Flank
American by Birth, Texan by the grace of God.
My 95 has 224K miles on what I have to assume are the original stock springs, I bought it with 179K on the clock. I've never had any handling complaints about my 80 - actually I think it handles better than my previous 02 Tahoe and my 
current 04 Expedition.
Friday I picked up a used but un-damaged ARB non winch bumper from a Mud Member, and set to work installing it Friday night. Having finished it late in the evening, I did not drive it until the next day.
Walking outside in the morning, there was significant stink bug due to the increased weight of the bumper - even given the fact that my rear springs are old as well. Driving the the truck, it was a bit squirrely and touchy on the steering. I was not surprised - a Toy dealership in Vegas that actually had a guy that was familiar with alignments on 80s had previously said that my caster was already off due the sagging springs.
I had purchased some Man-A-Fre 30mm spacers from the parts section previously and had them sitting in a box for the day I would want to level the stance of a medium lift, so Saturday I decided to put them in.
First of all - before doing this (it is not technically a hard job) make sure you have adequate jack stands. Mine are undersized at 2 ton each - they do not go high enough and I ended up using what I deem as un-safe techniques to get the truck frame high enough to drop the front axle. Lets put it this way - If I found my son doing it I would have reamed him out.
Dropping both front shocks, brake lines, diff breather line (pulled itself out), I still had to muscle the axle down and muscle the springs in after installing the space over the bump stops. It was not easy and a few choice expletives were offered up to the wrench gods. Finally, I got them in.
Drove it briefly that night to to set the spacers (they don't just slide in, they need to be installed with a layer of silicon lube spray after cleaning the bump stop - the weight of the truck will push them into place when you drive it) and put it to rest.
Sunday morning - the truck was sitting level perhaps even 1cm or so higher in the front than the back. It drove much better - squirrely handling gone. With the weight of the bumper, its a bit more boat like in cornering - from what i read, I gained roughly 60 -65 lbs in front - but I am very satisfied.
Center of hub to bottom of flair, I am sitting at 21.5" right now. As soon as my 4x4 labs bumper kit gets in, the running boards come back off (put them back on for a recent move), and OME stock height replacement springs I bought used last week will go in until I put a 2.5" lift on.
current 04 Expedition. Friday I picked up a used but un-damaged ARB non winch bumper from a Mud Member, and set to work installing it Friday night. Having finished it late in the evening, I did not drive it until the next day.
Walking outside in the morning, there was significant stink bug due to the increased weight of the bumper - even given the fact that my rear springs are old as well. Driving the the truck, it was a bit squirrely and touchy on the steering. I was not surprised - a Toy dealership in Vegas that actually had a guy that was familiar with alignments on 80s had previously said that my caster was already off due the sagging springs.
I had purchased some Man-A-Fre 30mm spacers from the parts section previously and had them sitting in a box for the day I would want to level the stance of a medium lift, so Saturday I decided to put them in.
First of all - before doing this (it is not technically a hard job) make sure you have adequate jack stands. Mine are undersized at 2 ton each - they do not go high enough and I ended up using what I deem as un-safe techniques to get the truck frame high enough to drop the front axle. Lets put it this way - If I found my son doing it I would have reamed him out.
Dropping both front shocks, brake lines, diff breather line (pulled itself out), I still had to muscle the axle down and muscle the springs in after installing the space over the bump stops. It was not easy and a few choice expletives were offered up to the wrench gods. Finally, I got them in.
Drove it briefly that night to to set the spacers (they don't just slide in, they need to be installed with a layer of silicon lube spray after cleaning the bump stop - the weight of the truck will push them into place when you drive it) and put it to rest.
Sunday morning - the truck was sitting level perhaps even 1cm or so higher in the front than the back. It drove much better - squirrely handling gone. With the weight of the bumper, its a bit more boat like in cornering - from what i read, I gained roughly 60 -65 lbs in front - but I am very satisfied.
Center of hub to bottom of flair, I am sitting at 21.5" right now. As soon as my 4x4 labs bumper kit gets in, the running boards come back off (put them back on for a recent move), and OME stock height replacement springs I bought used last week will go in until I put a 2.5" lift on.
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