as bpc's.

By the way, that yellow corvette in the background on some of those pictures is a work in progress. New block, new drivetrain, going with a HUGE single turbo set up. Looking to push 800+ hp. It is going to be a monster and the guy is not even 21 yet! Nice first car.

Bump

Where are the pics with the new mtr's dude!

OK. Here's the pics of the MTR's on and the truck freshly washed. I couldn't get the Calmini brace on. The bolts are rusted on & I didn't feel like busting them off.



Had to trim the plastic a little on the front.

Looks good, except for the stupid step rails.



Just take them off w/o replacing them with Shrocks.

It will look much better, and, the wife will love the extra excersize she gets jumping in and out of the truck.

My wife even developed decent hang time.



That way - when she bitches about it...mention that shrock makes steps/sliders specifically for X's with 2" BL's, and you love her so much, you will get them for her right away.

She's lookin' good! Yeah, the rails gotta go.

nice....easy on the tire shine!

I know, I know. I don't really have $300 bucks to spend on sliders right now. Just got my CC bill. Yikes, and I haven't even started XMas shopping yet! I am very happy with the tires though. They ride great, and are not noisy at all. Granted, they are louder than the stockers, but I am surprised at how little they humm when going down the road.

Did you guys have a hard time getting the nuts off to put on your idler arm braces? Those F-ing things are on there good!! I had a 3ft. piece of pipe on my ratchet and they started to budge but you could tell they didn't want to and I didn't want to risk snapping them.

How was Dave and Busters?

33's?

Its free to take off the step rails...not $300.



Oh, and pre-soak the nuts in nut blaster, it works better than wd-40, etc....a week of that, and they should come off w/o stripping, etc.

33's, yup. The wife seriously has a hard time getting in so we'll see. Check out the buy/sell section assholes.

Yeah, I was already soaking them with PB blaster. The last thing I need is to break something on this. Our only vehicle right now.

I never have a hard time getting my nuts off.

On a serious note, though, those nuts are hard to get off and you might need to use PB blaster once or twice.

Keep in mind that you will need two rathets. One on the bold and one on the nut on the other side, otherwise it will just spin in place.

Also, when you put the brace on there, the bottom big washer that's on there now has to go. The brace is designed to be used without it.

ETA: see our MXO thread regarding D&B. Basically it was just me, BPC and his wife out there.

You shouldn't breed with short women...then the kids are short too, and then THEY'LL want steps to get in as well....nip this sort of thing in the bud, marry tall women.

Well I'm 6'3" and she's 5'8" so I think we'll be fine.

Hell, I have to grab the sterring wheel to kind pull myself in. I put in the all season floor mats and those suckers are slick! Doesn't help the situation.

The secret is to approach the opening at a 45 degree angle, and just do a short sideways hop onto the seat so your legs slide under the steering wheel, and your butt clears the seat.

You don't even NEED a step if you are over 5' tall and in reasonable health.

At 5'8", your wife should be able to leap 4" into the air, so her butt clears the passenger seat...and if she has gravity induced challanges that preclude 4" of air, then the aluminum steps wouldn't have lasted long anyway...and the steel sliders are overdue.



From a safety perspective, the sliders add very real side impact protection...so if you love your wife or children, they are an investment in their safety.

Well, I suppose even if you don't...

Anyway - I see you ARE selling the steps (E-Bay seems to be the fastest way so far, short of a local yokel...), so you are on your way...and, I hope you know we're just busting your stones on this.

ALL this peer pressure... I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!

Another hash mark on the 'ol key board.

No bites yet. They are up here and on Craigslist. bpc jumped on the ones for sale I was going to get. Congrats.



maybe I'll swing by Mt. prospect and "borrow" them one night while you are sleeping.

What are you going to do with a wheel'barrow' while I'm sleeping? Does it entail squealing like a pig?

BTW. See post about group buy on MXO.

Corrected.
thanxs azhole fore finding my speling errer.