my brother wants to lift his 99 z71 and i dont know a damn thing about ifs. if he had a solid axle it would be easy. does anyone have any links to any writeups. searched around and cant find anything.

search...

o..and here yeah go

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=252455&highlight=Straight+Axle

he doesnt want to do a sas, this is gonna be a pavement pounder that will probably see a little mud every now and then. been searching and cant come up with anything useful.

best way to do a lift is a sas, from what i read it would be cheaper and probly work better, just my .02 i dunno jack bout newer suspention

My rig is also my daily driver so it does plenty of pavement pounding and I admittedly drive like a madman. It routinely sees 100+ MPH and is as solid and steady as a rock when there. Therefore, I can tell you: there is nothing wrong with a solid front axle on the street and it beats the everloving hell out of any common, stock derived IFS system in wheel travel, articulation, durability, and ultimate strength. Plus leaf spring suspensions are dirt cheap to lift and maintain, they are much easier to fix, and they will take way more abuse than IFS.

That said, if you still want to lift your stock IFS, there are MANY companies that make kits for that truck. I know Fabtech does as well as probably Superlift, Skyjacker, Rough Country, Tuff Country, or any number of companies in the back of 4-Wheel and Offroad. I don't have any experience in lifting IFS trucks, so I can't recommend 1 company over another, but check 'em out. I will say that it won't be at all cheap or particularly easy if you want to do it right but there are a million places that sell all-in-1 kits. Search and ye shall find.

thanks, but trust me. if he would let me i would slap an axle in there. i hate ifs. but its a new truck to him and he just wants a simple 3" or so lift. i'll keep looking

I did a SAS on my 89, and going to be doing one on my 97. Even if you do an IFS lift of any sort, you have to drop all of that IFS crap to put the lift on, then put it all back on. You are halfway there to do a SAS. As long as you get a driver's side drop axle, you don't have to change your t-case. Granted, I used a kit to do my 89, but will be making my own brackets on the 97, but it's still not that hard. I, as well as some others, will give you all the info you will need, and tell you what and where to get the parts. The beauty with a SFA over IFS, you build it once, and pretty much wont' have to touch it again, inless you are hard on your junk. With IFS, you are rebuilding the shit every couple of years, whether you wheel or not. IFS might ride ok, but that's where it stops. And once you lift it, you want more. "I just want 2-3" to clear 33s. OK, got 33s, now I want 35s". If you go a SAS, then it will be easy to get bigger tires. My 97 is my daily driver, and I drive it everyday inless i need gas and too lazy to get it, so we take the g/f's jeep. And after I lift it, right now the plan is to run 40s, it will still be driven everyday.

am i speaking in code?

I think what b454rat is telling you is that doing a SAS is not that much harder than doing an IFS lift, and once it's done, it's done so you might want to pass that info on to your brother.

If you still want to do the IFS lift, check out the companies that I listed on the web. Like I said, there are MANY companies that make lifts for this truck. Just check 'em out and see what is available and what is involved. Nobody is saying that SAS is the only way to lift the truck, just that it is the best way in the long run for performance and durability, but if your bro. doesn't want to modify his truck that radically, look into the IFS kits. That's really all that you can do. There is no cheap or easy way to properly lift an IFS, so if you are looking for shortcuts, good luck to you.

go to gmfullsize.com they'll have lots of info on the lifts your looking for. me i run a procomp on my 99, but wish i would have just put a 60 in front to begin with.

Sorry if I confused you or trying to make you think that you have to go SAS. Like Posi said, there are alot of companies out there that do IFS lifts, I never really heard anything bad about any of them. Just the ones that lift it 10-12" I would watch out for, lifting these trucks that much is just asking for trouble. You can get a 6" lift for around a grand IIRC. There was on a guy on 67-72 site that was selling a 6".

A friend of mine put a 4" lift on his 95. Long story short he basically couldn't use 4WD without fucking up the front end. It now has a solid axle front and he is much happier.

A friend of mine put a 4" lift on his 95. Long story short he basically couldn't use 4WD without fucking up the front end. It now has a solid axle front and he is much happier.

Isn't that the defining characteristic of most any IFS?

:D :flipoff2:

I've installed and driven ifs lifts on chevys for most of the big companys (fabtech, whiplash, rancho, RCD, etc. I would by the RCD kit hands down no question about it. best ride, excellent quality. get the 6 inch and use 33's. no rubbage, no cranked up torsion bars and their 6 tends to be a little low anyway.
solid axles are cool, thats what I did to mine after beating on a fabtech 8" for a while, but thwey are a lot of work and only really necessary if youre going really big.

I've installed and driven ifs lifts on chevys for most of the big companys (fabtech, whiplash, rancho, RCD, etc. I would by the RCD kit hands down no question about it. best ride, excellent quality. get the 6 inch and use 33's. no rubbage, no cranked up torsion bars and their 6 tends to be a little low anyway.
solid axles are cool, thats what I did to mine after beating on a fabtech 8" for a while, but thwey are a lot of work and only really necessary if youre going really big.
thanks, i'll look into the rcd kit

My friend has a rancho 4'' and 315/75/R16 (35-12.50-16) MTRs on his '02 Chevy 2500HD and the ride is probably better than stock. He started off with 33s, but they we're pretty small. This was a 2500 though. He The front tires rub slightly when the wheel is locked all the way. He uses the truck the same way you have described your brother using- daily driver and a little mud. 4Wheel Parts installed the lift. He has put about 23k miles on it since it was installed and has had no problems.

I have a 6 inch CST kit on my 01 1500 Sierra that I am happy with.

My one piece of advice is that regardless of which kit you/he goes with, do not use a knuckle lift type kit. The difference is that a full drop kit, lowers the up and lower A arms the same amount. I the case of the CST I mention above, with the base kit, the entire stock wheel assembly is dropped and used. In the case of a knuckle lift, the upper A arm is left in place, and the lower A arm is dropped. To make up the difference, they provide you with a new knuckle that has a long arm protruding from the top to reach back up to the upper A arm. I spent nearly 8 months researching kits before I made a decision and you do not want a knuckle lift. The stresses on that knuckle riser arm are huge, you almost never pick up any wheel travel and sometimes you actually lose it, (not that you pick up much wheel travel with an IFS lift anyway...), you end up with your tires sticking out, etc etc. Also you might notice that any 6 inch knuckle lift is probably not a true 6 inch frame drop. This is because a full 6 lift knuckle would have to be huge to take the stress. (The lift arm on these knuckles acts like a lever and increases the stress that the part sees.) So many of these kits are around a 5 inch or less drop and you are supposed to get the last inch by tweeking your Tbars.