After a decent amount of research, there's really no way to painlessly lower the RAM 1500.
The rear axle flip is reasonable cost-wise but then there's the matter of lowering the front.
I looked into lowering keys but can't find any for my regular cab RAM.
Keys? Nah, 2wd are spring+shock front suspension. And, AFAIK, an 04/05/06+ 4wd are also that way.
Your only options are springs or spindles. You can get a McGaughy's 2/4.5 drop kit for in the $300's for the 'economy' drop, which is lowering springs front and a flip kit+lift shackle rear[to bring it back up to 4"/4.5" rather than the 5.5" or so doing a flip on stock shackles will get you], or you can get their 'deluxe' kit instead, which is lowering spindles for the front, and, again, a flip kit+lift shackle for the rear.
If you think you'll ever want to go lower, then you'll need the deluxe kit.
No matter what you do, you'll need new bump stops. I'd recommend keeping it on the 4" setting instead of the 4.5" setting. If you do a notch, either setting will be cleared for full suspension travel. And, obviously, you can go 3/5, 4/6, and possibly 5/7 on a notch that doesn't cut into the bed, but much past that, and it starts to run into the same problem as a 5"+ rear drop does on a stock frame.
Alternatively, if you just want a leveled look, you can get a rear drop shackle that is advertised as a 2" rear drop. It's really 1.5" no matter which one you buy. But if you want a completely leveled, nearly ~2.5" rear drop you can remove your overload spring and that'll do it, but you won't have that safety barrier anymore if you actually overload the rear suspension and could permanently damage your springs. If you remove the overload, you might need a new center bolt that goes through the middle of the springs, as well as possibly needing new U-bolts.
Another way to get a leveled look, even though it's a straight up lift, is to get coil spacer of front [this would be lift keys if you had a pre coil-spring 4wd.]. They come in a variety of sizes, but a 'leveled' size is 2"-3".
HOWEVER. As far as I can discern through all of my research and decision making, the EASIEST most HASSLE FREE way to get an actually leveled look [more than 1.5"] is to actually install a drop shackle ONLY [leaving in the overload] and also installing
1" front coil spacers. Essentially, this will split the difference of a rear level and a front level.
And as such, I call this a 'split level'. And it's, as far as I can tell, the easiest, safest, most hassle-free way of leveling up your truck's suspension without lifting anything past factory height.
Good luck. And, whatever you do, don't be cheap, lol.
