Explain suspension and lifts to me like I'm a newbie

This is the best video explainer on lifts I have seen.

Long story short, It depends on what you want to do. Personally, Im not a big fan of body lifts, but they are the right setup for some applications.

^^^^

It depends on what your end-goal is and how much money you want to spend.

But... quick overview from cheapest to most expensive:

• Leveling Kit / Spacer — Basically you stick chunk of metal between their shock and where it mounts to the vehicle.
• Perch Collar — You take apart the shock and apply a metal collar, which puts pre-load on the spring giving it lift.
• Body lifts — You take the body of the vehicle off, and stick spacers between the frame and the body.
• Coilover kits — Replacing the springs and/or shocks to versions that give you more lift
• Long travel kits — Basically complete suspension replacements
• Portals — The holy grail of lifts.

The most common lifts you'll see people do on forums are spacers. Spacers are extremely cheap (typically $500 or less), and very much "do in your driveway" sort of lift. But you can only realistically get 2" maximum before you start screwing up the suspension geometry. Because it messes with the suspension geometry, it puts more stress on the vehicle's components, and you could start seeing failures. Most of those broken tie-rods you see on these forums are due to spacer lifts without correcting the suspension geometry.

Perch collars are also cheap, it does not mess with the suspension geometry, and are all around a "safer" lift than spacers. But it does mess with ride quality since the springs are pre-loaded. You also have to disassemble the entire coilover to install them, which a lot of people are hesitant to do. Coilovers store a ton of energy so there is a fair amount of "you could die if you don't know what you're doing" involved. Like spacers, you can typically get perch collars for under $500. Jon (Nashville Early Bronco) did a video of a perch collar installation for Bronco Nation awhile back.

Body lifts are the more traditional lift. It is extremely popular among the pickup truck crowd, but less popular in off-roading communities because it doesn't actually increase your ground clearance. Fundamentally all you are doing is separating the vehicle frame from the cab, sticking in some spacers/mounts/whatever, and bolting the cab back to the frame.

Coilover kits replaces the shock, spring, and/or control arms to give you more lift. It is probably the "most correct" lift for normal people to do, and when you see people start installing aftermarket Bilstein, Fox shocks, or any of the Zone lifts… they’re installing new coil overs. But its a several thousand dollar investment to get up and running with them.

Long travel kits and portals are typically reserved for those who are turning their Broncos into race trucks or dedicated off-roaders. We're talking close to $10,000 worth of suspension components, which is probably more than most of us want to spend, so I'll just ignore them.

RagnarKon

It depends on what your end-goal is and how much money you want to spend.

But... quick overview from cheapest to most expensive:

• Leveling Kit / Spacer — Basically you stick chunk of metal between their shock and where it mounts to the vehicle.
• Perch Collar — You take apart the shock and apply a metal collar, which puts pre-load on the spring giving it lift.
• Body lifts — You take the body of the vehicle off, and stick spacers between the frame and the body.
• Coilover kits — Replacing the springs and/or shocks to versions that give you more lift
• Long travel kits — Basically complete suspension replacements
• Portals — The holy grail of lifts.

The most common lifts you'll see people do on forums are spacers. Spacers are extremely cheap (typically $500 or less), and very much "do in your driveway" sort of lift. But you can only realistically get 2" maximum before you start screwing up the suspension geometry. Because it messes with the suspension geometry, it puts more stress on the vehicle's components, and you could start seeing failures. Most of those broken tie-rods you see on these forums are due to spacer lifts without correcting the suspension geometry.

Perch collars are also cheap, it does not mess with the suspension geometry, and are all around a "safer" lift than spacers. But it does mess with ride quality since the springs are pre-loaded. You also have to disassemble the entire coilover to install them, which a lot of people are hesitant to do. Coilovers store a ton of energy so there is a fair amount of "you could die if you don't know what you're doing" involved. Like spacers, you can typically get perch collars for under $500. Jon (Nashville Early Bronco) did a video of a perch collar installation for Bronco Nation awhile back.

Body lifts are the more traditional lift. It is extremely popular among the pickup truck crowd, but less popular in off-roading communities because it doesn't actually increase your ground clearance. Fundamentally all you are doing is separating the vehicle frame from the cab, sticking in some spacers/mounts/whatever, and bolting the cab back to the frame.

Coilover kits replaces the shock, spring, and/or control arms to give you more list. It is probably the "most correct" lift for normal people to do, but its several thousand dollar investment to get up and running with them.

Long travel kits and portals are typically reserved for those who are turning their Broncos into race trucks or dedicated off-roaders. We're talking close to $10,000 worth of suspension components, which is probably more than most of us want to spend, so I'll just ignore them.

Appreciate it, Also gonna watch Mal's video in a sec

Thanks guys. Looks like I'll save proper and get Coil's. Whats the gold standard btw, I don't go cheap with parts, so whats the top brands and how do they differ

Speed Devil

Appreciate it, Also gonna watch Mal's video in a sec

Thanks guys. Looks like I'll save proper and get Coil's. Whats the gold standard btw, I don't go cheap with parts, so whats the top brands and how do they differ

Eh... I don't know if there is consensus around a single gold standard to be honest. Fox, Bilstein, ICON, Zone, etc. are all common choices.

Personally, I've always really enjoyed Bilstein's gear. But @jparker hinted at potentially offering a Fox suspension package through Bronco Nation. I don't know if that's actually coming or not... but I'm not in any particular rush so I'm waiting to see what comes of that.

Like I said, currently doing engine, and lights first, wanna save to get it all professionally done and right

Find the right rims and everything, have a beast, she’ll be magnificent once shes done

Wow, what an open-ended question.

Generally
Springs hold up the vehicle, at any given height, based on the weight (height).
Dampers/shocks/absorbers typically dampen the ride (ride quality).

How do you intend to use your vehicle? That is probably the most important question you need to answer. Some modifications are mutually exclusive, performance-wise. If you lift a vehicle, you raise the center of gravity, that impacts handling. If you put stiff dampers on the vehicle, maybe that means you don't bottom out of the high speed whoops and jumps, can handle corners without as much dive, but your teeth rattle out of your head on washboard. Maybe you don't care about rocks, but you wanna go fast in a straight line, or you wanna go slow over boulders. Everything is a compromise based on your use. You have to move in a direction along the spectrum. What direction on the spectrum do you want to go? Nothing else really matters until you decide how you want to use your Bronco. Otherwise it's like telling someone if they need traction bars and slicks and then after all the mods are done saying, "yeah, if you wanna run track days at the drags". If you don't know, then no one knows how to respond...or they aren't responding to your needs.

ETA: BTW, the "best" suspension is tunable, just like an engine. You'll want to rebuild it at least every 50k miles, probably every 25k miles, probably every 2.5k - 5k miles if you race (non-competitively). It'll cost you roughly $1,500 to $2,000 per corner for non-competition/daily driver parts.

Lift make Bronco taller

thgdfathr

Lift make Bronco taller

^^^^
THIS

AcesandEights

Wow, what an open-ended question.

Generally
Springs hold up the vehicle, at any given height, based on the weight (height).
Dampers/shocks/absorbers typically dampen the ride (ride quality).

How do you intend to use your vehicle? That is probably the most important question you need to answer. Some modifications are mutually exclusive, performance-wise. If you lift a vehicle, you raise the center of gravity, that impacts handling. If you put stiff dampers on the vehicle, maybe that means you don't bottom out of the high speed whoops and jumps, can handle corners without as much dive, but your teeth rattle out of your head on washboard. Maybe you don't care about rocks, but you wanna go fast in a straight line, or you wanna go slow over boulders. Everything is a compromise based on your use. You have to move in a direction along the spectrum. What direction on the spectrum do you want to go? Nothing else really matters until you decide how you want to use your Bronco. Otherwise it's like telling someone if they need traction bars and slicks and then after all the mods are done saying, "yeah, if you wanna run track days at the drags". If you don't know, then no one knows how to respond...or they aren't responding to your needs.

ETA: BTW, the "best" suspension is tunable, just like an engine. You'll want to rebuild it at least every 50k miles, probably every 25k miles, probably every 2.5k - 5k miles if you race (non-competitively). It'll cost you roughly $1,500 to $2,000 per corner for non-competition/daily driver parts.

So $6-8k, hmm. Daily with occasional offroading, haven't really done rocks yet and haven't had experience outside small dune like trails for Quads, my stock suspension does the trick

Tbh, it's not a major priority of mine, it's more if I can, I will, though for what I do, I'd probably get more use out of a RSB than anything else

I lucked out and found a college automotive suspension textbook at a used book store for $10. I’ve been making my way through it to better understand how IFS is supposed to come together.

Your Bronco was designed to work with the oem suspension for a calculated and finite amount of time before it was designed to start wearing out and failing (just after the warranty expires). It most certainly could have been over-built to last longer, but the accountants need to keep investors and auto-shops happy.

Replacing your stock suspension with components that allow you to increase tire size applies much more stress on the stock components that don’t get replaced. That stress causes parts to fail faster - sometimes suddenly as we have seen when tie-rods and CV axles break.

You can loosely think of it this way: Compare a spacer lift kit against something like an Icon Stage 7 lift kit.

The spacer lift kit comes with four pucks and a set of new bolts. The Icon Stage 7 kit comes with nearly every suspension part. And they both only increase lift by 3”.

The spacer kit will increase stress on all the stock oem components that the Icon lift kit replaces in one go.

When you decide to lift your Bronco for bigger tires, you need to decide how you are going to compensate for those stresses. Are you going to upgrade a couple components at a time, potentially putting your vehicle at risk for trail damage? Or are you going to go all out and upgrade everything to last a really long time?

Or, are you going to take a happy medium approach and only upgrade the parts that could fail while you are expecting to own the Bronco?

Currently, my plan is to get to 37” tires by attempting to model the Braptor’s parts and geometry. As an OEM suspension, it’s probably the best one to trust. I’m just sitting back and letting others who have more money learn how to do it, and then I’ll be copying them.

TechnicalDisaster

I lucked out and found a college automotive suspension textbook at a used book store for $10. I’ve been making my way through it to better understand how IFS is supposed to come together.

Your Bronco was designed to work with the oem suspension for a calculated and finite amount of time before it was designed to start wearing out and failing (just after the warranty expires). It most certainly could have been over-built to last longer, but the accountants need to keep investors and auto-shops happy.

Replacing your stock suspension with components that allow you to increase tire size applies much more stress on the stock components that don’t get replaced. That stress causes parts to fail faster - sometimes suddenly as we have seen when tie-rods and CV axles break.

You can loosely think of it this way: Compare a spacer lift kit against something like an Icon Stage 7 lift kit.

The spacer lift kit comes with four pucks and a set of new bolts. The Icon Stage 7 kit comes with nearly every suspension part. And they both only increase lift by 3”.

The spacer kit will increase stress on all the stock oem components that the Icon lift kit replaces in one go.

When you decide to lift your Bronco for bigger tires, you need to decide how you are going to compensate for those stresses. Are you going to upgrade a couple components at a time, potentially putting your vehicle at risk for trail damage? Or are you going to go all out and upgrade everything to last a really long time?

Or, are you going to take a happy medium approach and only upgrade the parts that could fail while you are expecting to own the Bronco?

Currently, my plan is to get to 37” tires by attempting to model the Braptor’s parts and geometry. As an OEM suspension, it’s probably the best one to trust. I’m just sitting back and letting others who have more money learn how to do it, and then I’ll be copying them.

Always OEM+ it

More just figuring out the best course of action in the future, thats really all thats going on here

The hilarious thing about the Bronco is with the HOSS 3.0 updates you really don't have any suspension needs with 35" tires. If you talk to the most die hard offroaders, even they will admit that it wasn't that long ago that 35's were the "40s" that we have people doing now.

Things you CAN do pretty safely is give your bronco more flex, increase clearance at the bumpers, and add some armor.

In the rear you can increase travel but you have to ensure the driveline, control arms, and sway bar are all updated accordingly to allow for that travel safely.

In the front your best bets are removing the sway bar (if you have a static one), putting the badlands non-sas suspension in, and if you are not planning on BOMBING the truck (think rally) you can take an inch off the bump stop. (But then you won't be able to bomb it as hard offroad.)

If you are doing anything to the front that "increases travel" in the marketing, and it doesn't involve updating the lower arm, or the axles, and it's providing lift; be very very worried.

If you are wanting to go to 37+, upgrade the rack, upgrade the tie rods, upgrade the axles, and make sure you limit downtravel so it doesn't bind the axles. If you have hoss 3.0, you can ignore the steering rack upgrade.

No matter what, I would recommend the broncbuster driver side delron bushing. The OEM bushing is a joke, even stock it will start to wear immediately.

Eninty

So every Bronco's suspension is going to wear out at 36,100 miles?

If an owner buys Ford's extended warranty, the OE suspension components magically last longer?

Lol.

Haaaaaa

@AcesandEights , how you been brother?

@Speed Devil Look at Accutune Suspension. Call them, then buy whatever they say you need. You'll be all set.

https://accutuneoffroad.com/product/2021-ford-bronco-shock-packages-2-door-models/#front-coilovers

sfshili

The hilarious thing about the Bronco is with the HOSS 3.0 updates you really don't have any suspension needs with 35" tires. If you talk to the most die hard offroaders, even they will admit that it wasn't that long ago that 35's were the "40s" that we have people doing now.

Things you CAN do pretty safely is give your bronco more flex, increase clearance at the bumpers, and add some armor.

In the rear you can increase travel but you have to ensure the driveline, control arms, and sway bar are all updated accordingly to allow for that travel safely.

In the front your best bets are removing the sway bar (if you have a static one), putting the badlands non-sas suspension in, and if you are not planning on BOMBING the truck (think rally) you can take an inch off the bump stop. (But then you won't be able to bomb it as hard offroad.)

If you are doing anything to the front that "increases travel" in the marketing, and it doesn't involve updating the lower arm, or the axles, and it's providing lift; be very very worried.

If you are wanting to go to 37+, upgrade the rack, upgrade the tie rods, upgrade the axles, and make sure you limit downtravel so it doesn't bind the axles. If you have hoss 3.0, you can ignore the steering rack upgrade.

No matter what, I would recommend the broncbuster driver side delron bushing. The OEM bushing is a joke, even stock it will start to wear immediately.

I'll get that regardless of whether or not I'd work on suspension, thanks

Also, I'll look into HOSS 3.0 and if I can retrofit it into my 2dr

TK1215

@AcesandEights , how you been brother?

No bad days. You?

AcesandEights

No bad days. You?

All is good