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Homebrew body lift....flamesuit ON!!

4

4x4shortbed

1/2 ton status
Joined
Feb 2, 2006
Posts
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Location
Douglas County, OR
I have a quick & painless question for y'all. I'm building my own body lift for my '83 K5. I'm using 2x2" square tubing, not sure the exact thickness but it's THICK for 2" tube. Definetly not going to crush or anything. I've cut 'em into 2" long peices & put 'em in the drill press, drilling a 1/2" hole through. I'm going to use grade 8 bolts & hardware.

Anyone see anything wrong with this as far as strength? I belive it's a much stronger body lift than the ones you buy as a kit.

I don't want to get into an anti body lift discussion, just want to know if you guys think it will hold together using heavy wall tubing & G8 hardware.

-John :D
 
A friend of mine did it that way, he used 2inch square and cut it 2.5(2 1/2) inches long and put a .250(1/4) washer on each end.... total 3inches, its been on for years and the trucks been thru alot..
 
2" thick square will be fine. A friend of mine used hockey pucks with no problem. Don't forget about your fan shroud and steering column!!!!!:confused:
 
I'll go pick up some 2" flat bar today, boxing the ends sounds like it would make them alot stronger. We'll see how well it holds up. I think it will work great. I've already unbolted the body(so I could see what new bolt lengths I'd need) and jacked it up the 2" to see if everything would clear. I do need to look closely at the steering column though, thanks for reminding me. Oh, and I took off the fan shroud too, it was hitting the fan during my test.

Thanks- John
 
Just a tip on the steering shaft, do the Jeep XJ shaft swap, the xj shafts have u-joints instead of the rubber rag joints so they will handle the increased angle of a body lift much better. There is a great write up in the advanced preview tech section of this site. XJ shaft install by me of course!!! is the title of the post.
 
i have yet to see a body lift block fail my self.

and you can buy just the blocks on ebay in 1-2-3 " lengths cheep on ebay.

and a friend had a friend of his die years ago with a homemade body lift gone bad.

and do me a favor dont drive nere me please if you do the homebrew.
 
sweetk30 said:
i have yet to see a body lift block fail my self.

and you can buy just the blocks on ebay in 1-2-3 " lengths cheep on ebay.

and a friend had a friend of his die years ago with a homemade body lift gone bad.

and do me a favor dont drive nere me please if you do the homebrew.
Click to expand...

If you have yet to see one fail then Why do you not want him driving near you LOL
 
dfl701 said:
If you have yet to see one fail then Why do you not want him driving near you LOL
Click to expand...

Notice he said "body lift block" not "hillbilly/homebrew body lift.

Structural tubing will never be as strong as solid stock, yet it costs 4 times as much. Why bother?
 
It cost me .35 cents per lb, about $3, for a short length of tubing from a local steel suplier.

Just curious but why would this lift fail any more than a store bought one? I mean, I'm using steel and hardend grade 8(& freekin' expensive) bolts instead of plastifiberpolyplastic or whatever and reg grade "crap" hardware. I don't know, I think home built gets confused with hillbilly sometimes. I've had a few body lifted trucks before & never had a problem. Maybe I don't wheel 'em hard enough! lol

I bet I can drive right by you and you'll never suspect a thing.....til I punch the trottle & snipe you with a flying 2" body lift block! Ha Ha!

Seriously though, I'm gonna box them things in tomorrow and put 'em in. I'm layed off of work right now and have a nice 3 bay shop. So why not build something? Better than sitting around watchin' the cars rust! Next I'm going to try working on the homebrew shackle reversal in the tech section, 'coarse thats homemade too. Crap. I'm a hillbilly and didn't even know it.....

-John
 
buy the time you buy all the hardware you'll have almost as much into it as a store bought lift , so really whats the point other than killing time , I mean I could make my own toilet paper but I don't LOL. if you can avoid a body lift then dont do it they look ghetto ( especially homemade one that use square tube)
 
I had 4 of the 10 bolts already, grade 9, and the other 6 cost me $23 at Fastenal. Then $3 worth of tubing & another 2-3 bucks for flat bar. So less than $30 total. Most of the body lifts I see are around $100+shipping. Now I can afford to go to wal-marts 'an buy a realtree camo steering wheel cover! lol

I don't mind the looks of a body lift if you do something about the bumper misallignment. I'm going to build me some hillbilly tree smashin' bumpers, so I gots that covered.

-John
 
Haha! Great! Now I'm in trouble! I don't really smash trees down, I was just being funny.

jt512, can you link me to your xj steering shaft post. I can't seem to find it and would like to read it.

Thanks- John
 
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