planning my 2003 AWD lift

[WimpTech]

Lumpy and I both have 4" body lifts...

I have 4-1/8. As soon as I heard you did 4, I bumped mine up.


Doing a lift is not "Give me the instructions and the parts". It's re-designing and re-engineering a vehicle that was never designed to be that way. And YOU are the new designer/engineer. It's about UNDERSTANDING what each part does and UNDERSTANDING why you're replacing it with bigger, taller, shorter or moving it over THERE. There is not just one way to lift a van. Each person doing a lift has to understand why his approach is different than THAT guy's approach.

Buying a kit is not a substitute for understanding all that. If you haven't crawled under your van, many, many times, and gone through the thought process of "First I'll remove that bolt there and here's why" and done that for every change you'll make, you're not doing it right. You'll be suprised, frustrated, infuriated, might get hurt, will probably take unsafe shortcuts just to "get it done 'cause I'm sick and tired of how slow this is going".

Evaluate a sub-section at a time. Rear leaves, for example. Evaluate just the REAR shackle/hanger. Crawl under yours and see what wrenches and sockets fit it. See if the nuts and bolts are frozen. Read the DOZENS of threads about how other people have done their shackle/hangers. Become an expert in YOUR shackles/hangers so that you are confident in your own mind that what you are doing is the best way (for you), safe, and achieves the goal you're looking for. If, instead, you buy what are billed as "Two inch lift shackles" and then go out one Saturday morning and crawl under there for the first time and start thinking "Ok what do the directions say" two things will happen - 1) You'll take 10x longer than you thought to get it done and 2) you'll be disappointed to learn that you really don't get 2" of lift (which you would have realized if you'd done your homework... ).

EVERY performance related activity (athletic events, musical performance, acting, roofing, sewing, painting, anything) involves the performer mentally going through the motions before the performance. Rebuilding your car is absolutely no different. Know exactly what you're going to do, where you're going to lay, what hand you're going to use on the wrench, BEFORE you do it.

"I don't have the skills or knowledge so I'm buying a kit" means "I don't want to do the mental pre-work". The former is not a substitute for the latter. EVERY person who has bought a kit has substituted some parts, added some parts, left out some parts. And every one of them has said, once finished "Wow I could have done all this for 1/4 the cost by just buying the parts I need, separately".

Now get to work, future lifters. Go do a mental lift on your van.


Lump - Mentalist

What he said


When I was new here, I did the OLV 2" kit which is awesome for a beginner because it has instructions and is the least evasive in terms of mental push-ups. In my install, the front of that lift went exactly as OLV laid out for me. However, I noticed my rear leafs were very tired, so I had to adjust accordingly by selecting the right rear shackle mounting location and by cranking up the torsion bars a little to even it out. How did I figure that out? I read a hundred posts (mostly on here) and learned what was involved and some of the pitfalls others had so that when it came time for me, I was reasonably prepared.
Hell, I didn't even know what a torsion bar was, so I learned what, where and how it worked. I also learned that cranking up the torsion bars reduces the amount of travel in the front end, which would limit the off-road capability of flex over obstacles.

I did a post-mortem on the install where I noted ALL this info was an absolute MUST HAVE, along with the OLV instructions. This experience forced me to become more familiar with my van to the point where I am comfortable sharing this advise with you now, but also eventually tackling the 4" lift and transfer case swap in the future... as soon as I am done reading everything I can find on the subject of course. I also noted that the parts in the OLV kit could be purchased individually for about 1/3 the cost, however Gerold at OLV was a big help, his instructions were a big help and I wouldn't feel right accepting his help without purchasing his product.

Please, check out the "Lifted Suspension" area of this forum, and like Lumps says... grab some coffee and settle in for some readin' the rest of the day.

I see your response, and it could be interpreted a couple different ways. I will hope for the best and assume I just haven't had enough coffee yet this morning.

[Lumpy]

More than one of the instructions points I received in my initial OLV 2" lift package was just plain incorrect.

One of the most helpful threads I ever read, and continue to read again and again, is $uperjoe's build thread. But the key is that I READ the thing.


Lump

[WimpTech]

More than one of the instructions points I received in my initial OLV 2" lift package was just plain incorrect.

One of the most helpful threads I ever read, and continue to read again and again, is $uperjoe's build thread. But the key is that I READ the thing.


Lump

Maybe Gerold fixed it since then, or I was just too dumb to notice... either is possible. Point being, (not so) common sense is the key.

BTW- personally I think that the 2" OLV kit should be added to the DEA's list of controlled substances because it is a frickin GATEWAY DRUG!

[dcsleeper]

I have 4-1/8. As soon as I heard you did 4, I bumped mine up.


Doing a lift is not "Give me the instructions and the parts". It's re-designing and re-engineering a vehicle that was never designed to be that way. And YOU are the new designer/engineer. It's about UNDERSTANDING what each part does and UNDERSTANDING why you're replacing it with bigger, taller, shorter or moving it over THERE. There is not just one way to lift a van. Each person doing a lift has to understand why his approach is different than THAT guy's approach.

Buying a kit is not a substitute for understanding all that. If you haven't crawled under your van, many, many times, and gone through the thought process of "First I'll remove that bolt there and here's why" and done that for every change you'll make, you're not doing it right. You'll be suprised, frustrated, infuriated, might get hurt, will probably take unsafe shortcuts just to "get it done 'cause I'm sick and tired of how slow this is going".

Evaluate a sub-section at a time. Rear leaves, for example. Evaluate just the REAR shackle/hanger. Crawl under yours and see what wrenches and sockets fit it. See if the nuts and bolts are frozen. Read the DOZENS of threads about how other people have done their shackle/hangers. Become an expert in YOUR shackles/hangers so that you are confident in your own mind that what you are doing is the best way (for you), safe, and achieves the goal you're looking for. If, instead, you buy what are billed as "Two inch lift shackles" and then go out one Saturday morning and crawl under there for the first time and start thinking "Ok what do the directions say" two things will happen - 1) You'll take 10x longer than you thought to get it done and 2) you'll be disappointed to learn that you really don't get 2" of lift (which you would have realized if you'd done your homework... ).

EVERY performance related activity (athletic events, musical performance, acting, roofing, sewing, painting, anything) involves the performer mentally going through the motions before the performance. Rebuilding your car is absolutely no different. Know exactly what you're going to do, where you're going to lay, what hand you're going to use on the wrench, BEFORE you do it.

"I don't have the skills or knowledge so I'm buying a kit" means "I don't want to do the mental pre-work". The former is not a substitute for the latter. EVERY person who has bought a kit has substituted some parts, added some parts, left out some parts. And every one of them has said, once finished "Wow I could have done all this for 1/4 the cost by just buying the parts I need, separately".

Now get to work, future lifters. Go do a mental lift on your van.


Lump - Mentalist

this post shows how intelligent some of lumpy's posts could be