Towing with a body lift

[Rob93]

I know there's a thread on the OS but not sure if we have one here. I have Marks 3" body lift and will need to start towing around my Jeep once its finished. Anyone have experience with the brackets holding up? I've been pulled out a couple times by my hitch since the body lift but nothing serious... The cherokee is about 3300 lbs and I dont have a trailer yet but I assume it will weigh in around 2,000 lbs... So a bit over 5k total

Even if I re-gear I'm not sure how 34s are going to do towing the jeep anyways... I might just have to go smaller

[fishsticks]

Like everything on my truck, my rear hitch/body lift brackets have been abused. They haven't moved after lots of static and dynamic extractions, and a good dose of towing....usually in the form of a 6x12 enclosed trailer loaded with equipment.

You won't be a race truck... but I tow fine on 35's as long as I keep an eye on trans temps. My rear tires rub pretty good when I do tow though... probably time to take the extra set of control arms I have and make longer ones.

[Rob93]

Like everything on my truck, my rear hitch/body lift brackets have been abused. They haven't moved after lots of static and dynamic extractions, and a good dose of towing....usually in the form of a 6x12 enclosed trailer loaded with equipment.

You won't be a race truck... but I tow fine on 35's as long as I keep an eye on trans temps. My rear tires rub pretty good when I do tow though... probably time to take the extra set of control arms I have and make longer ones.

What weight are you towing around? And I bet the 4.56s help a lot. Also note I'm in south florida so all of my towing will be on FLAT ground

[fishsticks]

Like everything on my truck, my rear hitch/body lift brackets have been abused. They haven't moved after lots of static and dynamic extractions, and a good dose of towing....usually in the form of a 6x12 enclosed trailer loaded with equipment.

You won't be a race truck... but I tow fine on 35's as long as I keep an eye on trans temps. My rear tires rub pretty good when I do tow though... probably time to take the extra set of control arms I have and make longer ones.

What weight are you towing around? And I bet the 4.56s help a lot. Also note I'm in south florida so all of my towing will be on FLAT ground

Probably 3500ish lbs MAX. I have hills here though...lots of em. I think I'd borrow my buddy's full size if I had to tow 5K around here. I plan on upgrading my front brakes to EXT style one of these days.

Flat ground I'd try it...

[navigator]

so with the body lift you can still tow?
I was concerned about getting the BL and still towing my bass boat.

[bartonmd]

If you're going to tow something heavy like a vehicle on a trailer, I'd ditch the blind bolts in favor of fishing regular grade 8 bolts through...

Mike

[rgraboske]

Mine has 4.10s and stock size tire's, but I pretty regularly tow various cars on an 1,800 lb trailer. With my GTO, tools, spares, and the family loaded up, I'm right at the limit weight-wise, and it tows fine. Power is not a problem at all.

[Rob93]

If you're going to tow something heavy like a vehicle on a trailer, I'd ditch the blind bolts in favor of fishing regular grade 8 bolts through...

Mike

I was thinking this

[Trail X]

Are you talking about replacing the nuts too? Without weld nuts it'd be impossible.

Either way, you're probably not going to see any benefit. The clamping load on the bar is what holds it in place, not the shear strength of the bolts. The stock bolts are probably 10.9 anyways.

[Gordinho80]

FYI... I just took my rear bar off temporarily and noticed that they are in fact 10.9 bolts.

[bartonmd]

Are you talking about replacing the nuts too? Without weld nuts it'd be impossible.

Either way, you're probably not going to see any benefit. The clamping load on the bar is what holds it in place, not the shear strength of the bolts. The stock bolts are probably 10.9 anyways.

Not the ones that hold the bumper in the stock location... On the body lift, it only uses 2 of the 6 regular bolts, and it also uses 4 blind bolts drilled up into the bottom of the bar... Those blind bolts, as MikePeters found out, can come loose if they're jarred a lot (his came loose due to dynamic extractions with a stretchy extraction strap)... Kyle hasn't had this issue, but Kyle actually fished through grade 8 bolts, before Mark went with the blind bolts...

Blind bolts like this:


Mike

[Trail X]

Ah, I've never seen a bolt like that before. Pretty slick. But it would seem weld nuts would be a lot cheaper.

Did Kyle weld on nuts? or was he somehow able to fish a wrench into the frame?

[bartonmd]

Ah, I've never seen a bolt like that before. Pretty slick. But it would seem weld nuts would be a lot cheaper.

Did Kyle weld on nuts? or was he somehow able to fish a wrench into the frame?

No, these go into the bottom of the receiver tube, where the body lift bracket comes out under the bumper... Instead of fishing bolts through the receiver tube, you just drill up into the receiver tube and stick the blind bolts in...

Mike