Ali Mansour
Brand Manager, 4WD & Sport Utility
Body lifts have been integrated into the OEM and aftermarket sectors for decades. At the OEM level they are often used to fit larger powertrains, more interior room, and overcome basic clearance issues that would otherwise lead to a costly redesign. For the off-road enthusiast, body lifts are extremely helpful when swapping in big V-8 engines, tucking up the rig’s underbelly vitals, and installing larger tires.
We generally prefer to keep our body lifts as mild as possible, and don’t care to go much more than 2 inches on our wheeling rigs. Since body lifts do not alter your suspension in any way they are often an inexpensive alternative to a fully involved suspension system. Body lifts are only designed for body-on-frame construction and are not the same thing as a coil spacer lift. And unlike body lifts of old, most of the new kits raise both your front and rear bumpers to create an overall cleaner appearance.
The Performance Accessories 2-inch body lift is as complete as they come. This kit was ordered with the optional heavy-duty gap guards to hide the resulting lift gap between the body and the frame.
We recently lent a hand installing a 2-inch Performance Accessories body lift on our friend’s ’98 GMC Jimmy. Unlike a complex suspension system, the Performance Accessories body lift was an easy driveway install. But while the overall difficulty of the install was low, the time that it took to install was not. Be sure to plan for a solid day’s worth of work with help from a friend. One thing that added time to our install was that we opted to shoehorn on a set of 33x12.50 Dick Cepek Mud Country tires. This required a bit of trimming and fender massaging since a 31 is all that’s suggested for the mild lift.
We used a floor jack and jackstands to lift the body so the new 2-inch lift blocks could be installed. Be sure to follow the directions carefully and work in the advised order. This will keep you from mistakenly overextending or damaging any of your vehicle’s components.
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Working Country
For tires and wheels the Jimmy was fitted with 33x12.50 Dick Cepek Mud Country tires around an inexpensive set of 15-inch steel wheels. Since the Jimmy was already fitted with a rear locker and a mild set of rear lift shackles, the knobby mud-terrains provided that extra bit of clearance and performance the SUV was lacking. Trimming out for 33s on the S-series is not for the faint of heart nor the pretty-boy wheeler. This Jimmy is all about value and function, something both the 2-inch body lift and meaty Dick Cepek tires offer.
