I have nothing to contribute here except to tell Chase and Rick that their trucks are gorgeous!
Jason, is yours stock ride height now? I think ive only seen like one picture before.
Jason,
i run 305/50/20 420's, QA1 adjustables all around, 1/2 ton 4x4 coils, and 4 leafs in rear.
Front fender-well opening is at 37", rear is 40".
I may remove one more leaf to make it exactly level, it will do you just fine.
I think he means he measured to the top of the wheel well opening and got 37" in the front and 40" in the back.joel, you opened the fenders?
I think he means he measured to the top of the wheel well opening and got 37" in the front and 40" in the back.
x2.
I know quite a bit about that stuff, and here is a little advice.
You're going to want a solid front sway bar (definitely stiffer than stock), probably add a rear one as well. In 2wd you can manage no rear sway because of the stiffness of the leafs, but in 4wd you'd definitely want one, and honestly, it'd make 2wd feel better too.
Stiffer coils would be good. You usually want relatively loose coils for drag racing and relatively stiff for slalom. You can get somewhat the best of both worlds by using progressive springs (soft the first inch, hard the rest).
In drag racing, you can use your sway bars with adjustable end links to set tension already so when the engine tries to twist the frame, your suspension is already counteracting it and keeping the tires planted. In slalom you would want to sway bar preload because you are constantly going back and forth and you wouldnt want one direction getting favor over the other.
For alignment, you are going to want about .16deg total toe in. For caster, you ideally would want zero cross caster, but for street driving, I like .3deg so that it fights road crown and keeps you going straight. If you want to get the cool ball joints that allow you to adjust camber, I like -.8 to -1.2deg for a good mix between street driving and having fun, then -2deg for pretty fast twisties, and -3.5 for full on slalom racing.
A slight toe in on the rear axle will actually help your acceleration off the line without blowing the tires off, but you'd have to get your axle bent for that and that is something I personally wouldnt do.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head right now, but I'm pretty tired. I might think of more later.
Go ahead....cut off it nuts.
:hehe:
I just wanna throw my two cents in.... I build drag and street cars primarily for a living, along with some diesel and suspension lift stuff mixed in. I do a lot of fab work and have purchased and used all of the shocks mentioned. I want you to know that the qa1 stuff is Chinese, and the quality just isn't there. Leaks, bushing wear, adjustability, parts availability (I rebuild my own) are all problems if you actually use them. Strange shocks are a much nicer product for that price range. I would say the biggest complaint I would have with Strange is the adjustability. The shock may have 32 clicks, but if you can only use 2 or 3, it isn't good. Head and shoulders above them is the Afco product. Good people, great shocks, custom valving if you buy them direct, (same price to you as with jegs), made right in Indiana. And you probably will have 10 or 15 clicks of honest useable adjustment. Ask them, but I would think the Big Gun series, intended for higher power cars, would be just right for the extra weight of your truck. Yes, the cost is double what a Strange is, but you'll know where the money went when you want to tune them. I also fully support the coilover, spring on shock setup for a quick spring rate change while maintaining ride height. As I said, my .02.....