Mcgaughy or belltech 2/4 economy kits with factory shocks, anyone tried it?

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abouttobeglue

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Buddy of mine just got a 2018 mustang gt, been missing having a mustang for 11 years, i cant justify buying one, and i do love my rcsb 2wd hemi. Been looking at lowering kits for a few weeks, doing research, belltech is running the 150 rebates, but the SP shocks seem to have mixes reviews. If i run the stock shocks and then upgrade the rear to some bilsteins, would that be a good way to go?
Any advice is appreciated. Currently have the mcgaughy 44055 and im not too happy with it the ride height.
 

dearchristopher

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406cdae58e0c26de831b82aea45b29d6.jpg

you can run stock shocks just fine. it rides in my
opinion better than with the street performance. I had those for two days, went back to stock and returned them. ordered bilstein 4600 up front and 5100 rear, stock height on both. truck rides fantastic in my opinion.

I also have airbags and an upgraded rear swaybar, but it rode significantly better even without those mods. I know a few guys who only run factory ram shocks on the belltech coils with no issues.


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abouttobeglue

abouttobeglue

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Appreciate the help, think i will order tomorrow. Autoaccessoriesgarage.com has the best price so far. Any issues with alignment, and how hard is it to do the front?
 

dearchristopher

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attaboy. you’ll like it.

I had no alignment issues. the shop that did mine is a great place, he brought me out to the machine and showed me that I had two options: get everything in green and have a slight (more than deadman) pull to the right, or get it correct without pulling too far and be a little out of “green spec”. I’m decently mechanically inclined but I don’t know much about the alignment rigs. I told him I trusted his judgment and work, and let him do what he wanted.

10k miles later and my tires are wearing perfectly fine. no pull and no awkwardness on the front


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JAMCAR223

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BellTech 2/4 here on my 2013 RCSB. The Street Performance shocks SUCK in my opinion, so I went back to stock, and was pleased. The truck still bottomed on some hard bumps/dips, so I added the AirLift 1000 helper bags, and presto.. better ride quality with 5lbs empty, and no more bottoming out. I also have a Spohn adjustable panhard bar to bring the rear back to square ( It was needed - I used a plumb bob to center it )

After an aligment, the stock tires lasted 58,000 miles, with proper rotations, truck was easier to get in/out of, looked a ton better in my opinipn, and I'm still able to tow my 3200 lb show car.

Summary- BellTech springs only, stock shocks, Spohn adjustable panhard bar. AirLift 1000 bags = DONE! I have had this setup for 5 years, as of this week.
 

dearchristopher

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BellTech 2/4 here on my 2013 RCSB. The Street Performance shocks SUCK in my opinion, so I went back to stock, and was pleased. The truck still bottomed on some hard bumps/dips, so I added the AirLift 1000 helper bags, and presto.. better ride quality with 5lbs empty, and no more bottoming out. I also have a Spohn adjustable panhard bar to bring the rear back to square ( It was needed - I used a plumb bob to center it )

After an aligment, the stock tires lasted 58,000 miles, with proper rotations, truck was easier to get in/out of, looked a ton better in my opinipn, and I'm still able to tow my 3200 lb show car.

Summary- BellTech springs only, stock shocks, Spohn adjustable panhard bar. AirLift 1000 bags = DONE! I have had this setup for 5 years, as of this week.

I need to do the adjustable panhard, and LCA relocation brackets next. that’s the last thing in my list of rear suspension mods


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Hankrebel

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I've had the McGaughy 2/4 kit with shocks on my 2004 single cab. I did not like the ride at all as it was like a dump truck.
I went back to stock immediately and sold the kit.
 

1SIKRT

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BellTech 2/4 here on my 2013 RCSB. The Street Performance shocks SUCK in my opinion, so I went back to stock, and was pleased. The truck still bottomed on some hard bumps/dips, so I added the AirLift 1000 helper bags, and presto.. better ride quality with 5lbs empty, and no more bottoming out. I also have a Spohn adjustable panhard bar to bring the rear back to square ( It was needed - I used a plumb bob to center it )

After an aligment, the stock tires lasted 58,000 miles, with proper rotations, truck was easier to get in/out of, looked a ton better in my opinipn, and I'm still able to tow my 3200 lb show car.

Summary- BellTech springs only, stock shocks, Spohn adjustable panhard bar. AirLift 1000 bags = DONE! I have had this setup for 5 years, as of this week.



Great info! Myself I’m looking to get a 2/4 drop done as well. Not looking to spend too much money on it. On your set up have you had the death wobble or anything in particular?
 
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abouttobeglue

abouttobeglue

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Actually doing it now, turned into an all day job, driver side ball joints wouldnt break loose, tried the pickle fork which tore the damn boot cover on em. Got it all done and dropped, first test drive gas tank heat shield was hitting driveshaft, bent that out of the way, got a clunk from the front end, not sure if its the sway bar end links, so about to disconnect and troubleshoot that.i have the hellwig front and rear sway bars, figure ill order the shorter f150 end links anyway to get it out of a bind.
 
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abouttobeglue

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Yep, it was the end links, took em out and strapped the sway bar, no clunks.will try to find the parts local tomorrow, give it a few days to settle and get it aligned. Ride wise, it rides fine, a little firmer, but not bone jarringly or anything terrible. Glad i did it, gonna email belltech and tell em they need to put new front endlinks in their kits. Looks like i have a set of mcgaughy 44055s that will be up for sale.
 

dearchristopher

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Yep, it was the end links, took em out and strapped the sway bar, no clunks.will try to find the parts local tomorrow, give it a few days to settle and get it aligned. Ride wise, it rides fine, a little firmer, but not bone jarringly or anything terrible. Glad i did it, gonna email belltech and tell em they need to put new front endlinks in their kits. Looks like i have a set of mcgaughy 44055s that will be up for sale.

I still have stock endlinks on stock front swaybar that doesn’t clunk or anything, but my hellwig rear likes to talk back when I twist up a driveway or something. I need to do shorter links too.

you had some problems I didn’t end up having, sounds like it was a fun one haha. hopefully you end up digging it. post some pics


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abouttobeglue

abouttobeglue

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Yeah, im about to head to napa now, they seem to have the end links i need. We ended up repairing the boots with some waterprood sealant tape to keep dirt and water out since the ball joints were still good. Mechanic recommended doing that instead of spending a couple hundred bucks putting new ones in. Said hes done it plenty of times before and hadnt had any issues.
 

Gary's Hemi

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Everybody installs Moog front sway bar endlinks from a 2008 F150. The shorter endlinks relevel the sway bar & stop alot of bumpsteer that you get w/ the stock endlinks on a lowered truck. I'm sure Belltech knows after all these yrs. The lowering kits on the market are just mainly starter kits just enough to get the truck down the road w/ a lowered look. To perform well they are missing rear control arm relocation brackets, good shocks & shorter front sway endlinks

I know people do it everyday but I strongly recommend against running stock shocks on a lowering kit. The stock length shocks are too long for the shorter springs so when the axle is unloaded such as on a lift the long stock shocks will allow the axle to drip down too far & the shorter lowering springs will just fall out. When on the ground the only thing keeping the springs under the truck is the weight of the truck sitting on the suspension, thats it. Plus the stock shocks dont ride the best & dont have good control over the rear. A good shock such as QA1 or Viking is the way to go, expensive but the way to go
 

Gary's Hemi

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Also a helpful tip for the future to install springs on the front put a floor jack under the lower control arm & raise it up to where it is about 1" under the lower control arm(that way when you pop the upper ball joint out the whole lower control arm & spindle dont just drop on you), loosen the upper ball joint nut to where there are only a few threads left(dont take it all the way off), spray the upper ball joint w/ BP Blaster, Kroil, WD 40 or whatever you have & let it soak for about 30 mins or so. Come back w/ a 5 lb hammer & hit the top of the spindle. Sometimes it only takes a few hits sometimes it will wear you out. If it doesnt come loose at 1st soak it w/ more BP Blaster for a while then come back. There is no need for the fork that tears the boots up. Once it drops the lower control arm & spindle will fall onto the jack. Remove the upper ball joing nut then lower the jack all the way.
 

dearchristopher

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gary helped me out a lot with getting the right shocks on my truck. he’s a great source of knowledge for getting these lowered and reliable.

I didn’t go qa1 or viking, but rather bilsteins and have had no issues. love the ride quality.

I need to do front end links and rear control arm brackets pretty bad, but I don’t experience the rear end wobble until around 90mph and I just don’t drive that fast too often


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abouttobeglue

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Appreciate the tips Gary, we did the multiple hammer whacks before we tried the pickle fork, went on a store run, it finally came off with multiple more hammering. Passenger side, 2 whacks and it was off.
 
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abouttobeglue

abouttobeglue

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Got my f150 end links in, used the napa brand, didnt have moog in stock. In regards to the bottom bolt that connects to the control arm, how many threads did you get through. I tightened as much as it could and only have two or three thread past the end of the nut on each side. The tops i threaded to match the pictures i found, didn't want to put excessive tightening and squish anythjng
 

Gary's Hemi

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gary helped me out a lot with getting the right shocks on my truck. he’s a great source of knowledge for getting these lowered and reliable.

I didn’t go qa1 or viking, but rather bilsteins and have had no issues. love the ride quality.

I need to do front end links and rear control arm brackets pretty bad, but I don’t experience the rear end wobble until around 90mph and I just don’t drive that fast too often


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Thanks man. Yea the Bilsteins are a great everyday average truck. The only reason I swapped from Bilsteins was to get the most out of the suspension & street tires on the track
 
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