Lift kits?

franklin2

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Update: lift is on, well sorta anyway. Track bar isn’t installed payday is tomorrow morning and gonna hopefully have the drop bracket from sky’s by Friday. Pitman arm is gonna be this weekend, my commute to work is less than a mile with no highway or bumpy roads so I’m hopefully gonna ride it out till the weekend then I can be completely finished. Maybe couple pictures tomorrow morning or before and after lift! I also would recommend to anyone to remove track bar/ steering before lifting because once it’s up everything get into a bind and stops the springs from being installed easily, I’m sure there is directions stating to to that and remove pitman arm at same time because I got in one hell of a fight with it until I realized the tack bar made the axle uncentered when your off the ground with everything, amature mistake made there and now I know lol

Glad you reported your experiences. That will be more proof to new guys doing this that they need all those pesky expensive parts in those lift kits to make it all work.
 

pelky350

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Lift kit installed sorta, track bar isn’t in yet but drives okay, probably gonna need an alignment soon and I think I want to get extended brake lines, says it’s not required with 4 inch but it’s just too close for comfort it’s got very little slack at full flex. but that’s okay because I’ve owned the truck 5 years and never Got a alignment and the rubber brake lines are kinda old anyway, just more excuses to upgrade random parts at this point lol

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pelky350

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@SebastIDIan no it’s a warn enforcer bumper, no longer made and apparently people really want them nd they are kinda hard to come by, that being said I actually have a perfect one sitting in my shed I saved from a parts truck so I have two! Lol haven’t decided if selling the old one someone offered me 300$ but I just couldn’t sell it yet
 

pelky350

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So onto creative ways to lift the back? Any ways to improve the ride any without sacrificing hauling ability much? I was considering airbags and a lighter leaf pack possibly because it’s a daily driver more than it tows stuff these days. There is a super duty at the yard where I get good deals at with some masssive lift springs and blocks I though about measuring the springs to see if they would fit and lift my truck and possibly eliminate the need for a block?
 

franklin2

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Lift it with springs, it's going to ride stiff. For a good ride you want a progressive spring like the factory used. It has thin curved springs on the top, and a thick heavy spring on the bottom. When you load the truck down, the thinner springs flatten out onto the bottom thicker spring.

Problem now with the factory style spring, there is this fad with leveling kits. No one wants the factory rake with the rearend higher than the front. They did that because of the progressive spring in the rear, and how the rearend will sag till the upper springs hit the lower thicker spring. So if you put a leveling kit on it or your lift makes the truck level, and you use the progressive spring, with a load it really looks bad in the back.

You can try the shackle reversal kits, but they are known to foul up the pinion angle, and some people notice the rear tires moving forward in the wheel well with this method. They may have a kit now (did I dream this?) where they lower the front spring bracket and the rear one too.

I run blocks with the stock springs on mine with a 4 inch lift. When I tow, I can feel the spring wrapping. Other than that, no problems and it's cheap. I want to make custom lift blocks with a built in traction/slapper bar to stop the spring wrap (like the picture below), but I have never got around to it.

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traction bar idea
 

pelky350

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Do I want nitro shocks or hydro shocks for my truck? They are the same price from skyjacker and I temporarily put some 8000’s in the front of mine because the old shocks I had were not long enough. The old ones were rancho (hydro) and these one are skyjacker (nitro) the new ones seem to ride much better and smooth but it says online nitro tend to be stiffer and more for off road use? Everyone else in the world says bilsteins but I’ve already got two skyjacker shocks now and they seem to be nice quality and are basically new so I figured I’d match all 4 now.
 

chillman88

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I can't preach Bilsteins because I've always been too cheap to run them. That being said, when I do my D60 swap that's what I will buy.

Personally I have always prefered a stiffer shock, but that was always on a half ton. I haven't played around with this truck enough to have a preference.

As many people that preach Bilstein or bust, that's my next try.

Edit: I would just match what you have for now. Worry about it when it's time to replace them.
 

pelky350

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@chillman88 well in theory I shouldn’t ever have to replace them, says lifetime warrantee for the shocks and my ranchos did hold up just fine the shocks themselves are still good they just look kinda ugly and they don’t quite reach full flex they are about 2 inches off. I’m just looking for the smoothest ride the new shocks seems to hate speed bumps they stiffen up when they hit them but if I hit a large gentle bump like a driveway they take it softly I guess that’s what’s ment by velocity sensitive valving but I’m not off road racing I want my shocks to eat speed bumps and not turn into rocks when hittinf them. I’m looking for it to ride like when you see those race trucks drive through the desert sorta where the suspension is squishy and takes all the bumps with lots of travel if that makes any sense
 

pelky350

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@Thewespaul I wish lol not quite that expensive, but I mean my buddies half ton has the ride I want where when you hit a large bump the suspension take it and then shocks return slow idk not looking for perfect but my leaf springs say soft ride and I tried hitting a speed bump at 15-20 last night and it felt a car accident lol I was looking at skyjacker, or possibly bds nitro shocks because bds is supposed to be like top of the line stuff? There was a set of bilsteins at the junk yard I go to maybe I’ll look up the part number and see if they fit because I was told I could have them if they fit
 

Thewespaul

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It takes a lot of work to make a big crew cab one ton diesel to ride like a half ton, but it’s possible. I think an rsk would help a lot with how the suspension handles those bumps, shocks only really do a fraction of the suspension work. I’ve got bilsteins all the way around in the shop truck but because the springs are clapped out the ride isn’t nearly as good as when I first installed the bilsteins 100k ago. Maybe make a run around the block with no shocks, then change out the different brands and settle on what works for you.
 

pelky350

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How do I get the track bar to line up? It’s like 1/4 inch off and wasn’t able to instal the bar. 4 inch lift and I got a 4 inch drop bracket from sky’s off road

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SebastIDIan

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Adjustable tracbar is a beautiful thing. Dont remember how expensive they are but it shouldn't be too awfully dificult to convert your stock one imo
 

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