HOW TO: 2nd gen Expy 6" F150 lift conversion (37"tires)

[JulianOltean]

Julian's guide to f150 conversion fornt lift.

YES IT CAN BE DONE
hi guys im not the greatest at write ups but i am a good fabricator and i was suprised when i found that no one had yet to lift their expedition using an f150 lift so your going to have to bare wiith me and i will try to give you all the information to lifting your expys feel free to ask any questions im happy to answer them all

please note: This only lifts the front and you will lose some caster and camber adjustment, rear bumper was removed to fit 37s could also be trimmed or body lift is an alternative.

experiance level : advanced/ fabricator (or if you know a shop)

so rate off the bat here are the specs
2003 expedtion xlt 4x4
6" procomp lift made for an 11th gen F150
2" rear coil spacer
37x13.50 Mud graps 17x9 -10 steelies


i was really banking on a lot of things when going at this project this truck is my daily driver and i didnt want to modify any original mounting points or suspension incase it ended up not working out i have been currently driving the truck for 2 months now with no issues, after the lift was complete i took it too my mechanic who put it on an alignment rack and informed me that i did lose some caster and camber adjustment it aligned okay but not perfect!!!! although i do daily the truck i also wheel it and was willing to accept that all vehicles and lifts will differ and i cant speak for 4" or 8" lifts.

Parts list (04-08 F150 11th gen)
-6" f150 lift
-f150 wheel bearing hubs
-f150 front calipers
-diff breather extention
-f150 lower control arms
-f150 outer tie rod ends
-f150 front springs/struts



A lto of the parts are very similar but have minor differences , One of them being the upper control arm the f150 seems to have all tapered ball joint ends therefore the lift knuckles all have tapered holes you can get away with using the f150 lower control arms and tie rod ends but the upper control arms are not interchangeable so youll have to find a machine shop and have them whip you up some tapered bushings, mine cost me $225 to be made (pics below)



next youll need o modify the new rear crossmember for the lift the front needs to be shortened about 1" youll need to take your own measurements as i mentioned before not ever vehicle nore lift is the same .

Passenger side:

take note when the paint is missing to be shortned and welded.

Driver side


You will still need to cut your rear cross member in order to allow the diff to drop as you would an f150 lift .

the last two things i dint snap pictures of that will need to be modified are the new tranny to lower cross member braces they will need to be extended aswell the third diff bracket needs to be extended about an inch


i am aware this isnt much of a how to rather than what needs to be made and modified.

below are a dump of my pictures of the truck with the 37s and yes it is still very capable with 37s


next to my buddies xterra on 33s (we used to be same height)


some flexing

testing out the 4x4


drove into a hole in the river








you all can add me on instagram i upload lots of the truck @a_nissan_180sx (imm also building a race car) or snap chat : sudsymrj

 

[Gruz7]

Nice write-up [emoji1360]


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[victr22]

Nice work!
Do you think i could press f150 ball joints in my upper and/or lower control arms?

 

[JulianOltean]

I'm not sure most parts places have a a good return policy it would be worth the try !!

 

[JulianOltean]

Something to add though, the rear cross member would have to be shorten where the control arm mounts too since our control arms are bushing are smaller you might be able to get away with using a spacer! Again worth the try what I actually ended up buy was a front clip from a lifted 2007 so I had most of the parts but I bought new wheel bearings and brakes obviously

 

[victr22]

What are the specs on that tapered bushing? I guess the uppers are only one piece.

 

[victr22]

Are you interested in lifting the back?

 

[JulianOltean]

I won't be able to get you specs on the bushings like I said a machine shop is going to need to make those for you I brought my machinist a brand new control arm for my expedition and than the knuckles which had tapered holes . You must understand that these bushings are critical any play in them and your suspension will be shit these need to be within 1000ths of an inch. Mine where actually made so that they would press into the knuckles a little when the ball joint was tightened .


As for the back I've looked at what rize industries has done and won't be able to copy they had engineer whip up drawings that lowered the suspension while copying the same suspension geometry. For now I was going to body lift the entire truck only 1" and that should give me lots more after I trims some metal. Eventually I would consider SAS swapping the entire truck either 1tons or 2.5 not sure yet but it would be 4 link

 

[victr22]

I was thinking of cutting out the bottom half of my rear frame on my truck(the red lines in pic) and then welding this piece of frame from junk yard. It would sit 6" lower or whatever you wanted. I still need to trim it up (the blue lines in pic) a bit. What do you think? This would lift the rear relatively cheap i think.

 

[victr22]

So this frame piece will be welded under my cut out on my trucks frame. To clear up previous post.

 

[JulianOltean]

I think you are on to something but if it were me I wouldn't cut my frame off at all I would remove the exciting brakets for the diff and suspension arms off my truck so it's a clean frame portion at the rear . Find the drop you need to get your 6" lift or how ever big and notch this peice into your frame at the new height , a plasma cutter would be ideal in this situation. But this way you wouldn't lose as much frame support I would imagine it would only make it harder to align strait also , you could reinforce your frame and technically your just adding onto the truck , would probably need the body off the truck I would imagine

 

[victr22]

Hey do you think this would work on the 07 -10 years of expedition front suspension?

 

[JulianOltean]

Hey do you think this would work on the 07 -10 years of expedition front suspension?

I heard of a company that made one for that years and what would happen is the max trac traction control would break cvs constantly

 

[splne1]

Wouldnt 3rd gens need say an 09 up front lift kit? The bulletproof kit is what your talking about and I think it was the rear shafts that were snapping if I am correct. They had there F150 front 12" kit up front on coilovers. That thing looked sick but too bad we havent had anymore research or anyone wanting to make a kit for 3rd gens. I have been pondering just swapping a complete f150 rear axle in rear and adding an 09 up 8" kit? just dont want to run into a problem and it sideline me for a bit.

 

[JulianOltean]

Bump

 

[scoot0073]

Thank u brother for doing this and creating a thread on it.
I see these questions asked alot and now I can point them to something that will help others..
Me personally would like to do the front swap but I would have to modify the rear also to level it out with front..
Thanks again

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[JulianOltean]

Thank u brother for doing this and creating a thread on it.
I see these questions asked alot and now I can point them to something that will help others..
Me personally would like to do the front swap but I would have to modify the rear also to level it out with front..
Thanks again

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I thought it was about time someone lifted em up, I recently body lifted it to fix it a bit