homemade lift kits

[dodge guy]

me and my buddy are going to make a lift kit for my mazda pickup for we can go mudding we were thinking of puting spacers in the leaf springs in back and then making a bracket for the front to have the shocks go down farther and put big tires on it

anyone think it will work or have any ideas feel free to list them thanks

[Dozer]

Always though about trying it but never have. I want to see some pics when you get it done!

[Shack]

If you are just mudding with the truck, it should be fine. I would do some research before hand though. The rear is a pretty sound idea, but the front end could fail if you do not do it correct. I hate being out in the middle of mud run and have something fail.

Good luck and do show us some images.

[dodge guy]

we were also thinking that we could drop the leaf springs in the back about 4 inchs and make a new bracket for it then weld a piece in the back by the spring for it doesnt give and break

[fishing tech]

Many years ago we would use hockey pucks and do a body lift. Nothing fancy but cheap.

[Shack]

What year is the Mazda?

They might make very cheap kits, that would make your life easier. I am all for fabing your own stuff, but when you figure in the time (measuring and building), it is so much nicer to just bolt in stuff made for this.

[heat checker]

I would go with a homemade body lift. You can go 2-3 inches without many problems. Anytime you mess with the engineering on the axles and springs with something home designed you're flirting with disaster. Son and I are in process of homemade 3 inch body lift for his 79 ford.

[Scott K]

One big problem you will run into is the drive line angle of the axle. If you lift it and plan to still drive it down the road you will find that there will be a bad viberation, and ujoints will wear quick. If you just plan on driving off raod in mud runs with a factory engine, a home made lift kit will work if you make it strong enough. But you will still want to address the drive line angle, or you will be snapping drive shafts off.

It is a fun hobby, but it can be expensive!

[SStracker]

i had a 79 ford bronco with spacer in the springs. i bought it like that so dont know what all went into it. gave me a 3inch lift and never had any problems. like stated before you need to be careful with how the geometry of your other components will change. i lowered my current truck (07 trailblazer SS) 2" and had to replace the upper A-arms for longer ones, new springs, and add a panhard bar in the rear to straighten it out. started out as a 200$ drop and ended up around $700

[Jeremy airjer W]

Welcome to HSO/FM SStracker!

I bet that looks pretty good with the drop!

[SStracker]

Thanks, i love it here already.

heres a pic from the otherday, dirty i know but its so hard to keep black clean around this time of year.

[Scott K]

Nice set up you have there!

[SStracker]

thanks, right now gas prices are killing me getting about 16mpg average (13 city, 18 hwy)

back on topic i think something like this would work alright for your lift, or you could get some hockey pucks like stated earlier and do a custom kit.

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[Scott K]

Here is a picture of what SStracker was reffering to.