Droping a lift

[NavyGuy2007]

Hey yall, new guy to the forums. I just picked up the other day a '99 1500 Sport with what I'm guessing is a 4-5" Lift and 35s on 16" rims. I like the look overall but its going to need tires pretty soon. What I'm concidering is droping it about an inch or two and going to a 33 tire. Just as a general question, how hard is it to drop it back down an inch or two? I'll post some pictures tonight, I still need to take a good look at what kind of lift it has.

 

[HemiBabe]

Welcome to RF!

I'm sure the guys will chime in soon

 

[TexasRammer]

Depends on what kind of lift it is

 

[NavyGuy2007]

Yea, I'm about 99% sure its just a straight suspension lift, but I havent really had a chance to get under there and look.

 

[ramin44s]

It really depends on what brand and type lift it is, if it has a spacer or larger springs you could possibly switch those out to a shorter spring or just remove spacer

 

[Okiespaniel]

If you've only got a 4-5 inch lift, just put 33's on it and be done...and going further than that does depend on the lift.
Some detailed pictures of the front and rear suspension would be a must, because many 5 inch lifts required removing the stock control arm mounts making your truck impossible to be returned to something smaller.
I have to question why you bought it to begin with!

 

[TexasRammer]

If you've only got a 4-5 inch lift, just put 33's on it and be done...and going further than that does depend on the lift.
Some detailed pictures of the front and rear suspension would be a must, because many 5 inch lifts required removing the stock control arm mounts making your truck impossible to be returned to something smaller.
I have to question why you bought it to begin with!

Probably because he wanted it, now needs new tires and doesnt want to spend extra money for bigger tires/ worse mpgs

 

[rambob]

5" lift and 33"s

as stated above. its not an easy task. basically removing everything that is a component of the front lift, and re installing a smaller lift.

I have some better pictures posted some where if you want to look throught my posts.

 

[Okiespaniel]

Probably because he wanted it, now needs new tires and doesnt want to spend extra money for bigger tires/ worse mpgs

5" lift and 33"s

as stated above. its not an easy task. basically removing everything that is a component of the front lift, and re installing a smaller lift.

I have some better pictures posted some where if you want to look throught my posts.

Hmmmmm...my query still stands...and if his rims are too wide the 33's will wear like crap anyway. Mileage with factory gears probably won't change a lot. The OP hasn't posted any pics of his lift yet so there isn't much to do but wait.

Run 33's and be happy. Rambobs truck looks awesome!

 

[NavyGuy2007]

I dont (completly) mean to reserect such an old thread but I "finaly" got some pics. Real life kinda got in the way, deployments, transfers and just plain old forgetting to. Anyways, these are the pics of whats on the truck. I'm assuning my looking at it I sould be able to get smaller spacers for the front and a smaller block on the rear, maybe remove a spring or something. The tire size is 315/75/R16 right now. I used a metric conversion calculator and it comes out to 34.5.

The reason I bought the truck is that it was cheep, I only paid $4400 cash for it and it does everything I need it to do. But here it is almost a year later and I finaly need to get some new tires and I figure if I'm going to lower it a few inches now would be the time.

 

[WhiteExpress]

Looks like your lift consists of the following:

Front:
Coil Spacers
Control Arms

Rear:
Blocks
Add-a-leafs

If you're only wanting to run 33" tires you can just return to stock an run 285/75R16s.
You'll need factory control arms for the front, and the factory 'lift' blocks for the rear.

Other than that it'd just be a matter of removing what they changed.
DT Pro Fab makes a nice set of replacement front control arms.
(factory ones have large bushings with lots of slop)

 

[Stangshcky12]

Looks like a Tuff Country lift to me
You could drop to a 3" spacer without to much work

 

[NavyGuy2007]

Looks like a Tuff Country lift to me
You could drop to a 3" spacer without to much work

Are you talking about replacing the spacer over the coil-overs in front and running a smaller block in the rear? Thats kinda what I was thinking just looking at it, I'm ok with a wrench, and this is not my first truck but I've never delt with any kind of lift kit before.

 

[Stangshcky12]

Yeah, like Greg said it looks like you have a spacer and aftermaket control arms and I'm sure there is a track bar drop bracket as well as a sway bar drop or longer links

The components for a 3" and 4.5" lift are typically the same. If you go and lower then a 3" spacer you'll need to replace a lot of the pieces I mentioned with shorter/factory parts

Get a 3" spacer for the front and a smaller block for the rear (I would guess its a 2" lift block, you could even leave it and not be to far from factory rake)
Or just run 33's with what you have, its still looks good!

 

[NavyGuy2007]

Thats kinda what I was thinking, Thanks bro! There is a 4x4 shop here in town, I'll see if they have any on hand. Wouldnt running 33s on that lift make it look like a Caddy with Daytons?

 

[Stangshcky12]

Suprisingly no

 

[Okiespaniel]

It looks like you have a tuff country 4.5 inch lift...I'm not aware of 5 inch spacers but I suppose there ccould be one.

As stated you can remove the rear spacers and put stockers in, then a 3 inch spacer up front. The crux is the control arms...you'll just have to drop it and see what happens.

You'll need some kind of aftermarket adjustable track bar because your axle will be uncentered with the current pieces.

Again...I'd try running it with 33's before deconstructing the lift. Buying everything for dropping the lift is going to cost you more than it's worth.

EDIT: Is there an AAL in the rear too? Don't know how that's gonna play out. You may end up pulling the spring pack apart to remove it. That makes me wonder if you don't have more than 5 inches overall.

 

[NavyGuy2007]

Ended up just saying to hell with it, the more I read your guys posts I kept thinking that it was .ore work and money then it would save me so I just went ahead and got new tires the same size. Thanks for the info! :beer:

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