2016 King Ranch EL Lift and Wheels

[16ranchel]

My wife and I are looking at getting our 2016 King Ranch EL more suited for some off-roading since we just bought an off-road camp trailer and are currently living in the southwest. Based on the little bit of research I've done on my own, we're looking at upgrading suspension (and potentially lift), then new wheels and tires, and then the RCI skid plates for the transmission.

I'd like to increase the height with a suspension lift and avoid the use of a spacer lift if possible. My question is, would we be able to fit 285/65R18 (32.6") tires with no issues if we went purely with a bilstein 5100 install? Current tires are P275/55R20 (31.9"). Local shop recommends a bilstein 5100 install plus a 3" readylift to be able to fit the 285 sized tires but if it's not going to explicitly help with increased ground clearance, I'm not convinced we want the additional 3" (it's my wife's daily driver).

Also open to other suggestions if y'all think there's a better direction we should go in.

Thanks for any advice or recommendations!
-Brandon

 

[BigOleFordFan]

If by "daily driver" you mean to & from work, school, errands etc, on normal roads, then a 3" lift may warrant reconsideration...yes it would work, but that will change the entire ride & handling characteristics of the vehicle, so that may or may not be something you or her are prepared for or able to deal with...

Generally, I'm not sure a 3" lift would be required, since the difference in tire height is only ~3/4", but since you are going wider and taller too, the question of rubbing on the front frame during a hard turn could be a factor...but for off-roading, it would probably be a good choice.

As for the Bilsteins, they seem to have a fairly good following on here, so I think they would be a reasonably good choice in that respect, but I'm not a suspension guru either, so take that for what you will...

 

[LokiWolf]

We had the Ready Lift and stock shocks on both our 15 and 17 with ZERO issues. There are many threads on here discussing this exact lift and the tires they were able to fit. Had Nivomat LL on the rear of the 15, and CCD on 17 so no point in swapping the shocks.

Do the FULL RCI kit first if you are going in this direction. You want the protection first. Don't wait to lift. The stock Engine protection is rigid fabric, and is only good for basic road debris and aero. The trans plate is not enough.

Also search the other threads on tire size, offset, and width. Most of your ground clearance is gained from tire height. The tallest you can run without rubbing the better. Period.

3 inches of lift and a good set of AT tires, and you will probably enjoy the ride, because your sidewall will increase. Will it handle around turns as well, no. My wife daily drove both her 15 and 17 and loved how they rode.

 

[16ranchel]

We had the Ready Lift and stock shocks on both our 15 and 17 with ZERO issues. There are many threads on here discussing this exact lift and the tires they were able to fit. Had Nivomat LL on the rear of the 15, and CCD on 17 so no point in swapping the shocks.

Do the FULL RCI kit first if you are going in this direction. You want the protection first. Don't wait to lift. The stock Engine protection is rigid fabric, and is only good for basic road debris and aero. The trans plate is not enough.

Also search the other threads on tire size, offset, and width. Most of your ground clearance is gained from tire height. The tallest you can run without rubbing the better. Period.

3 inches of lift and a good set of AT tires, and you will probably enjoy the ride, because your sidewall will increase. Will it handle around turns as well, no. My wife daily drove both her 15 and 17 and loved how they rode.

I appreciate the advice. I've looked through everything in the forums regarding the full RCI kit for skids and all I can find is that the F-150 skids are good back to the transmission skid plate. (RCI https://rcimetalworks.com/product-category/ford/expedition-navigator/07-17-expedition-navigator/)

I've not been able to locate any metal skid plate option for the fuel tank or rear diff. Do you have any suggestions?

-Brandon

 

[LokiWolf]

I appreciate the advice. I've looked through everything in the forums regarding the full RCI kit for skids and all I can find is that the F-150 skids are good back to the transmission skid plate. (RCI https://rcimetalworks.com/product-category/ford/expedition-navigator/07-17-expedition-navigator/)

I've not been able to locate any metal skid plate option for the fuel tank or rear diff. Do you have any suggestions?

-Brandon

It has been a while since I did it. I would give RCI a call. They were VERY helpful.

I did not mess with the fuel tank or rear Diff on our 15 or 17. My focus was front protection, cause the fabric was going to do nothing.

Seriously, call or drop RCI a message. They are a great company.

 

[eddytheexpy]

I have the RCI skid package on mine (2011 Limited EL) and would like to tell you about my experience with it. I wound up needing to make spacers out of some scrap metal I picked up. The front plates contacted the front diff and then the transmission plate seemed fine at first but once the exhaust heated up and expanded, it just barely touched the skid plate so it rattled like crazy. If the transfer case plate fit the expy, it would have created the spacing necessary to avoid that but the front diff issue would still exist. I also needed to modify the slots where the plates over lap to make them deeper because it seems there was a tolerance stacking issue. Each plate would fit fine individually (in terms of the holes lining up with the mounting points on the frame) but they wouldn’t line up when mounting as a package. It wasn’t as plug and play as I had hoped but with a little elbow grease I am very happy with the final product.

Keep in mind, I picked them up from FB marketplace (brand new btw!) for like $100 so I didn’t have the option of calling them and asking for help or complaining about it not fitting right. And for 100 bucks I don’t mind having to do a little work, still an awesome deal!

Also, I can confirm that the transfer case skid plate will not fit. It’s not even close to being doable even with modifying the plate.

 

[16ranchel]

Thanks for the heads up. I put the transmission skid plate on last week and had a similar rattling issue that you did. It about drove the wife insane. I ended up putting the metal foil with backing from the OEM fiber plate and it squished between the exhaust and the skid plate enough to prevent the rattling.

Engine plate should ship tomorrow so hoping that one goes on slightly smoother since i've already put some elbow grease in for the transmission skid plate. Either way I'll be happy because Labor Day weekend the weight of our camp trailer pushed me through some mud as I was turning into our campsite and right over some rocks so it'll put me at ease to have some protection down there. Chalked up to a lesson learned with minimal damage.

 

[eddytheexpy]

Thanks for the heads up. I put the transmission skid plate on last week and had a similar rattling issue that you did. It about drove the wife insane. I ended up putting the metal foil with backing from the OEM fiber plate and it squished between the exhaust and the skid plate enough to prevent the rattling.

Engine plate should ship tomorrow so hoping that one goes on slightly smoother since i've already put some elbow grease in for the transmission skid plate. Either way I'll be happy because Labor Day weekend the weight of our camp trailer pushed me through some mud as I was turning into our campsite and right over some rocks so it'll put me at ease to have some protection down there. Chalked up to a lesson learned with minimal damage.

Wow, I'm shocked that RCI didn't provide a spacer of any kind. I know if you call them and tell them the vehicle you're buying the engine skid plates for is an expedition, they'll include an extra pair of the larger speed clips that are necessary to mount the front engine skid plate (if you haven't done that already, I'd call them ASAP since you'll be missing hardware). The F-150 already has 2 speed clips in there but the expeditions don't. I went to like 8 places looking for a clip of that size and finally found it at NAPA.

Again, since I got mine second hand I had no place to call them about issues I was having. It couldn't hurt to reach out and ask if they have a spacer or if they could make one for you. They are selling the part claiming fitment for the expedition so in my opinion they should, ya know, make sure it fits hahaha. Plus, they are a metal shop and have all the dimensions of their product. They could easily crank out a spacer with scrap they have laying around. The shipping would, without question, be the most expensive part of the whole process for them. You paid all that money to get it new from the manufacturer unlike my broke ass so you shouldn't have to jury rig it!

Fingers crossed that the engine plates don't hit the front diff and stack nicely with the transmission skid plate unlike mine. Otherwise, get ready for more elbow grease. If you run into that issue and RCI can't/won't help feel free to DM me. I'm taking the plates off to drop the oil pan as part of the timing job next weekend (10/4-10/6) so I can take measurements and pics of what I made so you don't have to do any guess-work. Not sure of your experience level but, making those spacers was the first metal work I've ever done so by definition, no experience required. You just need an angle grinder, step drill bit, a piece of 10 gauge steel scrap and a can of rustoleum. I've had them on for ~4k miles now and they 100% do the job and have not caused a single issue. I spent about 2 weeks making a plan of how I was going to rectify the issue so if my grief and help you avoid the headache I'm more than happy to help!

 

[LokiWolf]

I did not have any rattling on our 15 or 17. Just saying. I don't remember a spacer, and all hardware I needed was there.

Could it not be the plates issue, and the fact that the exhaust might need to be adjusted?

 

[16ranchel]

I did not have any rattling on our 15 or 17. Just saying. I don't remember a spacer, and all hardware I needed was there.

Could it not be the plates issue, and the fact that the exhaust might need to be adjusted?

I'm not gonna rule that out haha. Engine skids should arrive today so hopefully by tomorrow I have a better idea if any further adjusting is needed. Appreciate all the advice and tips on this guys.

Edit: For the transmission skid plate, it came with a back plate that the directions said to insert into the crossbar of the frame but then there weren't holes that lined up appropriately. I was able to install the transmission skid by just adding a speednut/quick fastener/clamp nut or whatever it's called in 2 holes on the crossbar and it lined up well.

 

[eddytheexpy]

I'm not gonna rule that out haha. Engine skids should arrive today so hopefully by tomorrow I have a better idea if any further adjusting is needed. Appreciate all the advice and tips on this guys.

Edit: For the transmission skid plate, it came with a back plate that the directions said to insert into the crossbar of the frame but then there weren't holes that lined up appropriately. I was able to install the transmission skid by just adding a speednut/quick fastener/clamp nut or whatever it's called in 2 holes on the crossbar and it lined up well.

yeah there were 3 holes on the backside of the trans skid plate but only 2 holes in the expy frame. It sounds like they might just be a little misguided with the differences with the expy and F-150. If you measure it up and drill another hole in the spacer they provided you'll probably be in good shape. But, if you're cool with the fix you did on the exhaust situation, let it ride!

I did not have any rattling on our 15 or 17. Just saying. I don't remember a spacer, and all hardware I needed was there.

Could it not be the plates issue, and the fact that the exhaust might need to be adjusted?

There was a fair gap when installed cold without the spacers but once it heated up and expanded there is just enough gap to let the slightest sliver of light pass between it. So, with literally any quantity of vibration it was enough to close the gap and it sounds like rapid fire on terribly crafted gong. So, yeah a very slight adjustment would probably fix it but I needed spacers up front anyway so it just took an extra 10 minutes to cut out and drill another spacer. Super jealous you didn't run into any issues with the front plates! Though it was a bit of a fun journey to solve the problem with a simple and relatively elegant way (for my inexperienced hand at least).

 

[16ranchel]

Got the engine plates installed fairly easy this afternoon. I worked back to front since I'd already installed the transmission skid plate. After removing the flimsy plastic piece plus the air dam, I had to remove the bolt holding on the lower radiator cross-bar (pic 1) and then bolted the skid plate pieces on top of it (pic 2). All in all, way easier this time around although I did install the very front skid plate via it's 2 rear bolts first just to see where it was actually going to line up for the front attached pieces.

You could probably reinstall the air dam with some trimming but not worth it for me. Hopefully this provides a little bit more for the next guy searching.

 

[eddytheexpy]

Did you get both of the upper bolts into the mount that the plate seats to? It looks like you were missing the forward speed clip. if everything lined up right including that bolt, I'm super curious why my expy has this issue since the consensus is that mine is an outlier. At first I'd wager a guess that the frame is bent from the previous owner(s) but the problem was perfectly symmetrical so who knows. BTW the front bolt/nut/washer combo is different from the other 2 because that was a random bolt to match the threads of the speed clip I picked up from NAPA. I don't believe its the same grade but is worlds better than not having it.

 

[16ranchel]

Are these the bolts that you were asking about? This view is from passenger side. The forward bolt went right into the speed clip that was there from the air dam. I did put one of the RCI supplied washer in between the plate and the frame just to try and make it slightly more even with the rear bolt/mount. I used one of the RCI bolts for the rear one vs. the OEM bolt that was holding the lower radiator only because it gave about 1/4" more thread so it grabbed sooner when I was screwing it in.

I didn't require any spacers for the engine plates. Only issue I had with all of the RCI skids was the exhaust contact at the rear of the transmission skid but got that sorted (explained in a previous post).

Maybe ford put some holes or left some out between expy and f150 over the years during manufacturing. That's my only guess since there'd be no reason for them to document it for consumers.

 

[eddytheexpy]

Huh yeah that’s the bolt I was talking about. In the package I got it only had 2 speed clips and 4 bolts for that mount. My research tells me that’s the norm unless you request the extra pair of clips for mounting on an expedition.

In the pics you posted it didn’t look like the speed clip was in there but I guess it was hiding behind the mounting plate. Well, glad you have everything you needed and sorry for preemptively stressing you out!

Idk why mine was such a weird one. I tried putting it all on several times thinking it was hung up somewhere I wasn’t seeing but kept getting the same result. So that’s when I decided to roll up my sleeves, crack out the calipers and start take measurements of everything and figure out what the hell to do. I’m an engineer so if I’m going to do it, I’m going to over-do it hahaha. So, I didn’t go by eye on any thing and by my calculations, there was certainly interference with the differential. So I built a spacer accordingly to give me the clearance I needed. It’s strange to me that this appears to be a unique issue that I faced especially considering that it’s mostly frame related which was more than likely build by robots. I guess that points to the skids I got just being out of spec since that was probably made by an actual machinist. The problem I had was 2 fold, it interfered with the differential even without any of the other plates plus they didn’t line up.

Wow. Now that I actually wrote my thoughts down, I figured out what was wrong. The bends in the rear engine skid plate must have been off. If they were bent just a few more degrees, it would have cleared the differential and that would have shortened the length profile enough to meet the transmission skid plate properly. That’s the most simple explanation and is totally consistent with my problems. Glad we got to the bottom of this haha

 

[LokiWolf]

Great documentation ya'll!!!

Glad you got it, and have MUCH better protection.

 

[abnmike]

So the initial question was about lift - then there are two pages of discussion about bash plates.

I've posted new threads, replied to existing threads and can get no answer (especially since the threads I've researched are older).

Can anyone see my new thread in the 3rd Gen section about lift (F150 vs Expedition, Spacers vs Shocks) and respond? Anyone?