Just. Curious if anyone has considered a drop down kit for our trucks? I see them a lot for larger trucks and wonder if it would work for our truck ? To make the lift easier etc

 

i'm bringing this back up,

just with what everyone is having issues with IE: ball joint binding issues, etc tie rod issues...

would it not just make sense for these few items:
upper control arm mount drops, lower control arm mount drops, rack and pinion drop kit, steering column extension, and power steering line extensions, and strut drops or longer struts... for the 2wd trucks,
and for the 4wd, a diff drop bracket.


there really isn't anything different in the design of the front end of our trucks vs the larger trucks.

doing a drop kit will keep the geometry of the front end, keep it from binding, will keep the current lvl kits issues with premature wear on the pivot points of our front end...

i mean, doing an 8 inch lift of a gmc 2500.... is very simple... granted the steering is slightly different than our truck. why can't it be so simple for the 3rd gen dakotas...


the only draw back I see to the larger lift like over 5 inches is drive shaft length.... and potentially strength ...

so who would be a decent company to see if we can get them on board to do something like this... i mean just about everyone on this section of the site is wanting to do a lift, and were having to cut so much of the truck up just to get tires to clear the body of the truck...


any input or thoughts?

 

Can't drop the UCA mounts mainly because they are angled differently than the LCA mounts for caster purposes and there are clearance issues because of the strut bucket.

The rack and pinion can be dropped but I think only .5" ( EVguy did this for his epic diesel swap).

You would have to just get a taller steering knuckle and keep the TRE and UCA locations the same but lower the LCA mount with a bracket. That's where it gets expensive.

There is an easier way but there is just so little money to be made making lifts for the Dakota that most companies can't be bothered.

If you're interested I could explain the two different lifts I thought of trying before I got into a university I can't really afford.

 

welll see thats what i thought of as well, but I've got a very good friend with a 2500 duramax, and i've been rebuilding the front end of this truck, its got an 8 inch lift. and the control arms both have angles that aren't the same from top to bottom, if its possible to do a verticle drop, while maintain the angles its amazing. the possibility of doing something like a drop down kit.

 

Partly because its just pointless to have a mid size truck lifted like that. And those monster lifted wannabe super duties that all the cool guys tow boats and stuff with, ride like complete garbage. They move the shocks to the top arm and they only have about 5 inches of usable stroke and is just a very unpleasant ride.

but if your willing to drop about 5 grand into your dakota to move the entire suspension downward and not really gain anything....then I envy your income lol.

 

If your 2wd just spend the 2 grand to get lift spindles made then run a coil over. Thats 3 inches from the spindle. 2 natural from the coil over and 2 or 3 from larger tires. And your spine will thank you.

 

I just saw this on a Facebook group

This dude has these on his upers im trying to gt more inf from him