Performance lowering and leveling kit 2/4 recommendations?

[James OBrien]

Hey folks! I have gone through a bunch of mods on my truck which is a 2018 1500 Sport, regular cab short bed. I'm putting out 500 wheel HP now and want to finish the truck with suspension and upgraded brakes. With all of that HP, it's sort of scary to drive and definitely needs an upgrade and I want to lower it for looks and performance. I will probably do the lowering setup, and eventually upgraded sway bars and control arms, but want to start with lowering it.

I want a decent street setup and make it more stable when stomping on it and going through corners on country roads.

Any recommendations? I found the belltech kit but see sort of mixed reviews on it. I don't want to spend thousands either...

Help?

 

[Wild one]

Hey folks! I have gone through a bunch of mods on my truck which is a 2018 1500 Sport, regular cab short bed. I'm putting out 500 wheel HP now and want to finish the truck with suspension and upgraded brakes. With all of that HP, it's sort of scary to drive and definitely needs an upgrade and I want to lower it for looks and performance. I will probably do the lowering setup, and eventually upgraded sway bars and control arms, but want to start with lowering it.

I want a decent street setup and make it more stable when stomping on it and going through corners on country roads.

Any recommendations? I found the belltech kit but see sort of mixed reviews on it. I don't want to spend thousands either...

Help?

Look into adding a set of relocation brackets to the rear even if you only drop it a couple inches.The RCSB's are notorious for developing killer wheelhop and a high speed sway when lowered,and i'd also add in a set of decent locating arms for the rear.Core makes a decent set of locating arms,and these days you're down to using Inez's relocation brackets as Illicit has quit making their brackets. If you're 2 wheel drive a set of dropped spindles are the easiest and best way to drop the front a couple of inches.With drop spindles everything wheel aligns to factory specs. You don't have to cut off bumpstops or trim tie rods with drop spindles to get it to ride good and fall into wheel alignment specs,plus they are a hell'va lot easier to do then swapping out front springs and shocks,and you maintain the factory ride quality.

 

[gbark80]

Hey folks! I have gone through a bunch of mods on my truck which is a 2018 1500 Sport, regular cab short bed. I'm putting out 500 wheel HP now and want to finish the truck with suspension and upgraded brakes. With all of that HP, it's sort of scary to drive and definitely needs an upgrade and I want to lower it for looks and performance. I will probably do the lowering setup, and eventually upgraded sway bars and control arms, but want to start with lowering it.

I want a decent street setup and make it more stable when stomping on it and going through corners on country roads.

Any recommendations? I found the belltech kit but see sort of mixed reviews on it. I don't want to spend thousands either...

Help?

Depending on how low you want to go, I would also look into the Inez Hot Rods (IHC) kit as well. Bell tech has been in the game for a long time, but the kits for 4th gen rams do have issues with how FCA designed the truck. I have a BT 2-4 with cut coils so it is closer to a 3-5 now, but if I had to do it all over again, I would have done more research and probably gone with the Inez kit. Here some pics of my 14 QC for reference.

 

[James OBrien]

Awesome, thanks guys for your inputs!

 

[abouttobeglue]

I started with the belltech 2/4, did kyb monomax, and spohn panhard, had to add the illicit relocation brackets, swapped shocks for kyb gas ajust, did the core 4x4 control arms upper and lower, and added the panhard bar too. Just put in a set of belltech 4 inch springs for crew/quad cab, swapped the passenger side back out to the belltech reg cab spring to get it more even on both sides, also have the airlift bags and hellwig swaybars front and rear. If I was to do it again I'd try a 1 inch front 3 inch rear drop, or the 2/4 lowering springs for a crew cab first, **** gets expensive quick, probably close to 2500 in parts.

 

[hdoggie24]

I started with the belltech 2/4, did kyb monomax, and spohn panhard, had to add the illicit relocation brackets, swapped shocks for kyb gas ajust, did the core 4x4 control arms upper and lower, and added the panhard bar too. Just put in a set of belltech 4 inch springs for crew/quad cab, swapped the passenger side back out to the belltech reg cab spring to get it more even on both sides, also have the airlift bags and hellwig swaybars front and rear. If I was to do it again I'd try a 1 inch front 3 inch rear drop, or the 2/4 lowering springs for a crew cab first, **** gets expensive quick, probably close to 2500 in parts.

Why did you use crew/quad cab springs on your regular cab truck? Was it just for the height of that stance? Did the springs for crew/quad sit lower or higher than the regular cab springs? I though I read that belltech regular cab spring rate was different than that of the crew/quad cabs? Or maybe its not noticeable.

 

[James OBrien]

Man, that's a journey... I like the look of the 2/4 of gbark80's

 

[gbark80]

Man, that's a journey... I like the look of the 2/4 of gbark80's

I appreciate it, just realize it ain't a standard 2/4. This is a link where I told another member about how I lowered mine. Pics of how much coil I cut are there too.

https://www.ramforum.com/threads/cutting-coils.152295/#post-2149875

 

[abouttobeglue]

Why did you use crew/quad cab springs on your regular cab truck? Was it just for the height of that stance? Did the springs for crew/quad sit lower or higher than the regular cab springs? I though I read that belltech regular cab spring rate was different than that of the crew/quad cabs? Or maybe its not noticeable.

I ordered the rear kit only, the quad cab springs have an extra coil, so it sits about 3/4 inch higher, swapped the passenger side to reg cab spring cause it was uneven. My panhard bar is pretty much level now.

 

[James OBrien]

If I only do 2" on the rear, would I still need relocation brackets?

 

[Wild one]

If I only do 2" on the rear, would I still need relocation brackets?

At 2" you're probably good with-out the relocation brackets,still worth doing the Core locating arms though.If you get a high speed sway then you'll want to do the relocation brackets,usually the Core locating arms will take care of any wheelhop issues you might encounter

 

[James OBrien]

Sounds good. Dumb question, is a locating arm the same thing as a control arm?

 

[Wild one]

Sounds good. Dumb question, is a locating arm the same thing as a control arm?

Yup,they are the arms that run parallel with the frame and actually hold the rearend in place,there's 2 on each side,you might be okay with just doing the adjustable lower arms on just a 2" drop.Stay away from Spohns stuff,they are the cheapest,and you get what you pay for with Spohns equipment.Suspension components are not the place to buy cheap parts for,lol.

 

[James OBrien]

Thanks, appreciate it. I've read lots of good things on the core gear, will start shopping!

 

[Midnight Storm]

I did nothing like that with my 2” rear spring drop and it rises like stock

 

[Wild one]

I did nothing like that with my 2” rear spring drop and it rises like stock

Some trucks are okay,but the next truck isn't,doesn't really seem to be any rhyme or reason to why one truck handles good dropped,while another supposedly identical truck will have bad wheelhop or a high speed sway.The regular cab shortboxes are notorious for having either issue when dropped,the longer wheelbase trucks not as much.

 

[Tray Burge]

Some trucks are okay,but the next truck isn't,doesn't really seem to be any rhyme or reason to why one truck handles good dropped,while another supposedly identical truck will have bad wheelhop or a high speed sway.The regular cab shortboxes are notorious for having either issue when dropped,the longer wheelbase trucks not as much.

Of course mines an 03, but when I lowered mine it drastically improved the handling characteristics of it, glad I didn't read that before or I may have changed my mind, guess I got lucky. I did have to replace all my shocks with high performance though to keep the front from bottoming out.

 

[Wild one]

Of course mines an 03, but when I lowered mine it drastically improved the handling characteristics of it, glad I didn't read that before or I may have changed my mind, guess I got lucky. I did have to replace all my shocks with high performance though to keep the front from bottoming out.
View attachment 190040

Always liked your truck Tray,it's a sharp little toy.The only thing is it's a leaf sprung truck,not a 4 link truck like the later 4th Gens are.

 

[James OBrien]

The regular cab short beds are definitely a unique animal and I can see with the short wheel base how minor issues can really be multiplied! I'm doing these upgrades in small part for the looks, but I also want to use it as a truck (just picked up about 1,000 pounds of tile/grout/mortar for a 'surprise' project my wife decided I needed to do on my work break) so I can still get some utility out of it, and I HAVE to make this thing safer with better handling, which is primarily why I'm doing this. My truck is running just over 500 WHP, 635-ish at the crank. Without the ass end firmly planted like I hope a bit of lowering and stiffer control arms/performance shocks will do, this thing is dangerous to drive right now if I use all of those ponies and am not really thoughtful about it, the stock suspension can't handle it safely.

 

[James OBrien]

Of course mines an 03, but when I lowered mine it drastically improved the handling characteristics of it, glad I didn't read that before or I may have changed my mind, guess I got lucky. I did have to replace all my shocks with high performance though to keep the front from bottoming out.
View attachment 190040

That's what I love about our trucks, your 03 is timeless and looks awesome! I hope mine looks as good 10 years from now.