Lifting the rig you ’wheel is as much a necessity as lockers and the right tires. Even if you’re just gaining a couple of inches under the framerails, there are few rigs that won’t benefit from the added clearance, which reduces body damage and improves approach and departure angles. To give you an idea of what’s what when it comes to lifting various trucks, we put four different lifts, shops, and trucks to the test. The results are shown on the next few pages.
The Superlift 5-inch Dodge Ram kit shown in this article has the tallest advertised lift of the bunch and raises an already lofty 1/2-ton rig even higher, leaving acres of room under the rocker panels. The kit actually claims to lift the truck 5 inches in the front and 4-1/2 in the rear to level it out, but we gained just over 6 inches of front lift and 5 inches in the rear. The amount lift you realize will depend on how your truck is optioned (how heavy it is); ours is relatively light.
There are basically three schools of thought on lifting a new Dodge. Installing taller springs but retaining the factory four-link setup or using longer arms works well up to about 3 inches of lift. Beyond this, the link angles become too great. The next method is to drop the mounting brackets, but this compromises ground clearance.
The Superlift kit uses unique tubular radius arms in place of the factory Quadra-Link suspension. These provide better front-axle control and allow sufficient droop without binding in the frame mounts. The Superide springs provide lift without a harsh ride. We drove this Ram for about 1,000 miles on- and off-road with the stock tires. We found the ride to be barely stiffer than stock with the factory tires and expect it to be much softer when we switch later to 36x12.50-15 TSL radials, due to the increase in sidewall height and tire weight.
With the kit parts in the bed, we took the truck to Off-Road General Store, where Mark Hinkley and Travis Buhrman raised the truck and gave us plenty of lift tips in the process.