Both kits work great so far....you questions are a little too technical for me though. I haven't noticed any odd sounds or feeling coming from the front suspension, and when I took it to the dealership for the alignment, they didn't tell me anything like they had a hard time doing it or anything....hope that helps.

And no I didn't get the tailgate lock.

 

looks great!

 

I attached a crappy drawn pic of what it looks like stock, lifted like yours, and a typical IFS lift kit. If I was at work I coulda drew one on autocad or one of the 3D programs(ProE or Inventor), oh well.

If you don't know, what your looking at is a upper & lower control arm and a knuckle. Without dropping your lower arm and getting a taller knuckle you run into a few issues...usually. One is the vertical movement is limited by how much the arms can drop before it hits the frame or binds up. Two, the knuckle is pulled closer to the frame some. Kinda the same as taking "x" length of string and pinning one end still; then holding the other end straight out, after you swing it down some it will loose a little horizontal distance to gain vertical distance. Back to the ole trig days: Pythag's theorem a^2 + b^2 = c^2. If "c" remained constant, "a" equals X direction, and "b" equals Y direction then used stock data as a base then added 4" to "b" and solved for "a" then you'd find "a" is a smaller value than base "a".

In sum to 2 you need more backspacing to your rims than original otherwise your tires will be closer to frame and get more frame/tire rub.

I keep trying to convice Rancho that their 3" 2nd gen kit will work on ours that they just need to change what they use to lift the front. Rather than coil spacers they need something similiar to TRX or use their Ram QL strut. It's so stupid they won't listen b/c they could re-market their old kit...whatever. If I had that much money I'd do it myself....

But I like your truck. Good to hear there's no binding. I don't think that'd be the case for 4wd's tho. I can say that I'm jealous tho.


[IMG]local://upfiles/45623/D4727E17D67C49968819C6E72EF74CB3.jpg[/IMG]

 

I dont understand it....but I wish Rancho would listen to you..

 

Ok, I am tracking what your saying. I don't do a lot of off roading, other than to get to a trail to walk my dogs, so I don't about the wheels not being able to drop down far enough. I do get some slight rubbing from my tires, but thats the tires not the suspension's fault.....although it's nothing on the frame, just a little on the plastic fender wells when I am backing up.

 

Sorry to revive an age old thread, but I have a few questions for white26golf, regarding your suspension, or anyone else who can help for that matter. I tried installing the same lift setup as you have (both the Trailmaster & Rough Country kits at the same time) this past weekend, and ran into some problems. When I had both kits mounted on the strut (the TM kit inside strut & RC kit mounted on top) I was unable to get the strut to mount to both the lower control arm and upper a-arm at the same time. The lower mounting bracket on the strut was crashing on the inner surface of the lower control arm, which wouldn't allow the three upper strut mounting bolts to line up inside the pocket.

Needles to say, I ended up only installing the TM kit. Problem is, I have some wicked rubbing tires now, oops. Now a few questions:

1) When you did your install, did you have to grind clearance in the lower control arm, so everything would fit? It looks like if I did it I would only have to remove 1/4" or so.

2) I also noticed that with the RC kit on the strut, the top spindle mount & upper ball joint were a LONG ways apart, and would require a good amount of tugging to get them to come together. Is this common with the RC kit? I wouldn't think that the TM kit affects the ball joint geometry at all because it is installed inside the strut, it just causes the strut to ride closer to full droop.

3) Now that you have had the kit installed for some time, how are your ball joints holding up?

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

 

I will help you. I have at one point had both the TM kit isntalled, and a kit just like the RC, the daystar.

1. As long as you are wearing factory wheels, you should be able to clear a tire as large as 265/75 on a 16, and 265/70 on a 17 with the TM kit.

2. You are correct about the control arms being a long way apart with the kit installed. Anytime you lengthen the height of a strut on a double wishbone suspension, you create more space between the control arms, thus creating "odd" angles, which will make reasmbly difficult, and will put ball joint angles off a tad. Your also 100% right about the balljoint angles and the TM kit. The TM kit WILL cause the balljoints to be angled, because the strut is now 2" longer, but the great thing about the TM kit, is because it is using up "droop" or articulation to create the lift, there strut wont droop any longer then it normally would, so the balljoints cant be OVER stressed or OVER angled, anymore then it normally could. This is not the case with the Rough Country kit, because it displaces the strut on the upper mount, and the strut can still droop its full length, meaning the strut can grow 2" longer then it should. When this happens it causes stressful angles, and the upper control arm on these trucks usually will always droop and lay againts the coil spring, making the upper ball joint the suspension limiter, instead of the shock inside the strut assembly.

This is the #1 reason why the Trailmaster kit is superior to the rest.

3. I have had a trailmaster installed for 1 year, and then a daystar installed for one year, I have 37,000 miles on my truck and am on the original balljoints. I checked them in January and besides them being dry (wish we could lube them) they are in good shape.


If I were you, I would not install them both on the strut. As you can see for yourself, the upper control arm cannot handle the 4" added length, and it will definately contact the coil spring when the suspension is flexing, plus it will kill your ball joints and your cv angles. Stick with just the TM kit.

As far as putting the strut back on the truck, Slide the strut up into the upper mount first, and thread on the bolt closests to you, but leave it loose, this way, you can get that bottom control arm/strut mount lined up right, get the bolt through, bolt it up, then go back up top and tighten that 1 bolt, then put the other 2 bolts on the top and your done. The reason your having a bit of trouble is because with the kit installed, you may actually have to bow the strut a bit to get it back in, so you may have to have a buddy push the bottom of the strut in, to get it to line up with the lower control arm mounting hole.

Also, you can play around with getting the lower control arm to come up, so its easier to thread the upper ball joint on the upper control arm during reasmbly. (otherwise you will notice that you can pry the upper control arm all the way down until it contacts the coil spring, and you STILL cant bolt up the balljoint to the spindle.) Bring the jack all the way to the outside of the lower control arm, make sure your sway bar links are still unbolted and swung out of the way so you dont transfer any of the jacking to the sway bar, make sure the jack is clear of that, otherwise when you try to jack the arm back up, you will wind up jacking the truck off the jack stands.


Personally, I would stop at just the TM kit for the front. (you can do the rear blocks 1" or 2" with stock shocks also, i have done 2" with sucess) Although two kits CAN be installed, its going to eat up all your upper control arm travel, cause hell on your balljoints, and cv joints, and I would put money on it putting alot of stress on your power steering rack. (you can do the rear blocks 1" or 2" with stock shocks also, i have done 2" with sucess)



If I missed anything let me know.

 

Lookin really sharp! keep it up