Well I just got the new lift on and just thought I should share some thoughts and pictures. It is the Rancho upper a-arms with the Downey slip yoke axles. I also installed all new Downey poly bushings upper and lower, mega travel upper ball joints, ss longer brake lines and a new steering link.
First, I do have one major issue with the t-bars/height to work out. I previously had installed sway-away 25mm t-bars, low profile stops, poly control arm bushings and gained about 2" lift over stock. Now with the new Rancho a-arms installed I adjusted the t-bars just past where I had them adjusted for my stock 2" lift. I got it initially up to 24" hub to fender, which is where I wanted it. Yet as soon as I rolled it out of the garage the truck sat down to stock level. Then further down my driveway it went back up to the height I had it set at. WTF?? Right. And the front end feels really soft, like the t-bars have almost no pre-load on them. Rancho and Downey both told me to just crank my t-bars more, which I don’t think is a great answer but I'll see what happens. I broke a t-bar anchor bolt so I have to wait for a new one so it’ll be this weekend till I can get at it. Breaking the bolt isn't related to my problem, just due to a “fix” that the previous owner did to the t-bar frame mount after the truck was rolled…….but that’s another story.
Well enough about that, now for the good stuff! I had to do some engineering to get the stock Rancho RS5000 shocks to work. My goal was to avoid having to cut off my stock upper shock tabs and installing Downey mounts for longer shocks. I don't have pictures of the shocks but in a short story I had to add an extender on the top stud of the shock. To achieve the correct compression length I had to cut the stud on the shock so the added length of the shock with the extender would not over compress but still fully extend. In addition I had to put about 15mm of spacers on the lower control arm stops to protect the shocks from over compressing and would help gain clearance for 33" tires.
The axles are also an area of debate; they cannot take speeds over 40-45mph. They shake like crazy around 30mph and then smooth out somewhat but 40mph is probably really pushing them. I've heard that the stock axles will work but when I did a test fit, the inner joints where at their maximum and IMO probably would break pretty easy under hard wheeling. Also the inner and outer boots are about to rip themselves apart. Speaking of boots, I could not get the Spiral Tech boots supplied by Downey to work properly. They would not stay in place on the birfield joint since the joint and stock boots have groves that hold them in place in conjunction with the outer boot clamps. The Spiral Tech boots lack these groves and when clamped down they will not stay in place no matter how tight the clamps are put on. I went ahead and installed stock replacements boots and they seem to be just fine.
Bottom line, the kit gives a big improvement over the stock setup but I cannot justify the Downey price. I got this whole kit off a rolled truck for $250 and $50 for new bushings so I don't feel bad at all.
First, I do have one major issue with the t-bars/height to work out. I previously had installed sway-away 25mm t-bars, low profile stops, poly control arm bushings and gained about 2" lift over stock. Now with the new Rancho a-arms installed I adjusted the t-bars just past where I had them adjusted for my stock 2" lift. I got it initially up to 24" hub to fender, which is where I wanted it. Yet as soon as I rolled it out of the garage the truck sat down to stock level. Then further down my driveway it went back up to the height I had it set at. WTF?? Right. And the front end feels really soft, like the t-bars have almost no pre-load on them. Rancho and Downey both told me to just crank my t-bars more, which I don’t think is a great answer but I'll see what happens. I broke a t-bar anchor bolt so I have to wait for a new one so it’ll be this weekend till I can get at it. Breaking the bolt isn't related to my problem, just due to a “fix” that the previous owner did to the t-bar frame mount after the truck was rolled…….but that’s another story.
Well enough about that, now for the good stuff! I had to do some engineering to get the stock Rancho RS5000 shocks to work. My goal was to avoid having to cut off my stock upper shock tabs and installing Downey mounts for longer shocks. I don't have pictures of the shocks but in a short story I had to add an extender on the top stud of the shock. To achieve the correct compression length I had to cut the stud on the shock so the added length of the shock with the extender would not over compress but still fully extend. In addition I had to put about 15mm of spacers on the lower control arm stops to protect the shocks from over compressing and would help gain clearance for 33" tires.
The axles are also an area of debate; they cannot take speeds over 40-45mph. They shake like crazy around 30mph and then smooth out somewhat but 40mph is probably really pushing them. I've heard that the stock axles will work but when I did a test fit, the inner joints where at their maximum and IMO probably would break pretty easy under hard wheeling. Also the inner and outer boots are about to rip themselves apart. Speaking of boots, I could not get the Spiral Tech boots supplied by Downey to work properly. They would not stay in place on the birfield joint since the joint and stock boots have groves that hold them in place in conjunction with the outer boot clamps. The Spiral Tech boots lack these groves and when clamped down they will not stay in place no matter how tight the clamps are put on. I went ahead and installed stock replacements boots and they seem to be just fine.
Bottom line, the kit gives a big improvement over the stock setup but I cannot justify the Downey price. I got this whole kit off a rolled truck for $250 and $50 for new bushings so I don't feel bad at all.
Last edited:
Get some longer shocks on there... the IFS needs travel to shine.
