When I purchased my truck, the previous owner had installed a Rancho lift. I used to
drive a 240z and I was comfortable driving with my eyes about 4 feet off the ground, and
driving this truck was quite a bit different (in that good sort of way). After the
test drive we put an offer in for the truck that day, and all of a sudden I had one
bad ass truck (so I thought at the time). The guy (Jeff), said it had a "Ranchero"
lift, (should have been my first clue...) but I had no idea what the hell that was
so I just thought, a lift is a lift, besides...I'd NEVER off road something this
pretty...2 months later I'm stranded on the side of a mountain with one broken
upper a-arm and one other cracked arm, both KEY suspension components of the
Rancho lift. But I'm getting ahead of myself...Requirements:
If someone is interested in buying a suspension lift for an IFS Toyota, you have to
ask yourself... 1. How much of my hard-earned money do I want to spend? And in effect not spend on other mods (Ie: locker[s]). 2. Just what the hell am I going to do with this truck; rock crawl, pre runner, or pavement pound?
These two questions are a start, and once you answer them you will have to answer
MANY, MANY, MANY (that's 3 many's...) other questions. But I'm not going into
buying a lift, I'm talking about the Rancho lift right? right... Well the Rancho lift
was for what type of person? (I know you were wondering...)
Well, it sure ain't rock crawling, it sure ain't prerunnering...so it falls into the
pavement pounder position. Sure, you COULD wheel a Rancho suspension, heck I do right
now. I'm just saying that it isn't the be all-end all of suspensions. There is a
whole world of possibilities in the realm of Toy IFS suspensions, but again you have
to know what you want to achieve and what you are willing to spend.Installation:
Came with rigOverall Impression: 
The Rancho lift is a simple lift that replaces the stock upper a-arms, moves the
differential down 3" as to relieve any excessive angle on the CV axles, and has
add-a-leafs for the rear which provide about 2.5" lift. With this suspension kit,
it will allow your vehicle to squeeze in 32x11.5 tires. Which is what my truck came
with, BFG Muddys to be exact. Replacing the torsion bars sway aways are reccommended
because of the extra stress the slightly longer arms places on the stock torsion bars.
So now you know what makes up the Rancho suspension, here is how the 3" of lift is
achieved. It is actualy quite simple, crank them torsion bars sucka! With a stock
suspension the upper arm has about an inch and a half, to two inches of space between
the upper bumpstop and the upper arm. With the Rancho suspension, the arms have
nearly a quarter to a half an inch of space between the arm, and the bump stop.
Giving the truck 3" of lift. The Rancho suspension replaces the nice, thick and
cushy upper bumps with thin, hard polyurethane bumpstops. With the truck setup like
this, the ride varies from terrible, to completely terrible when off-road.Problems/Regrets: 
Having less than a half inch of down travel is not something prerunners have, and
definetly not something crawlers have. So where would this kind of suspension be
ideal for? Pavement pounders...barely...the ride sucks on road too. Dont hit
speedbumps too hard or you'll be in for some whiplash. That and there is a terrible
sound when the arms slam into the upper bumpstops, which happens VERY frequently. So
frequent that the metal on the upper arm fatigues right where the bumpstop comes in
contact. Which is exactly what happened to my truck. The drivers side upper arm
broke right after the bumpstop on the wheel side, broke being completely in two,
allowing the wheel to turn which ever way it wanted to, and angle inwards, oh yeah,
and be bottomed out. The passenger side had a crack in the same exact place as
the other side but not all the way through yet.
So that's how my upper arms broke, I ended up driving home with the wheels pointed
in waaaaay different directions. I took my truck to a friend of mine who builds pro
trucks who lives on the way home from where the arms broke. I parked the truck across
the street, they were already outside wondering where the hell that constant tire
screeching noise was coming from. They looked at the arms and they said without
hesitation, "you're F***ed." Which wasn't encouraging at the time.
I didn't know what to do, buy the arms again from rancho where they were going to
break again, go with a different suspension and spend lots of $$ for a suspension
that looked pretty crappy too, or get a killer suspension that needed glass, longer
shocks etc, etc... In the end I went back to Rancho (DUMB, DUMB, DUMB) after they
told me over the phone that their suspension is for aesthetics only, and if the truck
went off-roading, the warranty was void. So I spent $500 for the new arms and $550
on the labor to get those arms slopped back on. However I changed some things around,
I didn't have the torsion bars cranked as much, I allowed for about 2" of space between
the upper bumpstop and the upper arm to allow for some down travel which resulted in a
MUCH smoother ride on and off road and hopefully a little longer suspension life while
I save up for a Total Chaos or ATS (Advanced Toyota Suspension) kit.Conclusion:
To be blunt about it, the kit isn't worth what you pay in parts, let
alone labor. The metal is weak, the design is poor, you get LESS wheel travel than
stock, the ride is harsh and you wont get alot of respect cruising out in the desert
when someone notices your truck with two red arms in the wheel wells. The rear
suspension gets less travel than stock, has a harsh ride as well, but you can carry a
greater load with the stiffer springs. But my springs are sagging already, and my
torsion bars are giving up...time to get something else... If someone were to ask
me right now that they are going to go buy a suspension and are going to only cruise
around town with it, I say go ahead and get extended shackles and maybe a Trailmonster
(Trailmaster)
lift, at least drop down brackets don't break, and they keep the original suspension ride
and travel. If someone said that they wanted to go cruise around the desert,
I'd say no, but if you're not going to go hardcore, then I'd say maybe...if you dont
mind the headache. Frankly, the stock suspension is better designed and a heck of a lot
stronger than anything Rancho can put out. Who cares if you get 3" of lift, the drop
down brackets rob what ever clearance you would have gotten with the extra lift and tires.
Either go stock, or go big. But hey, what do I know...Back to Words |