Leveled Outdoorsman FINALLY!

Well, finally after much research, bouncing back and forth and much appreciated insight from you good folks here, I have my Bilstein 5100's and Fuel Octane's on!

First, the struts... These really were a pain in the ass to install. Mainly, removing the old ones. The drivers side strut was ready to be hit with a cutting torch because I couldn't get the damn nut off the top bushing and the piston rod. After wasting nearly an hour with an air hammer and bolt splitter, we (911 call to my dad) finally got it free.

I don't have any pics of the install, but for those who are going to do this next, phone a friend... when you get to the point of removing the nut from the old strut after the springs are compressed, 1 person put the nuts back on the saddle to protect the threads and get an 18mm box wrench and get a good grip on it and use the now protected nuts on the saddle for leverage to keep it from spinning. Next have the second person get an 8mm socket on a 1/2" breaker bar and put it over the end of the stud. Don't waste time with vice grips on it or you'll be where I was for the first one. Grip that strut between your legs and get to it, spinning the piston with the breaker bar. This was a huge pain but was easier than the alternative. I couldn't find any other way to keep the shaft from spinning to hit it with an impact gun.


Now for the good stuff, here are the pics before and after, stock and with the new shoes. Thanks again RF!


Before:

Stock suspension:



Stock Rear



Stock Front



Level completed still on stock wheels:



Leveled front




Finished!












And just for good measure, the grill lights I installed last week too.

That looks awesome! Much better than stock

Wow. That looks awesome. Very nice job

Looks good

Looks great, what are the specs on the wheels and tires? i.e. Size, Offset, Width, etc. Thanks

Thanks guys! The wheels are Fuel Octane in 20 x 9, -12 offset. The tires are BFG AT TA KO in 285/65/20. They're just shy of 35's, like 34.7 if I recall. Got the whole set up from Mr. Wheel Deal.

Just have to get the alignment taken care of, scheduled for Monday.

That looks awesome!! Good job man, the truck looks even better than it did before.


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nice!

sweet truck

Very sweet ride dude. Outstanding.

Looks killer!

Sweet Outdoorsman!

Quick question for you guys running a similar setup. What PSI are you running in your tires, stock or higher?

Very sweet! That looks awesome!

Very nice!

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That's sweet dude

Nice wheels lol

This might be a stupid question so don't beat me up too bad but does an outdoorsman sit taller than a standard 4x4 like a bighorn? I just bought an outdoorsman and i want to put some 35's like you did.

looks really good, huge fan of fuel rims

cajun87 said:

This might be a stupid question so don't beat me up too bad but does an outdoorsman sit taller than a standard 4x4 like a bighorn? I just bought an outdoorsman and i want to put some 35's like you did.

Click to expand...

lol, it's all good. Yes, it does sit a little higher but not enough to clear 35's on the stock suspension. I think the Outdoorsman struts are 1.2" give or take a little over a standard Ram. I've seen it on here somewhere but I can't recall. I'm sure someone else will chime in on the actual height difference.

I installed Bilstein 5100 adjustable struts on the front and set them at the highest setting, 2.8".