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How To Install 6" Tuff Country Lift System
Submitted By: Date: November 17, 2008, 02:19:05 PM Views: 7010
How To Install 6" Tuff Country Lift System - Outlaw


This is my first attempt at a How To so please bear with me as sometimes the mind works faster than the pen and sometimes details are omitted by accident. First off I would like to get all of my thank you’s taken care of. I would like to thank Tuff Country for the donation of the lift to the site. Second to our fearless leader Sam and Jamie for picking me to be the lucky recipient of the kit. And last to Shane Tubbs and the Offroad Truck Accs. Crew for the use of the lift and the tools, it sure makes the job easier.



Things needed are:
  • Tuff Country 6" lift
  • Sockets (various sizes)
  • Wrenches (various sizes)
  • Hammer (bigger the better)
  • Cut off wheel (God sent)
  • Impact gun
  • Torch
  • Tons of penetrating oil
  • Pry bars & alignment tools
  • Compressor
  • Jackstands
  • Floor jack (the more the better)
  • Buddy with all the above
  • SAFETY GLASSES!!!!




Also be aware of the safety issues, make sure tools are in good condition and truck is always properly supported. In our case we had a four point lift so it made the our job easier.







Figure 1 shows the truck in its previous state of 4" lift.







Figure 2 is the Tuff Country system which consisted of leaf springs for front & rear shocks, a transfer case drop ubolts, shock boots, ad a brake line relocation kit, steering correction.










1. I started with the transfer case drop so the pinion angle could be corrected before completion of th lift. You will have to properly support the T case with a floor jack before removing the bolts that attach it to the frame. There are two sets per side upper and lower. Only remove one side at a time for obvious safety reasons. You can remove the upper support which allows for dual exhaust. You will then insert the Tcase drop bracket in between, insert and tighten provided bolts. I added a third bolt for extra strength. You can see the before and after pictures in Figure 3 & Figure 4.



This gave a little over 1" of drop. Next you can move on to the brake line relocation which is accomplished by unbolting the line from the cross member and reattaching with the bracket provided. I had already corrected mine with stainless braided lines that were good up to eight inches. Steering correction is provided in the form of a steering block spacer. After removing the three nuts on top of the stock steering arm and heating it up and smacking it with a hammer you can then remove the arm. You can then either use a stud puller or the jambnut method to remove the studs from the top of the knuckle. Replace with longer studs (lock tight in place for safety). Then install the block and stock steering arm, nuts and tighten to factory specs. I, in this case, had opted for the dropped Pittman arm which sometimes is an easier approach.



2. After correction of steering I decided to start with the front part of the lift since I thought it might provide me with more of a challenge which it did. First support the front of the vehicle and remove wheels. This is where my first frustration occurred, in a previous run with the Texas chapter I managed to gash my front driver side tire when I changed the flat I managed to crossthread one of the lugs which resulted in profanity and breaking off the stud. I will do another how to soon on replacing studs! With the tired off the RC I jacked up  the differential to take pressure off of the leaf spring. Working one side at a time remove the U bolts and the follow suit with the leaf spring bolts. This will allow removal of the stock spring. In my case I had the front spring eye bolt frozen in place so I ended up cutting off the ends and using the air hammer to knock them out.



Almost forgot the mention that I like leaving the shock in place for ease of manipulation of the differential, it keeps a little more control disallowing a lot of side to side movement. At this point you can install the new leaf with fresh spring eye bolts. I used grade 8 heavily lubricated this time. I chose to fabricate new frame rail hangers because whoever had the RC before had put aftermarket hangers and it played havoc with front drive shaft. At this point I jacked the diff back into place and installed the provided U bolts and tightened them to specs. Then I replaced the shock with the new one.







Figure 5 shows the after product. Due to camera problems some shots did not come out.



3. I then turned my attention to the passenger side which pretty much follows the process of the drivers side. The only difference is the studs on the inner side of the leaf spring.







Figure 6 shows the U bolts and the bolts which replace the studs and nuts on the previous.







Figure 7 is a gratuitous shot of the framerail hangers which I fabricated, and the fresh grade 8 hardware I installed.











4. Now it was time to move to the back of the RC to do this portion of the lift. Once again with RC properly supported remove the rear wheels and relieve the tension from the springs with a floor jack. I thought this would be gravy at this point but the fatigue set in so once again frustration ran high. My help that was suppose to arrive still had not shown so it was going into my tenth hour on this project. I then removed the U bolts and spring eye bolts and the leaf spring as shown in Figure 9. When I went to reinstall the new leaf I got a little surprise. The rear springs eyes incorporate ˝ inch hardware instead of the stock hardware sizes. Luckily I was at Offroad Truck Accs. where I work so I did not have to scramble for hardware.







I replaced the springs U bolts spring eyes and installed the new shocks Figure 10 shows the completed process with wheels reinstalled. The process was recreated on the passenger side. One thing I highly recommend is to go back over all installed nuts, bolts, U bolts and lug nuts and make sure everything is buttoned down, always better safe than sorry. The whole installation process took about 13 hours on a Sunday. Time removed for road blocks such as cutting bolts and air hammering would have brought it down to about 10 hours. Competent help would put you in the 7-9 hour time frame which is about standard.













Figure 11, 12, & 13 show the completed lift and the flex and articulation that the Tuff Country 6" system allows you.



Impressions - My previous lift gave a very rough ride but the Tuff Country lift is smooth. Things I really like about the system is that it is very complete in every form, the spring eye bushings come pre-installed, and the shocks have nice recoil to them. I will be going back and reinstalling grade 8 hardware on the rear simply because grade 5 was all we had in stock at the time at work. Outside of that this is a fantastic lift. Make sure you check out Tuff Country, for they are one of our sponsors and make a truly great product.



Outlaw
   
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ramit86
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my new toy


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January 24, 2012, 07:40:18 AM
where did i get the braided stainless steal brake lines ? and where can i find the transfer case drop kit
ramcharger_89_tx
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July 27, 2010, 09:02:48 PM
Do you know how muck the lift cost? Or How can recevie one like you?
76dodgeboy
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RCC Rules!


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July 24, 2010, 04:30:05 PM
What kit and where did you get it? I want to clear 37s an was told 6" would do it.
whocares
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April 21, 2010, 11:35:11 PM
Thanks for the How-To! I'm about to lift my 76 Trailduster 6 inches as well. Its a big block automatic and stock in every way.

What did you do about the pinion angle on the front axle? Anything at all?

I have looked on here and I am familiar with all 15 different opinions that I found. But it seems that you are "the source" for 6 inch lifts. ;)

thanks in advance

Raydawg


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