Finesse

KISS! No, not the rock band, the acronym for “Keep It Simple Stupid.” There is an elegance in simplicity when it’s done right and Rancho’s Quik Lift system appears to have all the elements to fit in that category. When we needed just a touch of altitude to fit a moderate tire upgrade, we were offered the opportunity to put this fairly new Rancho product to the test.

Our bare bones ’05 F150 XL regular cab longbed test mule is first and foremost a work truck. It has the rare 8200 pound GVW option, which put it easily into a “heavy-half” category, if not into the low end of 3/4-ton territory. A farm truck in the Midwest often finds itself in the greasy brown stuff and the stock 245/70R-17D General Grabber TRs weren’t cutting it. Our replacement tire needs were modest, an upgrade from a 31 inch equivalent to a 33. We chose 285/70R-17D Dick Cepek FC-IIs as replacements (a full test is forthcoming, stay tuned). They likely would have fit without a lift but it would have been close and the truck would still have had that annoying rake.
Our first call to Rancho yielded some hesitation. The Quik Lift was introduced late in ’06 so they haven’t yet had time to test fit every F-150 application. Case in point, they had not test-fitted a Quik Lift to the high GVW F-150 and there are some notable differences in the suspension between it and the lower GVW trucks. In the end, we made arrangements to get the lift kit installed at Rancho’s R&D/Engineering facility in Monroe, Michigan and their boffins had a chance to dissect the truck and make sure the kit would fit. Happily, there were no issues and the 8200 GVW F-150 trucks have now been officially added to the Quik Lift applications. Rancho’s crackerjack installation engineer, Dave Rafko, did the installation without breaking a sweat.

Resplendent in Liquid Metallic Silver, the front coilover shocks and rear RS9000XL shocks. Both front and rear are 9-position adjustable and have poly bushings.	New and OE. Note the difference in the position of the lower spring seat. It’s position accounts for the lift and shock travel is adjusted to suit. The lower bushings of both are a special type that can freely pivot as the lower A-arm moves up and down.

Simple Description

The Quik Lift replaces the coilover shock (more correctly known as a spring seat shock) with a better one that has a modified position for the spring seat. Your OE spring is reused and that both saves money and preserves your OE ride and load capacity. The new shock includes the expensive special lower strut bushing necessary to ensure long bushing life and to avoid binding during suspension travel. Rancho advertises the Quik Lift as offering between 1 and 2.5 inches of lift depending on the application. On F-150s without heavy bumpers and such, we think most will end up with 2 to 2.5 inches depending on whether you have a 5.4L or 4.6L, your factory spring rates and how much your old springs have sagged. Rancho says you can fit up to a 35x12.50-18 tire and that looks to be about right.

This is a high-end coil spring compressor that makes the job easy. You can make do with lots less in a DIY situation but more care is required. There’s a lot of stored energy in a compressed coil spring and you don’t want it released into your face.

You get more than just a ride height increase with the Quik Lift, you also get the benefits of Rancho’s shock expertise. The Quik Lifts contain Rancho’s superb new RS-9000XL technology that offers nine-position tuning capability. You can even add Rancho’s “My Ride” Wireless controller which allows you to adjust shock settings at the push of a button.
The RS-9000XL rear shocks are optional because, in many cases, you won’t be lifting the rear. You’d be silly not to install them, however as they are also nine-position adjustable. In some applications, the tube diameter is 2.75 inches, which offers a huge fluid capacity. Because the shocks are mounted so far outboard on the ’04-08 F-150, they can only use the 2.38-inch diameter housings, but they still have the beefy 18mm piston rod and 11 inches of travel.

Simple Installation

The Quik Lift system doesn’t quite fall into the “no brainer” category but it’s not far from it. It doesn’t take more than about a half hour to remove the struts from the truck. You’ll need a coil spring compressor to dismount the coil spring from the old strut and mount it onto the new. These can be purchased from many sources or rented from many of the bigger auto parts stores. You can even go to a repair shop and have them swapped over by a pro. The rear shocks are a no-brainer!
Afterwards, you’ll need to see an alignment specialist because the lift will change the suspension geometry a tiny bit. We had our F-150 aligned by Tony Longmeyer at Raabe Ford, in Delphos, Ohio, who is their lifted truck specialist. We found minimal tweaking was required, mostly the toe. Camber was still in the green and left caster was just a skosh out. Tony dialed the front end to -0.3 degrees camber, 4 degrees caster and 0.05 degrees toe on both sides. The truck drove fine before the alignment and much better after. The toe was off enough to have caused some long term tire wear.

It can take a little persuasion to get the new eye hammered into the bracket in the lower control arm. Once the bolt is in place, you’ll need to torque it to a whopping 351 lbs-ft. The upper ball joint nut and tire rod nut each torqued to 111 lbs-ft.	The shock tuning knob (red arrow) can be installed with the knob facing in or out. Overall, we find it easier to reach facing inboard, as shown. Each detent can be clearly felt, from 1 to 9.
The rear shocks are two bolts on either side and about five minutes a side using air tools.	Both we and Rancho strongly suggest you get an alignment done after the Quick Lift installation. Granted, the only thing the Quik Lift took out of the green was the toe setting but that could be enough to affect long-term tire wear. Tony at Raabe Ford took the extra time to optimize all the geometry for us, however.

Simply Marvelous Results

We achieved an honest 2.5 inches of front lift, which offered more than enough clearance for the Dick Cepek 285/70R/17 tires. The truck is almost level and probably would be level on most other F-150s. The 8200 GVW trucks sit 1/2 to 3/4-inch higher in the back than the highest of the lower GVW trucks. Ride quality remarkably improved, even while still running the rough-as-a-cob General Grabbers. When the Dick Cepeks were added to the mix, the ride got even better. We’re still playing with shock tuning and tire pressures, but thus far, we’ve found setting 4 in front and 2 in the rear works well with our truck’s stiff suspension and unloaded tire pressures. Loaded, with cargo tire pressures, we’re at 6 front and 7 rear.

Simply Surprising MPG Results

We’ve been concentrating on fuel economy concerns lately and because we had our Edge Evolution hooked up and dialed in, we thought we’d report on the mpg effects of the lift alone and then combined with the new tires. We’ve harped over and over here at ORA on how lifts cost fuel economy. We are happily surprised to report that 2.5 inches of front lift had an unmeasureable effect on fuel economy in our tests. Evidently the slight alteration to the frontal area isn’t enough to effect fuel economy.

Rancho’s “MyRide” wireless controller eliminates much of the complication found in Rancho’s previous in-cab shock controller. You can manually adjust through all nine shock setting separately front and rear and program them into four presets: Highway, Sport, Work/Tow/Haul and Off-Road. Sounds pretty nifty! We’re working on getting a unit to test. Stay tuned!

When we added the tires to the mix, we expected a slight drop due to an extra 1.1 inches of height plus the increased rolling resistance of 2+ inches of additional tread width combined with a more aggressive tread. We were more than a little surprised to again see little or no change. What change we did see was blipped upwards! We’re not complaining, but how? Our best guess is that with our truck’s factory 4.10:1 ratios, the increase in tire diameter dropped the rpms into an area the engine liked better (down about 200 rpm at 70 mph) and that cancelled out the losses. The new tires gives us an effective overall ratio of 3.82:1 (old tire dia/new tire dia x gear ratio= effective ratio).

Simply the End

Rancho earns big points for coming up with a simple means to lift the ’04-08
F-150 that really delivers in the ride and performance department and allows you to fit tires up to 35 inches. We like the tunability aspects and if the RS9000XLs hold up as well as a set of the earlier generation shocks used on another truck, we’ll still be running them 10 years from now.

AFTER The front end is lifted almost exactly 2.5 inches, as measured at the center of the wheel arches. The truck gained another 7/8-1.1 inches due to the tire diameter increase (variable according to tire pressure front to rear). It gained a good 1.5 inches in ground clearance under the skidplate up front. There are no tire clearance issues in any combination of steering or ride height.