lifted sled pullers

[bullfrogjohnson]

i have the oportunity for a free 6" pro comp lift for my truck, was thinking of putting it on and running tbars all the way down on 33's, but didnt know the adverse effects of front end with that big of a lift for sled pulling. i know alot of guys run 4" lifts but dropping the diff a full 6" is there any adverse effects for sled pulling only? i know the adverse effect on daily use my last truck was lifted too high

thanks
travis

 

[McRat]

i have the oportunity for a free 6" pro comp lift for my truck, was thinking of putting it on and running tbars all the way down on 33's, but didnt know the adverse effects of front end with that big of a lift for sled pulling. i know alot of guys run 4" lifts but dropping the diff a full 6" is there any adverse effects for sled pulling only? i know the adverse effect on daily use my last truck was lifted too high

thanks
travis

There are three major problems with lifting your truck and sled pulling:

Your IFS front end is under more stress and more likely to fail, regardless of how much you beef it up.

Your Center of Gravity is higher, which makes the sled transfer the weight to your rear tires quicker.

Your Ujoints are at a higher angle of attack and lose efficiency and strength.



Lifted trucks look cool, and are a must for running huge tires. But for competition purposes, it's a no-no.

 

[02freighttrain]

If your gonna pull it and want the front end to stay together, keep it stock height with the bar's down. It really depends on how much power you make and if you have a locker in the front to distribute the load. I just don't get the lifted truck deal, unless you are going off road or want to run tall tires. Big tires and lifted truck's are hard on part's.You can do a lot with a stock height truck. You can run your best e.t.'s and still pull the crap out of a sled with the right tires. Think about what you want to do. I have seen lifted truck break a lot of everything. The IFS has some issues. Just work with it.

 

[bullfrogjohnson]

i only want to run 33's on my 16x10's, and i dont want to have to change my tires every time i go to the pulls, i am already going to have to take my green keys out for the pull season and i dont know if i am going to fit the tires i have on my truck now, i thought the lift would eliminate these problems and if i ran the lift w/ the bars all the way down it wouldnt sit any higher than a 4" and i could run 33's w/ out all the hassle, but from what i am hearing it might not be worth it

 

[Diesel Pilot]

"OSUduramax" on the Diesel Place is a very successful puller with a six inch lift. I would contact him to see what he has to say.

Ecc_33 did very well last season and always put it on the non-lifted truck in my sig., with both running the exact same tune. Maybe, setup/driver differences. But OSUduramax and Ecc_33 placed 1 and 2 in a local pull and both are lifted trucks.

I would think that the lift would put some undo stress on parts though

 

[02freighttrain]

"OSUduramax" on the Diesel Place is a very successful puller with a six inch lift. I would contact him to see what he has to say.

Ecc_33 did very well last season and always put it on the non-lifted truck in my sig., with both running the exact same tune. Maybe, setup/driver differences. But OSUduramax and Ecc_33 placed 1 and 2 in a local pull and both are lifted trucks.

I would think that the lift would put some undo stress on parts though

Craig, I guess I should have prefaced my comments with consideration to the brand of lift. Most lift's I've seen throw the CV's way out of wack. What Pat said is very true. Wierd angles on the drive shafts and CV's can really cause havoc, especially with power. Anytime the Tie rod's drop down, the pressure on the centerlink go's up. Then comes "toe-in", out the wazoo. My problem is with 800 lbs hanging off the front and T-bar bolts removed, my truck still pick's the front end up enough to make the front end do wierd, very wierd thing's.
Guy's that are pulling "lifted" and not breaking front end parts, have figured out something that I need to know. I'm trying to figure out a way to put Air shock's on the front to lift the truck up after I leave the sled, so I don't have any rub issues in the pit's. I just like it when the front end is sniff'in the ground on the way to a full pull.

 

[JOHNBOY]

Evan OSUDuramax uses a 6" Procomp. ProComp drops everything in the front so geometry is not harmed. But I think you are better off without a lift. You a can run 33"s on H2 wheels without any trouble with no lift at all.

 

[ecc_33]

i only want to run 33's on my 16x10's,

i run the same tire wheel combo!

dont think ill ever break my truck because of my lift
my cv angles are great
you cant hardly even tell a difference with the u joint angles....maybe just a couple dagrees....
my advice lift it and have fun

 

[$Smokin_Duradog$]

I run 11" of lift with 38"x 15.50"x 20". Im am no means a pro puller in anyway. I chase the local fair pulls and little town pulls. I only made it to 6 pulls this past year. My truck dynoed at 426hp and 837tq before I put in upgraded trans. I broke one time and that was at Schied's Diesel pull. I broke a rear driveshaft along with about 4 other dmaxs. It was the first time I had pulled on black sticky clay. So I guess what Im getting at is I agree that a nonlifted truck would be much better for pulling but you can still do it with a lifted truck.

 

[ecc_33]

now that might be alittle to much lift ^^^^

 

[bullfrogjohnson]

11" of lift is too much i had 12" and 40's on my old tahoe and hooked to a sled and it about lifted the front tires off the ground, not a good idea

the only reason i am going to run the 6" is because its free, i would rather run a 4" but that would cost me money i only want to run 33's so i would rather go the free route so i can spend that 1500 bucks on a tranny

 

[hdmax]

The amount of lift, and size of tires should not make the front end feel light, as the hook height is still maxed out at either 24", or 26".

 

[SmokeShow]

Sure it would.

The hitch height might be lower but thats only because he had to use a drop hitch. Now that drop hitch goes UP to the receiver which is attached to the frame that is now 12" higher than normal. That creates a much larger coupling force on the frame and likely would cause excessive or above normal lift in the front.

This is assuming he didn't run solid blocks in the rear allowing the springs to compress. Even still, there would have been more than stock amount of uplift force on the front end.


Now if it was a 12" body lift, there wouldn't be any difference in the forces through the frame from back to front. But I doubt thats the case.


C-ya

 

[bullfrogjohnson]

yeah that was a fun pull and i think i made it 95ft before i let off, and yes i have seen plenty of old straight axle trucks with smily face springs on them lift the front tires of the ground, the pulls around me are about as bush hokie as they come they dont even enforce hitch height. the only thing they care about is the antique tractor classes and thats it the let the other classes do whatever which is why it is hard to win around my parts beacuse you have stock to twin turboed diesels to fully built gas motor pulling trucks all in the same class which ends up being not good for me