Lift for 04 Frontier

[avacado]

Hello,

I'm new to the site; looking for some advice.

I'm in the market for a lift for my 04 Frontier. It's an SE-v6, long wheel base. I recently put on some 32" BFG M/T's and as you can imagine, there's some rubbing going on when I'm off road. I know there are only a few options available to me (Calmini, AC...) probably a 3" but I'd consider taller. I'd really appreciate any advice you can offer.

[amplifire]

Hi there, good to see another London member! I don't have any lift so I can't comment on which vendor to use; have you cranked the T-bars and gotten longer shackles for the rear already?
Also, you should post an introduction in the Welcome! forum so the people know who you are, you'll find lots of helpful folks here.

[avacado]

Haven't cranked the T-bars yet; my concern there is that I'll lose a bunch of suspension travel. Is my assumption correct? Also, does cranking the T-bars affect camber on the front tires?
I suppose it would be a temporary solution to stop the rubbing either way. I've thought about a body lift also but I think I'm pretty much set on a proper suspension lift.

I will post an introduction as well; forgot to do that initially.

[amplifire]

I think the overall length of travel remains the same, but you lose downward travel and gain upward travel (someone please correct me if i'm wrong). It will affect the camber and you will need to get an alignment after you set the new ride height to correct it. After that I think the only downside is people tend to wear out steering components faster after the T-bar crank because now things are at an increased angle all the time. But to fit 32" I think thats all you need, and it's a lot cheaper than getting the suspension lift kit.

[avacado]

Yes, as far as cost is concerned, simply cranking the T-bars would be best; no doubt about it. Perhaps that's all I'll do. I think I am still sort of determined to lift it though. I can do the installation myself so it's just the cost of the kit itself.

[amplifire]

sweet, I'm all about DIY myself as well; I've never installed a lift kit but if you need a hand just let me know. Although I think you'll probably still need to do an alignment afterwards

[avacado]

Definitely would get someone to do the alignment. That should likely be done by someone who truly knows what they're doing. But for most of the work, I've got a major advantage with my car club. We've got a hoist, air tools, machine shop, welders, etc, etc. Makes life much easier when you've got the right tools.

[Simon]

FYI, cranking your T-bars is the ONLY way to gain lift in the front end, other than a SAS. You can add upper control arms which is a good idea to keep your camber angles close to stock, and keep your balljoints happy.

With UCA's and t-bar crank in the front, and an Add-a-leaf and shackles in the rear, you can have yourself a nice 3" lift.

[avacado]

FYI, cranking your T-bars is the ONLY way to gain lift in the front end, other than a SAS. You can add upper control arms which is a good idea to keep your camber angles close to stock, and keep your balljoints happy.

With UCA's and t-bar crank in the front, and an Add-a-leaf and shackles in the rear, you can have yourself a nice 3" lift.

SAS would be cool, however expensive. And this is my daily driver so I don't want to get too crazy yet.

If it's just a matter of tbar crank, a-arms and an add a leaf, I would think I could do it for way cheaper than buying a whole kit. Does this add much stress to the ball joints? Do you know if getting aftermarket T-bars with higher spring rate is worthwhile? ie. will it give me a better ride when lifted than the stock ones would?

By the way; I just ran across your post with instructions on how to reindex the t-bars; thanks for that, should come in handy.

[Simon]

You can get the components separately. I did that for my lift, which is slightly different than yours (rear coils) and saved some money.

For T-bars, I run stock ones, and have no issues. I have just cranked them, and had to reindex one of them to get to desired height. Personally, I like the compliant springs on the trail, over a stiffer one.

Aftermarket upper A-arms help straighten out the ball joint angle after lifting, which is part of the purpose of them.

[Big Bird]

Well after this season of wheelin i will probably be reindexing my t-bars.

[avacado]

I gave the tbars a bit of a crank yesterday and so far I'm pleased with the results. Didn't go up too far; just over an inch on either side. Tires are no longer rubbing which is very nice. I haven't bough any UCA's or an AAL yet but will do that soon enough I think.

The only question I have is; Let's say I want to lift the vehicle by a total of 2". How many turns on the adjuster nut should that work out to? I know it's not going to be exact but approximately what would you expect?

I've never done this before and I want to make sure I'm getting the right results and I'm not going to screw anything up. It's pretty straight forward but you never know. As it stands, I've given it 8 turns on each side and as I said, it raised up just over an inch. Is that more or less what you'd expect?

Thanks!