Can someone help with factory height

[01superb]

I recently purchased an 01 regular cab 6speed 4x4 Cummins. The front measures approximately 4” lower than the rear. Is this normal? I don’t have the extra blocks and spring that I believe is the camper special? I just have 3 leafs, with 1 overload underneath, and a 4-3/4 block under the leaf pack. Is 4” a factory amount of rake in these trucks? Are my front coils just warn out? I’m measuring 25-25.5 in front and 29-29.5 in rear. I do have a slightly heavier front bumper. I was going to add a coil spacer to get it closer to level but that will still leave me 1.5-2” low in the front. Which isn’t bad but I want to make sure my coils aren’t warn. What are you stock measurements if you have any? Thanks for any help! 

Wanted to ad it’s a 2500, and I measured from the center of the wheel to the fender on front and back. 

[dripley]

From the factory the front end is about 3" lower than the rear or the rear is about 3" higher than front. Depends on your perspective.  Age and extra weight on the truck can change that. I have the camper package with an extra overload on top but have the same block on the rear as you.

[01superb]

I’m wondering if the regular cabs sit higher in the rear due to less weight with no rear cab? I’ve seen some measurements from other online forums and 25” in the front like mine isn’t unheard of. But seems people are usually in the 28” area for the rear and I’m above that. But I have nothing in a bed. Factory rear leaf without camper package. 

[Royal Squire]

Hook a trailer on and it will level right up

[01superb]

?

[dripley]

41 minutes ago, Royal Squire said:

Hook a trailer on and it will level right up

That's why I left mine alone. With the 5th wheel on it sits level. The rake never bothered me. Kind of if like myself.

43 minutes ago, 01superb said:

I’m wondering if the regular cabs sit higher in the rear due to less weight with no rear cab? I’ve seen some measurements from other online forums and 25” in the front like mine isn’t unheard of. But seems people are usually in the 28” area for the rear and I’m above that. But I have nothing in a bed. Factory rear leaf without camper package. 

The camper package did not add anything to elevate the rear. The overload spring is not engaged until about 2" of suspension travel. If your rear springs are the same as mine excluding the extra overload I could see a bit more height in the rear completely empty. Mine never is empty.

Edited September 27, 2020 by dripley

[01superb]

4” just seems excessive. I can’t stand it with that much of a difference. I’m going to put a leveling kit on it which should close the difference to 1.5-2” instead of 4”. My truck looks like a sled pulling truck lol 

[Mopar1973Man]

19 hours ago, 01superb said:

I recently purchased an 01 regular cab 6speed 4x4 Cummins. The front measures approximately 4” lower than the rear. Is this normal?

 

Yes. These truck level out when the load is applied to the bed. The rake is so there is ample room for the truck to swat down and still carry the load without bottoming out. 

 

8 minutes ago, 01superb said:

I’m going to put a leveling kit on it which should close the difference to 1.5-2” instead of 4”.

 

Be aware your going down a very difficult road now. Make sure to get adjustable control arms, adjustable track bar and then have the caster redone in a alignment shop and then also have them check the thrust angle. As you lift the front axle the control arms are too short and the caster turn more neutral steering center will be lost. Then with the fixed length track bar you thrust angle will be wrong because the axle will be towards the driver side more.

 

If you do, never tow. It will put your headlight in everyone faces. (one thing I hate about lift kits.)

 

 

[01superb]

I’ve ordered a 3rd gen track bar conversion along with the leveling kit. The stock control arms don’t accommodate even a 2-2.5” leveling kit? I tried to research as much as I could to ensure I had the required parts and I didn’t see anyone say the control arms were a necessity or even recommend them 

[Mopar1973Man]

1 hour ago, 01superb said:

The stock control arms don’t accommodate even a 2-2.5” leveling kit?

 

Most likely not. You not lift off the axle but pushing the axle downwards which turns the caster neutral. Ive seen several lifted truck and the steering just purely sucks. Wanders quite a bit more. Because for the lift and caster being neutral or not correct. 

 

1 hour ago, 01superb said:

I didn’t see anyone say the control arms were a necessity

 

Most don't even take it in to have the caster angle reset. Most whine about the poor steering, problems with darting, poor lane holding, a few months later. I seen a shop that installed a 2 inch lift on a Ford and watch the mechanic use a come-a-long to pull the axle over enough to hook up the track bar. Then just seeing how far the axle caster angle changed is rather note worthy. After it was done, I drove it and not impressed the entire handling was change for the worst.

 

@JAG1 just pulled his 2 inch out and return to 1 inch lift and made the road handling much better. Again he never aligned afterwards and never correct the caster angles. He did have a adjustable track bar. He had the thrust angle correct. 

Biggest thing is returning the geometry to the axle. If you going to lift the front then make sure the geometry is returned and possibly tweak so the steering and handling is corrected. 

 

Edited September 28, 2020 by JAG1
Mr. Spelling Wright

[01superb]

I appreciate the feedback! Obviously 2nd gens don’t steer well to begin with, I don’t want to make that worse lol. 

[Mopar1973Man]

9 minutes ago, 01superb said:

I appreciate the feedback! Obviously 2nd gens don’t steer well to begin with, I don’t want to make that worse lol. 

 

Not true.

 

I'm completely factory height, no lifts, had my front axle aligned back at 350k with my first set of tie rods. My truck has always had good lane holding. Hold center extremely well. At 300k I replace my stock steering box for a quick ratio. (Don't add one if over 31" tires) You need o use a standard ratio box because of the wide wheel this give better ratio to pulling wide tires. Since I'm running 245's stock tire size I've never had steering issues, death wobble or anything. Again the geometry is correct and no issues to report as I passing 421k miles. If it not handling well then the geometry is not right. 

 

• Factory power steering pump (Never replaced)
• Ball joints replaced at 180k miles and still going on these. (241k miles and counting - Cheap RockAuto)
• Steering box replaced at 300k miles and install Blue top quick ratio (Input shaft seal damage by rust)
• Stock Track Bar is about 150k miles to change.
• No death wobble ever!

Truck below... 

Edited September 28, 2020 by Mopar1973Man

[JAG1]

29 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Most likely not. You not lift off the axle but pushing the axle downwards which turns the caster neutral. Ive seen several lifted truck and the steering just purely sucks. Wanders quite a bit more. Because for the lift and caster being neutral or not correct. 

 

 

Most don't even take it in to have the caster angle reset. Most whine about the poor steering, problems with darting, poor lane holding, a few months later. I seen a shop that installed a 2 inch lift on a Ford and watch the mechanic use a come-a-long to pull the axle over enough to hook up the track bar. Then just seeing how far the axle caster angle changed is rather note worthy. After it was done, I drove it and not impressed the entire handling was change for the worst.

 

@JAG1 just pulled his 2 inch out and return to 1 inch lift and made the road handling much better. Again he never aligned afterwards and never correct the caster angles. He did have a adjustable track bar. He had the thrust angle correct. 

Biggest thing is returning the geometry to the axle. If you going to lift the front then make sure the geometry is returned and possibly tweak so the steering and handling is corrected. 

 

Yep never do another a wild hair thing like that again. It was expensive and it wasn't right. I'd rather get a raise from my work any day

[Mopar1973Man]

How I know this I managed to destroy my 1972 Dodge Power Wagon with a lift kit and manage to eat ball joint for lunch, tie rod failures very common. I made myself a promise I'd never lift or modify my new truck. Ever since I made that promise I've NEVER had any steering issues. Keep the geometry correct. 

 

In a mere 100k miles I managed to ruin that 1972 Dodge to the point I use it for the trade in on my current 2002 Dodge. 

[01superb]

Unfortunately I cannot stand how low it is in the front. I’m going to try the level and see what happens. Worst case some adjustable front control arms should be the last piece to the puzzle of returning the truck back to factory like geometry. 

[Doubletrouble]

Might be talking out my tailpipe here but instead of lifting the front is there an easy way to lower the rear a few inches to level it out?

[01superb]

8 minutes ago, Doubletrouble said:

Might be talking out my tailpipe here but instead of lifting the front is there an easy way to lower the rear a few inches to level it out?

I believe there us some way to do that. But I’m not sure? People sell lift blocks that are for like 2-2.5-3” lift but may work by replacing the factory 4-3/4 block? I’m not sure, hopefully an expert can chime in 

One thing I never really thought of was the bumper on the front. It’s a beefy bumper, would that be enough to really say a 3/4 ton front suspension though? 

[Mopar1973Man]

Not to hijack...

 

Matter of fact. I just got me a local guy (J. Stewart) that is retired and willing to do alignments and custom alignments for lifted Dodge Truck and he lives right in Riggins, ID. I told him if I had any that needed help I would send them. He dropped off a Chevy A/C for me to look at... 

 

His story was of a Chevy car that had alignment issue. The owner was a very obese lady. He was the only one that was capable of customizing the align for the offset of weight to make it right. All the shops were using factory numbers which won't work. Same applies to the truck when you lift you change everything so you have to customize the alignment because it no longer factory height.

[01superb]

On 9/27/2020 at 2:29 PM, dripley said:

From the factory the front end is about 3" lower than the rear or the rear is about 3" higher than front. Depends on your perspective.  Age and extra weight on the truck can change that. I have the camper package with an extra overload on top but have the same block on the rear as you.

Here’s mine. I’m not sure where you measured exactly. But I’m between 13-14” depending on where you measured. 

[Doubletrouble]

I think he said he measured from the center of the hub to the bottom lip of the fender.