I forgot to put my goals for this truck in the original post, so here you go:
I want a truck that is lowered 7" in the front and around 12" in the rear that has decent suspension geometry, rides better than a factory truck and can still tow a 3000lb trailer. Impossible you say? I'm going to attempt to prove you wrong, although it's not going to be easy.
I'm redoing the rear end first in my quest for a great riding truck.
My current setup is:
McGaughy's flip kit
McGaughy's bolt in notch
McGaughy's airbag helper kit for flipped trucks
2" lowering shackles
2" blocks
The truck rides OK, not great but better than a lot of lowered trucks I've seen. There are 2 main issues with this setup that is making the truck not ride well. #1: The notch is not big enough. #2: The McGaughy's bag's internal bump stops limit my travel when I only have the minimum recommended 5lbs of air in them. So that's going to be the first thing that I'm addressing in this build log (after I replace the clutch, of course).
I want the truck to ride about an inch lower than it currently does, so here's the planned setup. I already have some of the parts, I'm just gathering everything before I put it in the shop and start cutting it apart:
#1: Thor Brothers notch and bridge kit. This will take care of my two main issues. It will give me both more notch for travel and allow me to run a standard 2600lb bag with no internal bumpstops. I have already purchased the bags, air tank and compressor. The new bags also have a higher rated capacity than the McGaughy's bags I'm currently using for towing.
#2: Belltech 3.5" drop leaf springs. Without the limits of the McGaughy's bags, I can ditch the lowering blocks and move to a better setup. While I only want about an inch lower, from what I've seen, the 3.5" drop springs minus the 2" blocks will probably give me almost exactly the inch I need. If it's a little too low, I can play around with shackle lengths to get me exactly where I need.
#3: New leaf spring perches. Already ordered. I'm a bit **** about doing things correctly and with approximately 12" of drop, the pinion angle is jacked up which can cause vibrations and premature u-joint failures. I have been lucky and haven't had these problems yet, but I'm going to remove the McGaughy's flip kit, cut off the factory perches and have these new perches welded on at ride height with a good pinion angle.
#4: Relocate the shocks. I'm going to defer to a chassis builder I know on this one. I'm currently running Street Performance shocks for a flipped truck and a set of extensions because of the extra drop. With the bridge kit, it will open up a lot of options for shock mounting. My goal is to stay with an off the shelf shock, so if it's possible, I'm going to try to keep these shocks. That will make it easy and cheap to order replacements in the future. We will see on this one though, I'm going to have to be flexible on this one and won't know exactly what it'll end up with until everything else is done.
I'm sure that most of you have checked out by now, but for those still reading...... buckle up, it's going to be a wild ride!!!!!
o wrong kind of bags eh? i couldnt resist, i know im a idiot. true story though lol
