- What's goin on guys, Fuller here with Custom Offsets,
Custom Offsets TV on the YouTube.
Back at it with another episode of From The Inbox,
and I was absolutely dreading making this video
because I didn't want to do it, everybody in the shop
said we shouldn't do it, and here we are,
still doing it anyways.
So the question that we're answering today is,
"Should I get a body lift and what are the
"differences between body lifts and suspension lifts?"
(hip-hop beat) (drills whirring)
So first off, "What is a body lift?"
and "What is a suspension lift?"
you kinda gotta understand those two things
before we dive deep into this video.
A body lift does exactly what you would imagine it does
based on the title, is it takes
the body of your truck and lifts it up.
So you're using this lift to put a space
between the frame and the body of your truck,
whereas a suspension lift, it changes
the suspension geometry of your vehicle
to lift it up using the suspension components,
so your axles and everything stay in the same place,
you're just lifting up the truck using suspension
versus a body lift where, again, the same thing happens,
your axles and whatnot all stay in the same place,
but your whole drive train and everything all stays lower
because you're just lifting up the body of the truck
on top of the frame, where it would sit stock.
So, why do we hate body lifts so much?
If you've ever been through our YouTube comments,
you've probably seen us reply back to people
that ask about body lifts and tell them,
"Just don't do it.".
There's a couple reasons why
we don't think that body lifts are a good option
though you can find them on the website,
'cause if you do wanna get one, you can definitely
check 'em out there if you want to look into it further,
but we personally don't recommend them
and we always recommend going with a suspension lift
'cause you're just gonna get better quality overall.
So, body lifts.
What do they do that we don't like?
The biggest thing is they really overstretch
components in your truck, so if you have an older vehicle,
like a K 1500, or a 1980s or anything 70s truck,
something that runs on less electrical components
and doesn't have the giant brain box
that's controlling the whole thing,
you have much less wiring to worry about,
however, when you install a body lift on something newer,
you're stretching all that wiring
and it can create problems with your vehicle
if some of those wires come undone,
or they get stressed and frayed,
and basically your whole truck just shuts down
because it gets super confused with all
the electronics that are going on.
Especially on the newer Silverados
that use electronic power steering,
there's a U-joint in there that connects
basically your steering input from your steering wheel,
to the electronic power steering system.
If you stretch that, it changes the angle
and then your truck is confused as to where you want to turn
and how much you want to turn and we just don't believe
that that's a safe thing to be doing
if you've got yourself and your family
in your truck and you're not able to turn.
The other thing with body lifts is
because they're putting a space between your frame
and your body, you also have this weird gap
throughout your truck where you can see through,
it's really noticeable, especially underneath the box,
where you can clearly see the frame,
and then a space about three inches,
and then where your box sits.
If you have a Dodge Ram that has
the duel exit exhaust out the back,
when you do a body lift, it takes up your bumpers
and the tailgate and everything up
but because it's not raising where the frame is
and those exhaust hangers are mounted to the frame,
you now have exhaust tips that sit three inches lower
than the cutouts in your bumper
and that just doesn't look quite right either.
And that kinda goes around all of the truck
and depending on which make and model you have,
some of 'em are gonna bring up bumpers,
and some of 'em aren't.
So if you ever see a truck driving around
that's got a weird three inch gap between
where the tailgate looks like it ends and then the bumper,
like older Chevy Silverados like the 2000 to 2006
or 2007 when they changed body styles,
those trucks always have a strange gap
if there's a body lift in there.
And the same thing applies for the front bumper,
you'll see the grill sits way taller
than where the bumper is 'cause it's just bringing up
the body of the truck
and not the frame,
I've said it a thousand times,
but hopefully you get the idea.
So that's why we always recommend a suspension lift
because it keeps all of the gaps around the truck
looking just like they did from factory,
and it's just a cleaner overall look.
When it comes to install, it's significantly
more expensive to install a body lift.
So, the reason why a lot of people do consider a body lift
is because that initial price point,
is usually substantially cheaper
to buy a body lift because there's no engineering
that goes into it, and no fancy parts.
Half the time, its just something
that looks like a hockey puck
that you're stacking up to lift your truck with.
So that's why there's so much less to begin with,
however that install cost is a lot more.
We actually don't even do 'em here,
Custom Offsets uses Offset's garage
to do all of our installs and they basically
won't touch body lifts, just because
we don't recommend them, we don't think
they're super safe on a lot of the newer trucks,
and they're just really difficult to install
and people don't wanna pay the labor costs
because you literally have to separate
your body of your truck from the frame.
So if you do it yourself, you might be able
to save quite a bit of money on the install,
however, it becomes difficult
and it just takes up a lot of time.
On an older vehicle, it's not quite as hard
because you have less electrical components
and hoses and whatnot that you have
to worry about stretching and it is kind of a benefit
in older vehicles because it makes it easier
to do motor swaps, if that's something
that you are looking into in the future,
because it just gives you more space in the engine bay,
'cause you're pulling every thing away
from where that engine is bolted in,
sitting on the engine mounts, connected to the frame.
So if you haven't figured it out by now,
it should be pretty obvious that we don't
really recommend body lifts but we do have them on
the website if you want one, we always recommend going
with a suspension lift because it's better ride quality,
it's better for your truck, it's safer,
and overall it's way better to have a suspension lift
over a body lift in our opinion.
You can find our opinions all over the internet
'cause we always share them with you guys.
If you have any questions on lifts
or you wanna check them out further,
head to CustomOffsets.com/lifts
and you can enter in your year, make, model,
and see what we offer for your truck.
That's all for now, I'm outta here, peace.
(rock music)
(beep)
Wow, that was a, I rambled on for a long time there.
(beep)
(mumbles) My tongue is too big for my mouth.
Did you know that? It doesn't fit properly.
(beep)
- No, I will not make out with you.
- What do you think about body lifts?
(rock music)
- Why?
- Body lifts are a great option and everyone should run 'em.
- (laughs)
- Why does it sound like you're lying? (laughs)
- 'Cause I'm lying.
- Yeah.
- Body lifts are extremely dangerous --
- No they're not.
- And you should not (beep) run them
unless your truck is older than 1988.
- So moral of the story is: Don't.
- Don't run body lifts.