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Lifted + Towing

lancey3

lancey3

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Columbus Ohio
Does lifting a vehicle have any negative or positive effect on a trucks towing capacity?
 
so other than the dropped hitch there is no other bad effects? Advantages?
 
It depends how much you are towing. You're adding weight with a higher center of gravity, there *are* going to be adverse affects.

Drop hitches are fine with smaller trailers, but a drop hitch with a heavy trailer adds a lot of leverage to the hitch mounts and such, and can again be very dangerous.
 
Yeah i got a huge drop hitch and it pulls my jetski, boat, and 5x10 trailer just fine. Can't even tell its back there. Although, my boat isn't much bigger than my jetski and the trailer never has anything more than my 4 wheeler or streetbike on it. So it tows light stuff just fine.
 
I have a 7" drop hitch on my truck. I'll tow as much as an import car with it, but not a solid steel american car.

With my jeep, I tow up to about 1100 pounds comfortably - i have a 6" drop hitch for 2" ball stuff (smaller trailers) but use a pintle hook for heavier stuff.
 
i'm just talking generally not necessarily an xj. Lets say for all intensive purposes an F350, would lifting it have that much of an adverse effect.
 
Yes, it would.

You see guys all the time with lifted F350's towing big trailers. I'd say locally, 85% of the trailer involved accidents or more that you see are those trucks, too.

Make it a work truck, or a show truck. Don't do both.
 
Dealing with an XJ, I personally think its all about how much lift and how much weight you are wanting to pull. But if you have a 2-3 in lift. I think it would help, since you will have a stronger leaf pack than a worn out XJ stock pack. But when getting over than I have to agree that you need to pick if it is for offroading or working.

Dealing with a truck, if you start lifting or lowering you are changing the way it tows for the worse. It may look cooler, but just like cal said. You need to make a choice.
 
Lifting could only have a negative effect in towing abilities. The bigger tires that often go along with a lift wil likley add to the negative effect.

Of course it all depends on what you are driving and what you are pulling. If you are putting a 12" lift on an F-350 and only pulling a tandom jet-ski trailer, your going to be fine.

However, if you are even approaching your vehicles towing capacity, or pulling a high profile trailer, I would not do any mods that might effect your towing ability.

Make sure you know and understand your vehicle towing limits. Many people do not understand what the stated towing rating means. Basically the vehicle tow ratings are maximum load under ideal conditions. (Base model vehicle, no passengers or gear, balanced trailer, normal driving conditions)

I pull a travel trailer (not with the XJ) I did a lot of research before I bought it and have seen way to many examples of overloaded vehicles and the ugly result...just be careful.
 
I have a good bit of experience towing with a lifted XJ. My 96 has seen at least 10k miles towing my 3k# bass boat and 4" lift. But I biult it to be an all around rig although now it is strictly trail and no towing duties, it severd its purpose well. Good quality springs like OME and quality tires coupled with trailer brakes I have towed very safely. You just need to use common sense, the XJ is light weight and with poor brakes, it can be a handfull in panic situations. Keep plenty of distance, plan ahead for curves, and keep your head on a swivel for potential threats from other vehicles, deer, dogs etc.

jeepboatsideview2lr.jpg
 
You could possible add airbags to the rear to keep the truck from compressing or floating too much on the road. Though if you had a quality lift and everything was setup properly you should be able to tow fine with a resonable amount of lift. 12" of lift will never perform properly on the road. As for XJ's I believe the towing capacity is right around 4000lbs. I've flat towed an XJ with an XJ and it handled it ok but would go long distances at interstate speeds that way.
 
coastie124 said:
You could possible add airbags to the rear to keep the truck from compressing or floating too much on the road. Though if you had a quality lift and everything was setup properly you should be able to tow fine with a resonable amount of lift. 12" of lift will never perform properly on the road. As for XJ's I believe the towing capacity is right around 4000lbs. I've flat towed an XJ with an XJ and it handled it ok but would go long distances at interstate speeds that way.
Click to expand...

The actual towing capacity for the the XJ with the complete towing package is 5k, but I think 4k is pushing the safety envelope for a XJ, specialy in the steep winding mountain roads here in southwest VA. 4k would be safe on flat land.
 
So take like a 2001 S10 if you get a 4 inch lift would that help or hurt it?
 
I would say it won't help it. Though it really wouldn't hurt your capacity, as long as the lift wasn't too soft and you got the proper hitch for your trailer. I don't think the S-10 weighs that much so you shouldn't be towing anything over what it weighs, at most.
 
If you're going to tow, get a Dodge Ram 3500 with 6.0 Cummins turbo diesel. You'll be a lot happier in the long run. Those freakin' tow mirrors make all the difference in the world on the highway at *cough* 70. Way better than 55 in the slow lane all day behind some moron towing a loaded 5th wheel with his XJ because he or she is too damn cheap to get a real tow rig. :D ;)
 
The lift doesn't affect it so much, but tire size does! Of course lifting changes the general handling characteristics of any truck.

The biggest thing I would worry about wouldn't be getting it going, it would be stopping it! As was mentioned, the stock brakes aren't the best to begin with.

Now with upgraded brakes, proper gearing, and a good suspension/steering setup it would be a different story.

As far as tongue weight, this can increase by lifting simply because most aftermarket spring packs will be stronger than stock. I plan on adding an extra leaf to my F150 to help with towing stability (I also hope to remove the factory blocks), it won't get lifted though.
 
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