I was reading on here, and I saw were someone had said don't use lift blocks if you plan to go off-road.

Is this true?

 

for your ordinary off roading blocks are fine in my opinion. If you're doing something with EXTREME angles or torque then maybe not. Something else to keep in mind is most newer 4x4's come with some sort of lift block already in them. I'm also just talking about a normal 3" - 5" blocks. If you go stacking them on top of each other that could be a little much...this is just my two cents on this...

 

Define "off-road" as you intend to do it.

Just a few things right off the top of my head:

If "off road" means mountain trails, suspension travel and compliance (softness) are more important than raw lift. You'll want ground clearance but not so much that you tumble down the mountain on an off-camber maneuver, and a suspension that will follow the terrain at lower speeds. (This is where most of my off road experience is, and I've a habit of going where others don't/can't, and getting home again.)

If "off road" means whooping it up in mud bogs that can be reached easily enough, lift is more important than suspension travel -- you don't want the undercarriage anchoring your truck. (I've never been much for mud bogging as it seems pointless to me, but I've known lots and lots of guys who were into it and darn good at it.)

If "off road" means baja racing, you want lots of suspension travel but less compliance than a mountain rig because you're bashing into things at a high rate of speed. Lift would be somewhere between mud bogging and mountaineering -- you need enough to clear the obstacles, but not enough that you lose high speed stability. (I've no experience racing these conditions on four wheels, but I've worked on baja vehicles.)

So, how are you intending to punish your poor innocent truck?

 

Definitely not ideal fora long travel suspension. I'm not an m/e but one of the issues it raises is it puts a torque moment (I think the technical term for it) between your axle and spring. The unwanted leverage results in axle wrap. A lot of guys will run ladder bars to counter the effect but I don't think that is entirely ideal either since even a really long ladder swings through an arc and will cause binding at some point.

Personally I'm running 4" blocks but I'm not landing big airs at high RPM and full throttle or doing dry pavement drag launches or anything nasty like that and have never had a problem. I don't even have any ladder bars on there either.

 

The more block you have, the more of a chance it can pop out under flex. Had a friends Chevy do it in highschool, I had a bronco with all spring and never had problems.

If its a street quen and just for looks, they are a bit cheaper.

 

i have 6in custom made blocks on my 84 k5 blazer. it has a total of 10ins.. 6in blocks rear with shack flip for the extra 4ins and 10in leaf springs front..has 42in iroks

but i've put about 4 years worth of wheelin with them and have had no problems, i do a lot of rock crawling and trail runs and i do a bit of deep mud bogs and river crossing

i've even hit about 6 dirt bike jumps and never lost a block... i also landed and rolled the truck but.... i still had the block lol


i think my luck is that i used the proper torque on the u bolts and i re checked them every 100 miles for about 3 months as long as your make sure you torque the bolts right and re check em after a bit you should be fine...

 

I had blocks on my 1996. They were stacked on the stock blocks. The blocks shifted and I needed to retorque the U-bolts with a torch and an impact. I had to do that TWICE before I finally got the problem "fixed" and got a single block.

I would not do it, when they come loose your rearend will wobble. And by rearend, I mean the WHOLE DIFFERENTAIL will wobble as if mechanics wire was wrapped around the blocks and springs, not a U-bolt.

Get springs (Add a leaf).

 

What if you want 5-6" of lift? I have only seen 4" add a leaf nothing higher

 

Yeah this is the same thing im wondering, but i guess if you want 5-6" of lift a 1-2" block is a lot less likely to cause problems than a 5-6" block. I was also thinking though, for a 6" lift though you would only need something like 2-3" blocks for the rear. (I think)

 

For the longest time, blocks were a 'last resort' for lifting the rear. The longer the block, the more leverage the rear has on the springs, the higher the likelihood of axle wrap, and wheel hop. Stacking blocks was also considered a MAJOR no-no. These days, I think just about every lift company that makes kits for the dodge trucks use longer blocks, and also stacks them. I don't pretend to understand this. To my knowledge, physics haven't changed.

That said, (and, as has been said before) it all depends on HOW you use your truck, as to what is an acceptable method of lift. For mild off-roading, or, a street only truck, blocks are just fine. If you want to run difficulty 4 or higher trails though, I really don't think it is going to be the correct answer.

For folks that want more lift, without resorting to taller blocks, AAL's work fairly well, if you want to go still higher, look at shackle flips. Still not enough? Replace the entire spring pack.