Hello all, long time reader first time poster, I have an 05 Dakota with the levelling kit in the front and blocks in the rear and after wearing out and replacing ball joints, tie rods and sway bar links..multiple times, I've decided to do a proper suspension lift, now I don't have the money to buy the JMR kit so I thought i can build one myself, I have access to welders, mechanics, machinists and I'm a millwright so I'm hoping the combined knowledge will maybe produce a lifted Dakota. I haven't searched the forums much about anyone else doing this lift so I don't know if there's much interest in this being done but if anyone has ANY advise for me I'd really like to hear from you, also if there's enough interest and depending how this lift goes, I may duplicate it and sell a few kits at a good price, so If anyone is interested in that message me. now I've started by hunting down steering knuckles, I got 4" lifted knuckles for an 02-05 dodge ram 1500 from rough country which are fairly cheap but because I live in alberta canada it costed me about $800 after exchange and shipping, I've ripped apart the front end of my Dakota and the ball joints and tie rods all seem to fit nicely in the taper of the new knuckles so I'm going to start designing drop brackets tomorrow. For the rear I'm not going to block it so I found a company in Vancouver B.C. That's going to make me a set of lifted leafs so I got the rear mostly taken care of, my only major issue is the front coilovers, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I talked with someone from KING suspension and hopefully were gonna work out a shock of sorts, anyway that's all for today, hopefully I'll have pictures and an update in the next couple days, thanks for reading.

 

I hope all goes good for you with this.

If there was a way to get the truck lifted while keeping the steering higher, that might be the exact thing that we need so the tie rod ends don't fail and it would also take some strain from the rack and stop some bump steer caused by the drastic change in angles you have to deal with. I don't know the ram knuckles, so i don't know if the steering ear is higher up then on our Dakotas. Also, keep in mind the CV shafts, you do need to drop the differential or get some CV's that have more flex.

For shocks, what about keeping the leveling kit on the stock coil. Would that not make it the right hight, at least for now. If not, i've seen online a forked lower mount coil over with a three bolt upper that seemed to have the right specs to fit the truck, i don't remember where i saw it and can't seem to find it this morning. It was being marketed as a 3 " lift coil assembly for the dakota or something like that.

 

I've compared the new knuckle with the Dakota knuckle and the steering ear sits about 2 1/2" higher on the new knuckle plus the tie rod mounts to the top of the new knuckle ear unlike the Dakota where it mounts to the bottom of the ear so I'm hoping that'll help with the extreme angle I may have to lengthen the tie rods though but I won't know till the knuckle is mounted. Also yes I will be dropping the front diff so I don't have such a bad angle on the CVs, and as far as the struts I am probably just going to build drop brackets for the stock ones for now, the only reason I want Aftermarket is so they're adjustable for a more cushioned ride, plus in the future I'd like to drop a hemi in the Dakota and the adjustable shocks would help compensate the added weight. If you do happen to find that coilover you were talking about let me know though haha, thanks

 

Ok so I've made some progress today, I've basically gotten the entire front end stripped except 1 seized control arm bolt I'm gonna have to cut but I'm gonna hold off till I know I have a replacement. I compared my new knuckles with the stock Dakota knuckles and they look like they're going to work, only major issue is the tapered mount spots on the new knuckles are deeper than on the Dakota knuckle so I'm going to have to machine them down so the ball joints fit properly. I was hopeing that the front diff drop brackets would all be the same but after getting the diff out of there I see now every bracket is going to be different. I also discovered one of my sway bar links snapped and was rubbing on my CV boot and it tore off and filled it with rocks and dirt so I'm going to have to replace atleast 1 CV now. Hopefully I'll start designing drop brackets and get them made sometime this week. That's all for now.



Tore CV boot





Old knuckle next to new one

 

lots of info in my custom suspension thread; couple pages down.

 

A) how much lift?

B) The coil over mentioned was probably the ProComp one there was a thread on not too long ago. It's basically a stock strut with a collar that flips changing the amount of lift. If I'm wrong I'd love to see it. After market coil over that bolts up would be awesome. JMR sells one for 5"-7" lift but it's hella expensive

C) if you do just use stock strut Raybestos makes a 690 lb/in coil (factor is 600 on the heaviest version of the Dakota 500 on the lightest)

D) if the tie rid isn't parallel with the control arms or the mounts for the cas on the knuckles are spaced further than on the stock bump steer will occur

E) the inner joint of the CV axle plunges a lot allowing for at least 2" of difference between the drop of the diff and the drop bracket. JMR sells a 2" diff drop that's even offset so there's no need for a spacer on the driveshaft. The bracket is on JMRs website for $250 and EVguy made a custom 3" diff bracket and spacer. You can PM him or check out his thread about his diesel conversion

F) if love to see lots of pictures

 

A)I want 6" of lift.

B)I called Fabtech about the shocks they've been selling JMR and the person I talked to said that thoes coilovers are way too stiff for the dodge Dakota so unless JMR is changing something on them before selling them I'm not gonna go with them, I'm probably just gonna modify my lower control arm to accept a bushing style coil over, or possibly use this opportunity to build a long travel kit.

C)if all else fails I'm probably just going to go with the stock strut and use the raybestos coil.

D) would you care to elaborate a little more on the bump steer and how to avoid it? I've never done my own lift so I'm not sure how to avoid things like bump steer.

E) this is 1 other thing I've been second guessing myself about a lot, I'm doing a 6" lift so wouldn't I want to drop my front diff 6"? Or should it be less, same with my control arms brackets, drop them 6" or what?

F) pictures will be coming once I make some progress haha thanks a lot for the info.

 

As a concern for your safety I suggest you read articles on race dezert or pickup the winning suspension book to explain all your geometry and how one thing affects the other.

I'm not saying your not capable of building something. But something like "bumpsteer" if not setup right, will send your truck into a wall the first bump or turn you make.

That being said. I've recommended this setup to multiple people but nobody wants to tackle it.

New Stock length upper control arm with uniballs.
Heim joint tie rods
Diff drop or high angle cvs. And modify the lower arm to accept an adjustable coilover.

You'll never have to worry about your front end again.

No extra brackets to drop everything around and adding stress points. Just simple usable suspension.

 

I should have explained my self better there, I have been doin my research and trying to figure out how to build this kit for probably 2 years now and for some reason bump steer just wasn't one of the things I took into account,I know what it is and I've slightly read up on the geometry and how to overcome it but I still wana get people's opinions in their own personal experience. i do agree I have a lot of research to still do but that is part of the reason I joined a forum, to hopefully get advise from first hand experience doing this lift.

I saw your thread about the long travel kit, that was pretty impressive, does it work good for you? Or is it not done yet?
And the setup you recommend, how much lift could it offer, 3" maybe?

 

The build is in progress. I'm actually going to be racing the truck so I paused the suspension to work on the roll cage and required safety features.

With the components I recommend, you could probably see 4" from stock on just the suspension. Take Into account bigger tires and that will just add to that number. But the key is usable suspension. Not saying a drop bracket kit isn't usable. But there's nothing like the smoothness of cool overs and uniballs