Hey Guys,
I'm about to buy some spacers for my 2WD and just wanted to see if I would need shock extensions for it?
You will need something because lifting the front of a 2wd with springs or spacers will limit the down travel of the suspension. Basically your front suspension will only be able to go up. When you drop off of something, like a bridge or a big bump, your front suspension will fully rebound quickly and the front end of the truck feel like it "drops". It will also make your ride very bouncy.
On the other hand, when you run longer shocks or extensions, you have other issues. Take the "drop" example I gave and hit the same obstacle with longer shocks. Instead of it rebounding quickly with a sudden jolt, the control arm will literally slam into your coil bucket in the same situations. However your ride quality will be way better with the longer shocks.
I personally think the key is you can only go so much with springs or spacers. I've ran a 1" spacer in the front with some extensions on some Bilstein shocks and have had no problems. I've ran some 1.5" spacers with some longer shocks and it would hit the coil bucket. Get the spacers and try the shock extensions. If you don't hear any banging noise and the truck doesn't ride like **** then you're golden.
The image above is an example of what I mean. Good luck.
