Installing Dick Cepek Tires & a Rancho Quik Lift on an F-150

It's silly to make upgrades just for the sake of having upgrades, but it's a different story when it's something necessary. We wanted to install a new set of Dick Cepek tires onto our F-150, but we needed just a bit more height to get the necessary clearance. We took this as our chance to test out one of the newer Rancho products, the Rancho Quik Lift system.

Because the main use of our '05 F-150 XL regular cab longbed was as a work truck, the stock tires just weren't cutting it. Anytime the truck ventured into the mud or snow, the tires proved unreliable. An upgrade was in order, and we chose 33" FC-II Dick Cepek tires as the replacements. While we may have been able to fit them without lifting the vehicle, we didn't want to chance it and we figured we'd take this as an opportunity to get rid of that irritating rake.

Unfortunately, we had an obstacle to overcome first. Because the Rancho Quik Lift was only introduced in late 2006, there hadn't been enough time to test the fit on each and every F-150. Such was the case with our high GVW F-150. They had test-fitted the lower version of the GVW trucks, but there was a definite disparity in the suspension between the lower trucks and our high truck. Because of this, we had to schedule an appointment at the Rancho R&D/Engineering facility so they could make sure the kit would actually fit on our truck. Thankfully, there didn't end up being any problems and because of this test, the 8200 GVW F-150 truck has actually been added to their list of Quik Lift applications. We have to thank Rancho's installation engineer, Dave Rafko, who did a great job with the installation.

The Product

The Rancho Quik Lift has a modified position specifically for the spring seat, making it a step up from the stock coilover shock, also known as the spring seat shock. Plus, it works with the OE spring, which is great for two reasons. First, it saves you money by not having to purchase a new spring. And second, you can keep your OE ride and load capacity. An additional benefit of the Quik Lift is the upgraded lower strut bushing that comes with it, which helps you prevent binding during suspension travel and lengthens the life of the bushing.

Generally, the Quik Lift will provide somewhere between 1 and 2.5 inches of lift (how much depends on the application). For F-150s that have a lighter bumper, the best approximation is somewhere between 2 and 2.5 inches of lift. Of course this also depends on a number of other factors, including whether you have 5.4L or 4.6L, what your factory spring rates are, and how much sagging there is in your old springs. Ultimately, the Quik Lift will enable you to fit a tire up to 35x12.50-18. This, of course, was perfect for fitting our Dick Cepek tires.

But you get more than just increased height when you install the Quik Lift system; you also gain the benefit of Rancho's tried and tested expertise in shocks. With the new RS-9000XL technology, you get nine-position tuning capability. Plus, you can customize it even more with the Rancho "My Ride" Wireless controller, giving you the power to adjust your shock settings just by pushing a button.

Since many people choose to lift just the front and not the rear of the vehicle, the RS-9000XL rear shocks are entirely optional. However, they are also nine-position adjustable so it really makes sense to install them too.

The Installation

On a difficulty scale of 1-5 (5 being the most difficult), the Quik Lift installation is about a 2. It's not a piece of cake, but it's pretty basic and easy to follow. If you choose to do the installation yourself, it'll probably take you about half an hour to remove the original struts. In order to dismount the coil spring from the original strut so you can mount the new one, you will need a coil spring compressor. These are available from many different sources, and you can even rent one from a larger auto parts store. It's also a simple option to just head to a repair shop and have one of their professionals take care of the installation.

Whether you choose an at-home or professional installation, you will need to visit an alignment specialist afterwards. They will correct any change to the suspension geometry that has occurred because of the addition of the lift kit. When we had our F-150 aligned by lifted truck specialist Tony Longmeyer at Raabe Ford, almost no change was required. He mostly just had to adjust the toe and tweak the left caster ever so slightly. The camber was fine and required no change. After dialing to -0.3 degrees camber, 4 degrees caster, and 0.05 degrees toe on both sides, we saw a noticeable improvement in how our truck drove. In fact, if we hadn’t adjusted the toe it would have caused extra wear to our brand new Dick Cepek tires over the years.

The Results

At the end of the installation our truck had a front lift of an honest 2.5 inches, which gave us plenty of room for our Dick Cepek tires, and was almost completely level. This was to be expected since 8200 GVW trucks are generally a ½-inch to ¾-inch higher in the back than lower GVW trucks, so most other F-150s would have ended up level. We saw a definite improvement in the ride quality, and this only became more noticeable when the Dick Cepek tires joined in.

The MPG Readings

Like most people these days, we want to get the best fuel mileage possible for the sake of both our wallets and the environment. We already had the Edge Evolution hooked up to our F-150 so we decided to check out how the lift kit alone affected the MPG, and then how the lift combined with the Dick Cepek tires affected it. Generally, we find that lift kits negatively impact fuel economy. However, we were happily surprise to find that in this case, the 2.5 inches we added to the front of our truck had no observable effect on our fuel economy.

It wasn't just the lift kit that added height; the Dick Cepek tires were adding 1.1 inches of their own, and we expected that combined with a more aggressive tread and increased rolling resistance to produce a slight decrease in fuel economy. Our jaws about dropped to the floor when we discovered that not only was there little to no change, but that the change we did see was actually positive. After puzzling over this for a bit, the most logical explanation we could come up with was that the increased diameter of the Dick Cepek tires caused the RPMs to drop to a level that the engine preferred, which counteracted any losses. Our effective overall ratio with the new tires was 3.82:1.

The Verdict

Overall, we were very pleased with our installation decisions. The Quik Lift was a very straightforward, simple way to lift an '04-'08 F-150, it really delivered on the ride quality and performance side, and it gave us the clearance we needed for our 33 inch Dick Cepek tires (though it could have cleared up to 35 inches). The tunability options were very beneficial too. If the Quik Lift holds up as well as previous generations of Rancho shocks, there's a chance we'll still have these on our truck a decade down the road.