[evldave]

What you want are a simple set of lift shackles. $600 is a lot of money for that. Wrangler owners use them for an easy 2" of lift.

Basically, they extend the rear mounting point of the leaf spring down from it's current position about 3-4" (or however long you want to go - more is riskier because of the forces involved). By lowering the rear of the leaf spring, you lower the tire in relation to the body, thereby raising the body.

One this you must be careful about is pinion angle. By only lowering the rear of the axle, you pivot the pumpkin UP towards the t-case, changing pinion angle - depending on conditions, you may need to shim the rear axle (at point B).

Here's what it will do for clearance (imho). The height of the pumpkin is determined by the tire height, the height of the body (and undercarraige) is determined by tire + suspension. By lifting the rear of the leaf pack, you will gain a small amount (maybe .5-1") near the front of the vehicle, but you will gain ~1-1.5" at the rear bumper. This would be very good for rock clearance on your departure angle, but shackles won't help approach (and if you raise the rear of the truck, it might hurt, relatively speaking, your approach angles).

I was at the dealer yesterday looking at the rancho lift. They have a set of long shackles in the back, maybe 4". I didn't look in the front to see if they used a hanger extension (my jeep lift had that). If you also had a hanger extension (for the front of the leaf springs), you wouldn't have pinion angle issues.



If you want to go better, get a set of revolver shackles. These are a two-piece lift shackle, that is folded in half in normal operation. When the wheel starts to drop, the shackles actually 'opens' and allows the rear axle to drop more than the leaf springs will allow. This helps on rocks to keep one extra wheel on the ground. I did a quickie google search and couldn't find any revolver shackles for the H3.