Might sound weird, but anyone have any insight on LOWERING a 4X4? Only reason I have 4WD is for the wonderful midwest snow. I won't be mudding, rock climbing, or anything else that would require clearance. I'd like to try and regain some of the handling I enjoyed with my R/T, and the lower profile would help with aero/mileage as well. But I do need to keep the front diff functional. I'd like to go for at least a 3/4 drop. Will this work with the 4X4?

 

I had rear lowering shackles on for awhile.....Depending on how much you lower, I would suspect the same issues would arise from the front end as do when we use the leveling kits.

 

I would say it's not such a good idea, I mean it's hard to say though. The main reason for it being bad to lift the front too high is because of the extreme angle it puts the rapezza joints at. Lowering would make them much more level and possibly negative angle, but not much. But this will push the joint farther into the cup which I imagine could cause more wear? Not sure really.

But, not having a 4x4, I can't be sure, it might be perfectly fine. I would take a good hard look at the axles to see if you can picture what would happen with a level or negative angle...

In the end, it's up to you. If you want a 3/4 the only way to do it in the front is with the airbagit lowboys. After cutting my springs, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as I'm not too pleased with the angle that the leftover hits the strut mount. I can see it eventually cutting into the rubber and contacting the metal.. even though I rounded it off pretty well.

For the rear you will get a little more than 4" with a axle-over-spring swap. It's actually pretty easy. You can get a muffler shop to weld in the replacement perches and then do the rest at home without any downtime.

Here's an info thread I made that should help you out.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/3rd-gen...formation.html

 

i lowered my 2gen 4x4 but the front ends are much different.

 

you cranked your Torsen bar down didn't you?

you know, I think the CVs are of a similar design, the ball in cup type, so that's actually the only part that matters as far as wear and tear. How far did you lower it, and what angles did the axles end up at?

 

as far as lowering, the shakles are the only way to go, I have an 05 4x4 and only found these, or you can cut your frt springs to lower even more, but my truck sits level and handles alot better now that the a$$ end is not in the air.

www.canuckmotorsports.com

 

i have shackles in the rear for about 2in and about the same in the front. i bottom out over everything. but didnt have a problem getting an alignment.

 

Thanks for the input fellas. Back is pretty straight forward being solid axle. My concern is fronts. There were several options on gen 2 Dakotas, with Hotchkis kits being an amazing bolt on package. But that was also designed around 2wd setup. I figure dropping the front will require stiffer springs so I don't bottom out. Was just hoping someone else had researched it a bit. Not really keen on bags, that's just more time and money than I wanna invest right now.

 

my link includes all my research. I didn't go into any custom fab stuff though other than dropping the rear. But lowboys are your best bet for 3 inches. I can say though, I do bottom out but it's really not noticable because the bumpstops do a pretty good job but they won't last forever of course. that's with stock travel and 2" drop.

 

lowboys on the front will bring it down nicely. If you stick with stock height wheel/tire combo, then alignments won't be a problem. For the rear, just get the springs under the axle. That's what I did along with 235/50s on 18s which is 3 inches shorter overall on ghe wheel/tire height.