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airbag lift kit, anyone have any info?

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Old 10-02-2010 | 01:13 AM
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Default airbag lift kit, anyone have any info?

i have been day dreaming about doing a lift kit with bags. i want 40's under my truck. i see airbag lifts for the 2500 and 3500, but not my 1500. the rear would seem to be easy, 4 link, track bar and fabing up the bridge and mounting plates for the bags. the front is what i am having a harder time with. i figure i would have to have the cross member from a lift kit to lower the control arms down, but i would also need adjustable control arms to help correct the steering geometry to get the riding height right, right? th etruck would not be offroaded, just a mall cruiser. just thought it would look good sitting down on the wheels while its parked, then bringing it up to ride height with the alarm. any ideas?
 
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Old 10-02-2010 | 07:48 AM
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some thing like this but for 1500, i've also looked and found nothing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuJ2xL1hBis
 
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Old 10-03-2010 | 08:51 PM
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yeah, pretty much
 
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Old 10-04-2010 | 10:51 AM
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For the front you have to use standard lift bags with mounting cups. Depending on how high you want to go you may need to cut out the mounts for the UCA and re-weld custom mounts to go higher or lower depending on how tall you want the setup.
 
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Old 10-04-2010 | 02:50 PM
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If u know someone or you can fab and weld then I could see it happening
 
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Old 10-04-2010 | 06:18 PM
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Wouldn't you have to worry about the alignment doing it on the 1500s?
 
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Old 10-05-2010 | 09:29 AM
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with any bagged vehicle, alignment is an issue. You basically get the ride height you want and adjust your alignment to that. Anything up or down and you will be off. Thats why you align at where you will spend most of our time. This is also why when you see rides lifted or lowered to the ground their wheels are not always straight
 
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Old 10-05-2010 | 09:41 AM
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i can weld, and there are tons of precut brackets and gussets for this stuff. what about the control arms? i want to clear 40's, i have seen a guys truck that did it with a 6" fabtech kit and a 3" body lift. looked like he had trimmed the front fender a bit behind the tire.

the rear seems easy, build a bridge over the rear end, mount your bags, and put in a four link with a track bar of some sort. for the front, im guessing that i would need to make a crossmember to lower the control arms. but then i believe i would need either some adjustable control arms or figure out how to extend them so that when the bag was fully deflated, the tire would sit in at the top, then have it aligned at the ride height you would adjust with the airbag controls, probable around half of the fully extended bag.

i understand that some people will say i shouldnt run 40's on my 1500, but its what i have, pretty much paid off, and i dont see jumping into another payment. plus, i run a small paint and body shop and its getting close to being my turn to do something for myself. ha, i want something i can do some shows with that will draw some attention to the shop and what-not.
 
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Old 10-05-2010 | 09:50 AM
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Ugh I've been wishing I could find something like this for my truck too! Guess thats more of a reason to get a 2500 CTD I guess. But i dont think the wife sees that as a valid argument. Hope you can figure something out cuz that would be freakin awesome man.
 
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Old 10-05-2010 | 10:21 AM
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I went through all of this some time back and was going to bag mine to lift it because 1) it was cool, 2) my wife wouldnt complain so much about having to step up and 3) it was the only way i could get higher.

Do a search on DT for bagged and lifted trucks and there are a few threads. In there were some guys who really helped me learn what all I was getting into and needed to get the job done.
 



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