The_Hammer

Looks good man.

My dad gave me cash and a new Dewalt 4 1/2" angle grinder. He's also the one who picked up the iron I needed from his work so I can build my shackle reversal. I haven't been to the inlaw's yet so I don't know what's waiting for me there lol.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I've never had access to a lift, I normally ran enough suspension lift that I didn't need one lol.

No, it's for a 2nd gen. Dodge offered a HD steering upgrade option from 98-99, the parts I listed are the same thing as the factory upgrade but made by Raybestos.

Just wanted to give an update and let yall' know that I'm still going to be doing this, it's going to be a minute though.

$274.68 shipped is the best price I've found on a set of 4. I'll be the first to tell ya that money damn sure doesn't grow on trees. I've never spent more than $30 per shock before so this was a big step up in price for me. I don't regret it one bit, the really help keep these heavy trucks under control. I'm this impressed and I still need to replace my swaybar end links and my control arm bushings are shot lol. Got enough iron to build the brackets, shackles, and zero rates. Brackets will be 1/4", shackles 3/8", zero rates 1".

I finally got them installed a little while ago and just got done with the test drive. Overall I extremely happy with how they perform and would definitely buy them again.

My front pair of Bilstein 5100's will be here sometime today. I ordered them from streetsideauto for $137.34 free UPS shipping, which was one of the best prices I could find. I researched the ever loving crap out of the 5100's before deciding to give them a try. I'm not expecting a magical Bilstein suspension fairy to appear after the shocks are installed and wave it's magic impact gun that sprays a combination of redbull and marvel mystery oil out the exhaust and make my truck ride like a sports car. I'm mainly looking for a more controlled ride and to stop my truck from bouncing around the road like I'm hitting switches in a low rider. I plan on doing better than just pictures, think blueprints and parts list.

@Dieselfuture Thanks for the input! I don't do any "serious" offroad driving with this truck, the harshest terrain it sees is down at Matagorda beach which has some mild dunes and wash outs. The main goal is getting enough lift to ditch the block and add-a-leaf while keeping the truck level with 2" spacers in the front.

@Mopar1973Man I'll be sure to document the entire process and list the materials and parts required. JOHNFAK has agreed to give me a hand in getting the dimensions right, which will definitely take some guesswork out of this. I'd like to be upfront by stating that I have NO intentions what so ever of selling shackle reversals. My goal is to get a set built for my truck, document the process, and share the information here so others can make their own without a bunch of guesswork and trial and error.

I'm still going to build the shackle reversal asap, if anything it will be nice to ditch the factory blocks and remove the add-a-leaf. The steel for the project was all free, including the 1/4 and 3/8 plate along with a piece of 1x3x12 to use for the offset zero rates. The only things I have to buy are shorter U-bolts, bushings, and a pair of 4-5° axle shims. @JOHNFAK I've been doing some research on the 3rd gen spring conversions and it seems they work very well with a shackle reversal. Eventually I may swap in a pair depending on how I like the ride when I done.

@CTcummins24V Sucks to hear about the maxx links, I really need some extended links. @JOHNFAK I never thought about swapping in 3rd gen springs.

My main concern is I don't want to waste my time if it's not going to do what I want. @JOHNFAK What issues did you have with DOR? I've been reading about people having issues with him. I have his trackbar and love it, but that's the only thing I've ordered from him. It sounds like I'll be better off going with my current plan over a more elaborate set up. Extended control arms that move the axle 1/2" further forward than stock. 98-99 HD steering upgrade using Raybestos Pro parts. Maxx link extended swaybar links. Shackle reversal and removing the factory block and ditching the add-a-leafs. Control arms and shackle reversal will be built by me.

I have a few questions for you. What don't you like about your current suspension setup? Which components made the most difference? Which components made the least difference?

@JOHNFAK Would you mind listing your suspension upgrades? I'm very interested in your experiences.

That could be an option for sure. Right now though I'm going to build a set of regular extended arms since I can do it for about $200.

I don't have a tubing bender or $1400 for DOR's kit lol. It may be something I try later though.

Glad she wasn't hurt other than the bruising.

I've been racking my brain going over ideas for the front control arms and no matter what I come up with there is one common denominator that I can't get around, the factory LCA mount. The only way to make something like this work with the small lift that I have is to cut the stock mounting brackets off the frame, which I do NOT want to do. If for some reason I don't like the rear shackle reversal I can easily put it back to stock, reverting the front back to stock after cutting the mounts off could be a real pita. Since I'm not man enough to cut the stock mounts off I'm going to settle on building some longer control arms that will push the axle about a 1/2" further forward than stock. Seeing as my current control arm bushings have more cracks in them than a plumbers convention I can only imagine longer arms and new bushings will help improve the ride quality quite a bit. My swaybar end links are completely trashed and will be replaced with a pair of extended maxxlink ends, which I'm sure help with handling. Ordered a pair of Bilstein 5100 shocks last night to replace my completely wore out front shocks, which should also help the handling. I know this is a truck and not a sports car but I want to make it ride and handle the best it can for what it is. I still believe a radius arm setup (which Dodge and Ford are both using now) would give me the best geometry for the front end but I just can't make myself cut those stock mounts off lol.

I'm not linking the rear suspension, it's staying leaf sprung. You bring up a valid point with pinion depth, I don't tow very much and when I do it's not that heavy. One way around that possible issue would be to use air bags. I'm wanting to correct the front control arm angles with either a long arm or radius arm setup. The picture above shows a fairly simple way to do a long arm utilizing the stock LCA mount for the top CA, and adding a mount further back for a longer LCA. The issue with this setup though is that I don't have enough lift for it to work. So, I'm going with a radius arm setup. This would be a fairly simple setup setup to build. I wouldn't build them as long and would use poly bushing instead of ballistic/heim joints. Most of the time you see arms that are built super heavy duty because the trucks are heavily used and abused offroad, which is something that I'm not doing. My goal is to have the bottom of the arms as level to the ground as possible at normal ride height.

This is interesting.

Currently I have a 2" leveling kit installed that consists of 2" steel coil spring spacers and add-a-leafs in the rear. I'm not happy with my ride quality and will be changing some things up to make it right. First up is building a pair of shackle reversal brackets and shackles. This will accomplish two things: 1 - Converting from the stock tension shackle to a compression shackle improves ride quality without sacrificing load capacity. 2 - The added lift will allow the removal of the factory lift blocks and add-a-leafs, resulting in less axle wrap and a smoother ride. A couple of things to take in to account is that as you drop the rear spring mounting points down it also changes the pinion angle and moves the axle foward. This can be taken care of with an offset 1" zero rate and 5° wedge, or an offset 1" zero rate with a 5° slope machined in, nether of which will adversely affect load carrying capacity or durability. The front suspension is a bit more involved with multiple options for optimizing ride quality. The most common route to take is to install extended control arms, followed by long arms, and finally long radius arms. I'm thinking about going with long radius arms due to the fact that I'm not running much lift and have minimal clearance to work with. The goal is to have the arms as parallel to the ground as possible, which equates to a smoother ride. The only negative of a long radius arm set up is that it doesn't flex as much as a 4-link, since my truck doesn't see any serious off road use that's of no concern to me. I'll be starting on the shackle reversal very soon as I have finally got my hands on enough 1/4" plate to build them. I will be l taking pictures and documenting the project as I go along.

I asked the seller of the OEM dashboard if they were now made with ABS plastic and this was the response I received: "They should be made of the same material as the original, which is plastic." So, obviously this place has no idea what they're selling. LMC replied back asking for the part number which I forgot to include in the original email. I'll post up what they say. Oddly enough when I checked their site just a few minutes ago the dash is now listed for $259.95 before shipping instead of the $229.95 it was yesterday.