Here's how my insurance company rep explained it to me, and it makes sense to a degree......the Federal Government forces automobile manufacturers to comply with their stated bumper heights for various vehicles.....automakers comply........which makes for a pretty good case against not altering the vehicle to a juror......a lifted truck has a bumper height perhaps made quite above that of even an tractor trailer truck......a highly lifted truck rear ends a family in a factory standard vehicle and a four year old dies from it.....you get sued.......how do you defend yourself? Really? I have a 2" leveling kit on my 2006 F150, nothing drastic, so mind you I'm still not knocking lift kits. Also, does changing the center of gravity affect sway control? Sure seems like it would. You'd have the tail wagging the dog again, depending on lift height.
* This post was
edited 02/06/08 01:26pm by birddog84 *
Back to the topic, I have a lift and tow a 30' Prowler. No it does not perform as well as it would have I guess if I had left it stock. That being said, I upgraded my suspension to what is on an F350 quad cab long bed with a leveling kit up front. Not only did this lift my Excursion, but it also made it almost the exact as to what Ford has put on them. I did gain about 3" in front and 2" in front. For me, I don't think there is any noticable difference and there is plenty of adjustment build in to my WD hitch head to compensate for this. I did not go crazy with an extreme lift, but if you are in the 3-4" range and not hauling extremely heavy every single day all of the time, you will be OK. Yes you may need to re-gear, but you might not. I have pulled over Donner Pass and Highway 50 to South Lake Tahoe with NO problems. Even the Cajon Pass and the Grapevine were easy pulls with no lack of power. I keep an eye on my weight distribution and total weight as well as all of my components to make sure I have as few problems as possible.
By the way, I am going to raise the suspension on the trailer. The Fleetwood dealer said no problemo and $250 to raise it a little and ease off on the hitch head. Don't let the naysayers scare you out of it, just be prepared as you may need some extra work and not just the lift. By the way, unless you get verification, most lift springs HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER WEIGHT RATINGS! Be aware of that. If you have a Ford, Deaver Spring in Santa Ana CA can custom build you a set for your towing requirements. If you give them about 2 days with it, they will even fully install. I will probably replace my rear ones this year with some custom ones so as to eliminate as much block in the rear set up as possible.
The bottom line is, it can be done, but like the people said just be prepared to upgrade the difficult things like gears in the tow vehicle.
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