Sarguy,

your misunderstanding me, i never said that the factory spacers were bad. Your picture looks perfect, the angles are great.

As i said previously, i really can't say much about the factory spacers. I would have to look at two trucks, a factory TRX and a regular 4th gen ram to actually see if there was a difference in setup to accomadate the change.

I am not second guessing how the truck was built, i said earlier;

'If the trx 4 has some sort of lift spacer, but the tie rod ends, rack and control arms are all the same, then thats just poorly done by the factories part."

But everything looks great in your picture. That doesnt mean everything would look great on a rough country leveling kit install though.

How much do these factory spacers lift the truck? If your truck is actually a higher height then the normal ram, then they had to have done somthing to keep everything looking as good as it does in your picture. Unless its like a 1/2 inch height difference or somthing.

I am talking about non-trx guys doing a rough country leveling kit. I don't think there going to get the same angle results you have.

 

As far as I can feel in there with my fingers, the spacer is 2" tall. The TRX-4 is about 1.5-2" taller than the stock 4x4's. As far as I know, all the components are the same. We just have a spacer.

I am not arguing the spacer won't change geometry, but I really don't think it is going to make a huge difference, especially when the factory does it.

 

There are probablly a few more differences from the TRX and the regular ram front end.

Otherwise I dont understand how both setups could have good angles??

The picture you showed me shows everything pretty much dead on. Everything looks great.

What I am saying is, lets say you removed your spacers, that would set angles like a truck that was lowered. The regular rams can't possibly be like that, so maybe there are a few differences?

I honestly don't know about that because I havnt taken a good look at a 4th gen ram.

I just know the results of leveling kits on the dakota and the f-150 with the same suspension setup as the 4th gen ram.

Maybe someone will post up a pic of there angles with a rough country leveling so we can see?

Listen its gotten TOO blown up now, I only wanted to show that the angles of balljoints and cvs are greater. I wasn't really trying to make a huge deal about it. Just want you guys to get the most out of your trucks! lol.

Thats great that the TRX models are actually lifted, because our Dakota TRX4, as far as anyone on the 3rd gen dakota forum can tell, is no higher. :\ Good Luck.

 

Anyone have a pic of their non-TRX 4x4 for us?

If I seem upset, I am not, I just want to make the point that while the factory doesn't always make the best choices, I don't think this is one of them.

No hard feelings.

 

I am 100% sure that the factory did not take any shortcuts at all when looking at your picture. Like i said I was just showing what happens with alot of aftermarket leveling kits. The factory TRX setup looks great.

 

This is my 2009 with a rough country lift kit.

 

TRX factory lift:



Rough Country Leveling kit:

 

One thing that may be different between a TRX truck and a non-TRX truck is the length of the sway bar link. Sarguy's truck looks like the sway bar link is longer. I measured my trucks swaybar link and it is 5 7/16" when measured from rubber boot to rubber boot. How long is your TRX swaybar link sarguy01?

 

Give me a while, maybe even to the morning. I am drinking beer with the in laws.

 

To me the TRX angles look much better. It is 1/2" less lift, but the CV angles are much better. They had to have corrected the angles somehow when they built it. (which is a good thing, and what you would expect). It just doesnt look like there is any spacer effecting the angles, so they must have done SOMTHING to correct it.

tmot35's angles don't look horrible, ive seen worse with a leveling kit, but there is a difference. With this specific kit and truck, it doesnt look like anything to major at all. It seems to be much worse on our dakotas.

What my main point is, you should expect your cv angles to look like tmot35's angles when your flexing a bit offroad on a trail, or an uneven surface. If the angles are like that when its sitting in a level driveway, now you have to think about how they are going to be angled when you do hit the trail with your ram. The last thing you want is bind or damage.

There is some difference in the upper control arm as well, I can see that the TRX setup sits dead center, and the rough country kit is cocked a bit because the control arm gets pulled down and in, the more you displace the strut assembly lower.

Its not THAT much though, but its worth making sure the ball joint never maxes out to the side and binds. (just lift the truck off the ground and look) A ball joint spacer would let the control arm come up a bit more, and correct the angle. I am not sure if they make those for the 4th gen ram yet though.