This weekend I finally was able to level out my truck and put on new shocks. All I did to level it was crank the torsion bars with stock keys and then added 2 inch longer Skyjacker Hydro shocks in the front and also replaced the rear shocks while I was at it. This wasn't bad at all to do, the only problem we had was the rear shock bolts were extremely corroded so we had to replace those, but overall it was a piece of cake. It definitely makes the truck look a whole lot better. I hated the rake on it before and now with just a level it looks so much better. Definitely the best improvement to the truck for a small amount of cash.

Then I also had new tires put on before winter really starts rolling. I went with the copper zeon ltz. I really wanted mickey thompson atz, but just couldn't afford them at this time and went with the zeons and so far they are sweet. They are much more aggressive looking then I thought they would be (obviously nothing compared to a m/t, but much better than the stock goodyears) and I love the look of them.

Here some pictures of the process:

Before Level:



After:



Skyjacker Hydro Shocks:





Improvised Truck Lift for a little extra head room:



Cooper Zeon LTZ:







Truck finished with Level, shocks, and tires:

 

Truck looks great. But I damn sure wouldn't be caught underneath it!

 

Thanks

lol she was solid, the two forklifts had the majority of the weight. The stands were to just put a little pressure up on the shocks to help take them off easier. I definitely wouldn't go under anything that wasn't for sure safe.

 

Looks great!!!

 

Thanks! And thank you for all your help hammer, it made it a whole lot easier on deciding what to do and get. Much appreciated

 

Nice , exactly what I wanted to do today but torsion bar bolts giving ne hell. How hard were they to turn? I tried mine and bolt moves barely so I know its not seized, just some weight on them from wheels. Also how many turns and do you have your start n finish heights, sorry so maby questions

 

Mine were pretty easy to turn, but to allow for this I sprayed them with wd-40 once a day for like 3 or 4 days beforehand and that made it a whole lot easier. Sorry I don't remember the heights or number of turns, but i measured from the wheels and not the ground and I measured them first before cranking and then I cranked as my dad held the tape so he could see how much I was going. I did about 1 inch on the drivers side then like 1.5 on the other and went back and finished the drivers side until I had a total lift of 2 inches. My drivers side actually was settled down about 1/4 inch more than the passenger side so i went 2 inches up from the passenger side and 2 1/4 on the drivers side. Then I took it out and drove it around for a little bit to let everything settle in and measured again and it all looked good.

 

Do you have to re-align your front-end after you level? I'm looking at coil spring spacer's since I've got a 2nd Gen 2wd, no torsion bars to crank, and it's been suggested that the level isn't complete until the front-end is re-aligned, at least with spring spacer's.

 

Anytime you change the suspension angles you need to have an alignment. The ONLY kind of lift that does not effect alignment is a body lift...

 

Another question, are torsion bars on all the 3rd Gen models (I would think 4th too) or did they start later in the 3rd years?