Hello all, I've lurked here on and off for several years but now I need some advice. I want to stuff 38's under my 96 Ram 1500 4x4. It has a factory off road kit which I believe is basically Ram 2500 front springs and a 2'' block in the back. It's running 32'' tires now. I'm figuring I need at least a 6"" suspension kit and cut out fender flares like bushwhacker used to make (does that company still exist?). Thing is googling suspensions I'm not seeing anything over 5'' from the major manufacturers.

I'm not doing a body lift, I did that back in the day and found it just raised the center of gravity. I am very anti blocks, I don't even approve of the 2'' ones my truck came with from the factory. On past projects I have had custom springs made and will do that again for the rear if I have too. I would prefer to buy them from a lift manufacturer though and not deal with the spring shop if possible. It's mainly the coils and steering parts I need direction with. Does anybody make super duty tie rods, drag links, pitman arms, or steering arms? Wheres a good place to get some nice braided steel extended brake lines these days?

My goal is to make this truck as tall as will pass NJ stability test, we are limited to 38'' tires these days. BTW I know I will have to lower the gear ratio. After I get my lift straight I will lower the gears and put a locker in the rear.

Thanks in advance, any advice is much appreciated!

 

If you were not gonna go with a lift block, just stack aal's, and for steering, i think 1ton steer components would just bolt up, not sure though

 

yea you can swap steering components with 1 tons and 2500s. as for the kit, i think skyjacker maks a 6" and also i have seend people get the 5" from rouch country and "modify" it to 6", what they did i dunno. but that rough country kit comes with blocks, as do the majority of lifts. nothin wrong with blocks, you just dont wanna stack them really.

 

hmm, I have the Skyjacker 7 inch dual flex long arm kit. I love it, 40K miles and the only part replaced is the joint for the panhard bar at the axle. You do not need anything else to clear 37s, the arms are totally adjustable that extra 3/4" so you clear your wheel wells just fine.

 

welcome to the forum

 

The skyjacker 6'' diesel lift kit will give you about 7-8'' of lift and thats new springs all the way around.

 

if you go much past 5-6 inches of lift your going to have a choppy ride. the short control arms arent meant to be used at such a high angle. if you go past 6'' you need to get/fab longer control arms. you can get more lift out of a lift kit if you install a coil spring spacer in the front and blocks/ aal/ shackle flip/ etc. in the rear. you also run the risk of breaking an axle. the 44 in generaly good up to a 35'' tire, if you do much off roading you might want to look into getting axles out of a 2500 and swap em in.

just my 2 cents

 

uh #1 a body lift is the best way NOT to raise the center of gravity much while lifting so if you were unpleased with the handling of a 3" body lift you wont like a 6" suspension lift.
#2 38" tires on 1500 axles equals lot of replacing wheel bearings and other components.
#3 your truck came with 5" lift blocks in rear from the factory like my 96 did.

oh yeah dont forget to upgrade the brakes...I only have 35" tires on my 96 and the braking down right sucks with all new brakes

 

Any lift will raise the center of gravity. I think what he was trying to say there was, it didn't give him any additional ground clearance. (aside from fitting the larger tires)

 

a body lift keeps all the heavy components like the drivetrain and frame at almost factory height only raised by the tire diameter....he will get the same ground clearence from a suspension lift? you still have the drive shafts and axles at the same hieght which are what usually gets caught up when offroading.
I think he was tring to say he didnt like the handling of the body lift and if thats the case hes going to be another one of those guys trying to sell a lifted dodge on craigslist that "just needs wheel bearings replaced" after he realizes the looks are the only thing fun about driving a truck that high unless major work and expense goes into basically redesigning and building the trucks suspension, brakes and axles (regear axles is a must). I mean if he doesnt even know what center of gravity is do you think hes really going to know how to do it right? (I mean no offense to you man, just proving a point about how all those half assed lifted trucks end up on ebay or craigslist after thier owners realize they are not so cool or safe to own unless done right with heavy pocketbook)
But all that aside if your serious about doing it right I would swap axles from a 2500 (later years have better braking power) and sterring box as well as the factory 1500 steering is weak and sloppy with big tires (trust me I know) and with 38" tires plan on getting 5.38 gears (usually 1200 to 1500 bucks to have them swapped on top of your lift costs...then you will have a bad *** ride. Oh yeah dont forget to the overtime involved for the gas money I get 13mpg on the highway with 4.56 gears and 35" tires and a 5.9L so.... maybe you'll get 10 or 11? unless you really drive like a senior citizen.