Wanted to share my suspension journey or nightmare, which took about 2 years to finally finish.
First bought my Bronze Volk TE37s 18x9s about 2 years ago and wrapped them in Hankooks. It immediately starts to rub the fender liner and mud flaps at full lock. Thought I was going to raise the truck soon, so kinda of lived with it as I did research. Because I have been involved in the import industry for over 25 years, I wanted bling, since this was my family mall crawler.
So I was going to order some King 2.5 OEM replacements with reservoir, but heard from our rep, that the Race kits which is a 3 inch body were coming out. Obviously the mall crawler needed that, just in case I needed to go over a speed bump. The rear was going to be a bypass shock with separate compression and rebound adjustments, which seemed too hard to turn down. The information wasn’t on the website, so I waited and ordered a set when they were available. The kit is super expensive and way past the budget I wanted to spend, but was forced to buy it because I had mentally committed to getting the race kit. Then I realized that it requires an upper arm as well from either Total Chaos or Camburg. Since I knew one of the owners of Camburg, who used to work at Rod Millen and was also involved in the industry, he offered me a special price that I couldn’t refuse.
Another year had passed while all the parts were in my garage, life is busy raising two toddlers. Anyways, the stock suspension started to give out and I was forced to finally install them. But I needed rear springs and according to my friends, I needed ARB 2723 springs because I could possibly load up the truck on a weekend and needed extra spring rate. The ARB application list is kinda ambiguous and made it seem like you would only get .75 inch lift but maybe get a stiff spring rate when not loaded.
So here are the parts, install and results after 12 hours with my two friends. I was scared to open the KDSS valve because of people saying there bolts were ceased and stripped. My friends were like, we can do this without the valve open. Realized it could be done without it open, it was just a bitch. Also to make things worse, we guessed on the spring letter and assumed the A spring went on the passenger side, what a big mistake!!
Here are some pics of the Kings and some installed
Front right
Front Left - friend has to make the brackets for the reservoir
Rear right, can't seem much. Bypass valve race shock. The top mount was a bitch to install
Rear left - wrong spring and wrong side on the 1st time.
Sorry for the bad pics, the car was jacked up in the rear and it was miserable. Hot Rod stance with 2723s!
Final stance, hoping it settles a little. Still a little bit or rake and don't judge me on the swirl marks, I know it's bad! lol. ARB 2722 springs installed and the King shocks raised an inch.
First bought my Bronze Volk TE37s 18x9s about 2 years ago and wrapped them in Hankooks. It immediately starts to rub the fender liner and mud flaps at full lock. Thought I was going to raise the truck soon, so kinda of lived with it as I did research. Because I have been involved in the import industry for over 25 years, I wanted bling, since this was my family mall crawler.
So I was going to order some King 2.5 OEM replacements with reservoir, but heard from our rep, that the Race kits which is a 3 inch body were coming out. Obviously the mall crawler needed that, just in case I needed to go over a speed bump. The rear was going to be a bypass shock with separate compression and rebound adjustments, which seemed too hard to turn down. The information wasn’t on the website, so I waited and ordered a set when they were available. The kit is super expensive and way past the budget I wanted to spend, but was forced to buy it because I had mentally committed to getting the race kit. Then I realized that it requires an upper arm as well from either Total Chaos or Camburg. Since I knew one of the owners of Camburg, who used to work at Rod Millen and was also involved in the industry, he offered me a special price that I couldn’t refuse.
Another year had passed while all the parts were in my garage, life is busy raising two toddlers. Anyways, the stock suspension started to give out and I was forced to finally install them. But I needed rear springs and according to my friends, I needed ARB 2723 springs because I could possibly load up the truck on a weekend and needed extra spring rate. The ARB application list is kinda ambiguous and made it seem like you would only get .75 inch lift but maybe get a stiff spring rate when not loaded.
So here are the parts, install and results after 12 hours with my two friends. I was scared to open the KDSS valve because of people saying there bolts were ceased and stripped. My friends were like, we can do this without the valve open. Realized it could be done without it open, it was just a bitch. Also to make things worse, we guessed on the spring letter and assumed the A spring went on the passenger side, what a big mistake!!
Here are some pics of the Kings and some installed
Front right
Front Left - friend has to make the brackets for the reservoir
Rear right, can't seem much. Bypass valve race shock. The top mount was a bitch to install
Rear left - wrong spring and wrong side on the 1st time.
Sorry for the bad pics, the car was jacked up in the rear and it was miserable. Hot Rod stance with 2723s!
Final stance, hoping it settles a little. Still a little bit or rake and don't judge me on the swirl marks, I know it's bad! lol. ARB 2722 springs installed and the King shocks raised an inch.