Has anyone put these on their truck? I just ordered them this morning. They sound like they will help out with the towing and hauling sage. Hopefully they help out the the shimming and shaking over bumps. I'll report once I get them on.

 

You need to google Monroe Loadleveler 58627 and a post from another Dodge website will come up. Read it. Monroe made a misprint apparently. Those are for the Nissan Pathfinder is what one guy is saying. They don't make any for the Dakota.

 

you may want to cancel the order and save yourself trouble and shipping. Check Monroe website and or call them, the do not make them for the 05 on Dak.

LB

 

Thanks guys. I went ahead and cancelled with shockwarehouse.com when I looked it up on the other forum. I should of done more research but the website clearly states that it is for the 05 dakota but when I called Monroe its only for the pathfinder. Oh well, I'm probably going to put the Ranchos on.

 

It really sucks that they havnt made them for the dakota yet. My father has there for his ranger and they work pretty well.

Rockauto lists Rancho 9000s now available for our dakotas.

 

MonkeyWrench, you seem know alot about the suspension on these trucks so I wanted run this by you to make sure this all sounds ok for my truck. It's hard to trust websites selling the correct parts for the correct vehicles.

I want to put on the 2" TM leveling kit, Rancho RS5000 front and rear, and a 1 inch rear block. I've got the 4x4 and the 9.25 gear. Do you think all this will work and is there anything that you think would work better?

 

Just be careful leveling the truck, the CV joints apparently get very close to maxing out with the leveling kit.

 

pack154,

Levleing ktis seem to be the only choice for the front end right now. Although they are never the best option, they are the only option for the dakota.

The TM kit is the only kit on the market that installs inside the strut, creating pre-load on the coil spring. This method does not increase the struts down travel (or articulation, or full length). This is very important because that means that CV Joints, Inner tie rods, sway bar end links and most importantly the upper ball joints wont get over extended during full flex.

(all other kits are a mount on top of the strut kit, displacing the strut 2" lower in the seat bucket, creating the over extension problems during full flex).

That being said, the TM kit, like all other leveling kits is not perfect. Anytime you make a strut longer, by any method, you create more space between the upper and lower control arm, this will put more strain on both the upper and lower control arm's balljoint, and will also cause your cv joints static position to be closer to a full articulation position.

This all could be somthing, or nothing for the long run of your front end components. If I was to recommend a kit, it would be the TM.

Now for the rear...

1" blocks will be perfectly fine. Your going to want blocks with ZERO taper for driveline correcting. So no taper. The u-bolts on the truck now will be JUST too short to re-use (at least they were in my 8.25 rear end, when i had 1" blocks). New u-bolts for a 9.25 rear end will be harder to dig up, but any spring shop can make them, and I am sure you can order them. Measure the width of the spring perch on the rear axle, but I believe you need a 2.25" wide block, but again please measure because its been a long time since I have done the rear end, so I may be wrong.

If your going with a 1" block, use factory sized shocks, like the rancho 5000s you mentioned. Factory size is perfect, and a 1" block will not hinder there performance at all.

You will net about 1.5" of lift in the front, and of course 1" in the rear. Allowing you to run a 265/75 on the 16" rim, or 265/70 on the 17" rim, which each wind up being about 31.6" tire.

If you do add larger tires, go to dodge and they can plug in the new tire size to keep your speedometer and odometer correct. No need to buy an expensive programmer, Dodge is happy to do this for $50-$75.

Good Luck.

 

MW, just to add my 2 pennies. I had a different 06 dakota 4x2 that I put the rough country leveling kit on and it came w/ 1.5" rear blocks and new u-bolts. If you have a hard time finding U-bolts, you may be able to call RC and they could provide you with some new longer ones. The ones they gave me were almost too long and stuck out quite dramatically. I would not recommend the rear RC9000 shocks though as they are far too stiff and when towing you get a ton of highway hop.

Also, the front top of the strut (outside the strut) level on my truck seemed to work okay. Although I could see over time this could cause parts like ball joints to wear out prematurley. it did get that low nose up in the air a little bit more though. just my two cents.

 

Thanks man. Great information! I'm going to tackle this myself. I haven't actually done this myself but I've got a strong background in building homes and maintenance from owning my own home building, repair, and remodeling company. I'm hoping to get to it next week.

Quick question - will factory sized replacement shocks like Ranchos 5000s work for the front if I install the TM kit?

Thanks again for your help.