Which springs for front of a lifted 2016 1500 sport?

[SharkByte]

I have a 2016 Ram 1500 Sport with a BDS 4 inch lift on Toyo Open Country 35x12.50 20's which I am trying to replace the shocks and struts on. I put Rancho's on the back and bought Rancho struts for the front but I did not know when I bought the front struts that the lift kit the dealership installed used 4 inch spacers in the front and retained the stock struts. I was planning on keeping my stock springs to put on the new struts but once I take the spacers out the springs won't be long enough and I can't seem to find springs for a 4 inch lift... Can anyone recommend a good set? The truck is mostly on pavement but I do a little bit of light crawling on goat paths through the Nevada desert and I pull a 4 horse trailer with it...

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• SharkByte
• Sep 9, 2020

Snow

• SharkByte
• Sep 9, 2020

 

[BOWERSFJ]

Why are you trying to remove the 4” spacer ? That’s what provides the lift ... You can use Bilstein 5100’s, and get a lil more lift in the front to level things, if you want (0.7” or 1.4” settings) ... What size rear lift did you get from BDS ?


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[crazykid1994]

You need to leave the spacer over the strut. The spacer is what gives you your lift obviously. Bds does offer a taller strut assembly as well. So does rough country.

 

[SharkByte]

That makes sense. My truck was modded by the original dealer so I don't have all the specifics. When I bought the new struts I was thinking I would need a strut for a 4 inch lift and when I saw the spacer I wasn't sure how to deal with it. My assumption is that I can get a longer spring, remove the spacer and use the new struts I have or buy stock height struts and leave the spacer. Is that correct or am I thinking about it wrong?

 

[ram1500rsm]

All brackets lifts will use spacers to provide the lift and use brackets to drop the diff and give you different hub spindles to relocate your arms/tie rods etc to correct geometry. I've never lifted that way myself but the bracket lift residents can correct me and/or expand as needed. Couple of vendors have options with Coilovers or struts that don't need the spacers. BDS uses Fox 2.5 Coilovers that won't need spacers, RC have 4" or 6" QL struts, Icon has 4 or 6" coilovers, etc

What kind of Rancho front struts did you get ? QL struts ? they are fully assembled and setup for 2”. So you could have a 2" top spacer for a 4" lift otherwise if you use the 4" spacer you already have then id think you’ll have 6" front.

I don't think anybody makes a 4" spring cause with IFS it doesn't work exactly that way. Only Eibach provides a little longer than stock spring that i think will lift you 2" or 2.5" with an adjustable strut setup for the 0" height position (5100 or Eibach adjustable struts), after that you go up in the perches and preload the spring to gain height. the strut asembly must be stock or 1" extended at the most, or in your case the spindles will open up the gap between where the shock lower mount is located and the upper strut tower, so you need longer strut assemblies otherwise you have to add an spacer to make up the difference.

Hope it helps

 

[BOWERSFJ]

I wouldn’t try to change the BDS lift ... They are one of the best in the business ... They know what they are doing


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[SharkByte]

I don't think anybody makes a 4" spring cause with IFS it doesn't work exactly that way. Only Eibach provides a little longer than stock spring that i think will lift you 2" or 2.5" with an adjustable strut setup for the 0" height position (5100 or Eibach adjustable struts), after that you go up in the perches and preload the spring to gain height. the strut asembly must be stock or 1" extended at the most, or in your case the spindles will open up the gap between where the shock lower mount is located and the upper strut tower, so you need longer strut assemblies otherwise you have to add an spacer to make up the difference.

Hope it helps

I got the Rancho RS55810's. I finally got someone at Rancho to talk to me which was a lot harder than I expected it to be and he says they put the lower spring mount higher up on the shock to make up the difference in height to allow you to use the OEM spring. According to him I can remove the spacer and those struts will work perfectly. I guess I am going to swap them out this weekend and see how it sits. The stance on my truck is exactly the way I want it now so if it changes to much I'll probably end up pulling the Rancho's out and buy something else... I really don't want to drop the money for Fox or Bilsteins but I might have to if these don't work out... I do a little bit of desert crawling but I don't get into anything rough enough to need top tier shocks. The roughest thing I get into on a normal basis is washboarded dirt roads so I figure Rancho is a decent middle ground on price and performance.

 

[BOWERSFJ]

Uggg .... You’re gonna listen to Rancho over BDS ... Good luck with that ...


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[Dustinmc15]

I have the Rancho 4 inch lift and the Rancho Rep is correct, you can remove the 4 inch spacers and install the stock spring on the Rancho strut.

 

[ram1500rsm]

I got the Rancho RS55810's. I finally got someone at Rancho to talk to me which was a lot harder than I expected it to be and he says they put the lower spring mount higher up on the shock to make up the difference in height to allow you to use the OEM spring. According to him I can remove the spacer and those struts will work perfectly. I guess I am going to swap them out this weekend and see how it sits. The stance on my truck is exactly the way I want it now so if it changes to much I'll probably end up pulling the Rancho's out and buy something else... I really don't want to drop the money for Fox or Bilsteins but I might have to if these don't work out... I do a little bit of desert crawling but I don't get into anything rough enough to need top tier shocks. The roughest thing I get into on a normal basis is washboarded dirt roads so I figure Rancho is a decent middle ground on price and performance.

I have the Rancho 7000 series in my spreadsheet for 4" (RS7810), i just added those 5000 as well for 4". Good to know about the higher spring perch and that you can reuse the factory springs with these units.
If you ever wonder about the RS5810 specs they're 24.5" extended, 18.69" compressed.