Coilovers!!

hondarider552

Getting faster
May 28, 2008
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Well here they are. I will get some better pics of them tomorrow when I take it offroading to break the shocks/springs in :rofl:

So far with the weight of the truck on the ground I am lifted 1" overall side to side from stock torsion bars all the way down, which is good because the springs will sag a bit.

Only thing that is different from the "other kit" is my coils are 900lb 12"

Torsion front end to these coil overs was exactly a 75lb drop in weight.

Thanks to James for doing all the homework for me :D
 
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OregonDMAX

NOT IN OREGON, NO DURAMAX
Apr 28, 2013
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Well here they are. I will get some better pics of them tomorrow when I take it offroading to break the shocks/springs in :rofl:

So far with the weight of the truck on the ground I am lifted 1" overall side to side from stock torsion bars all the way down, which is good because the springs will sag a bit.

Only thing that is different from the "other kit" is my coils are 900lb 12"

Torsion front end to these coil overs was exactly a 75lb drop in weight.

Thanks to James for doing all the homework for me :D

very nice! so from stock height thats roughly 1.5"-2" drop
 

Chevy1925

don't know sh!t about IFS
Staff member
Oct 21, 2009
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Well here they are. I will get some better pics of them tomorrow when I take it offroading to break the shocks/springs in :rofl:



So far with the weight of the truck on the ground I am lifted 1" overall side to side from stock torsion bars all the way down, which is good because the springs will sag a bit.



Only thing that is different from the "other kit" is my coils are 900lb 12"



Torsion front end to these coil overs was exactly a 75lb drop in weight.



Thanks to James for doing all the homework for me :D


You got it bud :hug:

But these are not the same shocks everyone on here had bought or posted about either. These are geared right towards his truck height and weight.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

MarkBroviak

DMax Junkie
Vendor/Sponsor
May 25, 2008
2,141
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Danville Indiana
How much different would you set mine up being a 2wd vs. BriBri's 4x4? Mine is quite a bit lower too. This is the route I want to go James so I'm all ears.:thumb:
 

hondarider552

Getting faster
May 28, 2008
10,627
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34
Arizona
Well put 50 miles on the truck today, broke the springs in by rolling on/off my rolled edge curb in front of the house at 5-10mph or so, did 5-6 launches and front end rise is was less noticeable than with the torisons/ranchos and doesn't squat the rear end as much. As of now the front end is 1/2" higher than factory torsions with stock keys all the way down, will settle a bit more but im good with where it's at for now.

Track Friday night, hoping to leave harder and push it till it breaks, this is the last weekend I will be in town before I move, so gunna throw it everything she has got and see what the little white worktruck can do ;)


Thank you everyone who has contributed to this thread, made things go a lot smoother and made me wish I did it sooner.
 

othrgrl

Diesel Addiction Owner
Mar 10, 2008
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Wilmington NC
www.mydieseladdiction.com
With your 6" front drop in your signature what else did you use other than the coil overs? Any one ever run these shocks without springs and with the torsion bars?

You would have a few options to run double adjustable QA1s. The cheaper non coil over shock that are stud top will bolt in with a mod to the lower mount is the TD501. I ran the DTC1538P, which is the old part number and liked them a lot. With stock keys all the way down or lowering keys you get a really soft floating ride that most shocks can't control. With the QA1s you can leave compression loose so that it is a nice soft ride, yet turn rebound all the way up so the front doesn't lift for racing and so that you don't get the floating effect after hitting a bump - it will just slowly come back to it's ride stance. We sell a lot of them and everyone is always happy with them both for track and DD purposes. They normally run like $229 on Summit.

If you think that one day you may want to convert to coil over it would be smarter to go ahead and buy the coil over shocks and run them without coils or anything on them until you do the conversion - they are only about $10 more per shock, plus the adapter to run an eyelet-eyelet shock.

I would never have a truck leave my shop with the weight of the front end riding on stock shock mounts - they only have a few stitches of welds holding them on the frame and were not designed or intended to carry the weight load of the vehicle. I don't care how many people I see say they have been fine for X years daily driving with their sled pulling weight rack and 1100 lbs of extra weight on the front end - it's not worth the risk of hitting the wrong bump the wrong way and having a mount rip off of the frame.
 

moparkxracer

Well-known member
Jun 25, 2010
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Out and about
I agree with Dustin, couldn't believe they only had a few spot welds holding the brackets on from the factory. It would be a bad day to break on off.
 

Chevy1925

don't know sh!t about IFS
Staff member
Oct 21, 2009
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i have not touched mine and brian has not touched his. for street use, i would not worry about it but im also not a shop with customers.

when i first installed mine, it was "oh no, you HAVE to reinforce that mount, it wont last long". then it made it through hitting curbs, slamming speed bumps, finally going off road and handling washed out roads, whoops, and a few ditches i didnt see at speed so it changed to "It will bend/crack in time" (this was after 1000-2000 miles). Now i have almost 10k on the shocks and had them for well over a year without letting up and had no issues (other than leaky POS shocks) but im sure the next saying is "your only one truck, it can be said for all". Which, yup, thats true but the abuse and weight i have on my truck exceeds alot of what you guys here will ever see on a street truck. I seem to be the only one who actually tested the theory of the frame mount cracking and breaking and results show its not so. :thumb:

and im going to make this clear, im only stating NO need to brace on a street truck. if you want to go out punishing it off road, slam the front end with weight from a sled puller, and so on, all bets are off.

i have a truck coming in, in a week or two that will be getting some bracing as the coilovers going on it will see lots of abuse off road and will be valved accordingly
 
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moparkxracer

Well-known member
Jun 25, 2010
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picture.php
picture.php
Are you guys just adding more welds to the top bracket or are you reinforcing it somehow? Pictures would be great!
 

othrgrl

Diesel Addiction Owner
Mar 10, 2008
2,151
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Wilmington NC
www.mydieseladdiction.com
Mine are done just like Chris' (moparkxracer). At the very least I would finish welding them to the frame, but again on a customer's truck I would not roll one out of the shop without the gussets like what Chris and I have. It's not worth having someone get hurt or the liability of it and I don't understand the "I'm getting away with it for X miles at Y weight over Z bumps so everyone follow my lead" mentality - this is a safety concern and a little over kill is not going to hurt anything or cost much time or money to do in the scheme of things. Also it will be easier to beef them up initially than to fix them after they fail, along with anything else that gets destroyed in the process.

I have guys pushing 750+ rwhp on stock bottom ends for years and thousands of miles of abuse harder than what most people would ever put on a truck, but I sure as hell don't go around telling people it is safe and going to last if they attempt it - even on the same setup and tuning.
 

othrgrl

Diesel Addiction Owner
Mar 10, 2008
2,151
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Wilmington NC
www.mydieseladdiction.com
i have not touched mine and brian has not touched his. for street use, i would not worry about it

Now i have almost 10k on the shocks and had them for well over a year without letting up and had no issues

but the abuse and weight i have on my truck exceeds alot of what you guys here will ever see on a street truck. I seem to be the only one who actually tested the theory of the frame mount cracking and breaking and results show its not so. :thumb:

and im going to make this clear, im only stating NO need to brace on a street truck.

I don't know what I missed or turned around - you stated as fact about 4 times and different ways, with your experience to back it up, that it is completely unnecessary to gusset or support the upper shock mount in any way. I couldn't care less if you personally want to take the risk, but I don't like that you are posting your still limited experience as though it were completely proven and concrete fact and giving others false confidence to take the same risk. I only take risks if the gain outweighs the risk - what do you have to gain by not beefing up the upper mount?
 

OregonDMAX

NOT IN OREGON, NO DURAMAX
Apr 28, 2013
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Just by looking at the stock mounts it would take all of 10 mins to finish welding and not much more time to make some gussets.
 

Chevy1925

don't know sh!t about IFS
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Oct 21, 2009
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I don't know what I missed or turned around - you stated as fact about 4 times and different ways, with your experience to back it up, that it is completely unnecessary to gusset or support the upper shock mount in any way. I couldn't care less if you personally want to take the risk, but I don't like that you are posting your still limited experience as though it were completely proven and concrete fact and giving others false confidence to take the same risk. I only take risks if the gain outweighs the risk - what do you have to gain by not beefing up the upper mount?

your narrowing and ignoring the rest of the post. lets break it down ;)

i have not touched mine and brian has not touched his. for street use, i would not worry about it but im also not a shop with customers.

first this. after all that has been written in this thread about the mounts, i have not once stated DONT brace the mount. all i have done is tested on my truck. brian feels plenty confident in his as well to run them as is. Now if i had a shop or a kit, i would have braces going on the trucks. Why? because of liability. if i sent a kit out and someone decides not to use them primarily because they have a street truck and no quick access to a welder, so be it, thats their choice, just as you mentioned about stock motors running high HP.


when i first installed mine, it was "oh no, you HAVE to reinforce that mount, it wont last long". then it made it through hitting curbs, slamming speed bumps, finally going off road and handling washed out roads, whoops, and a few ditches i didnt see at speed so it changed to "It will bend/crack in time" (this was after 1000-2000 miles). Now i have almost 10k on the shocks and had them for well over a year without letting up and had no issues (other than leaky POS shocks) but im sure the next saying is "your only one truck, it can be said for all". Which, yup, thats true but the abuse and weight i have on my truck exceeds alot of what you guys here will ever see on a street truck. I seem to be the only one who actually tested the theory of the frame mount cracking and breaking and results show its not so. :thumb:

now here, i explain why i tested the mount on MY truck. everyone ASSUMED these stock mounts would not hold the trucks and they were like glass just waiting to break. So i went out and showed otherwise on MY truck, thus letting others come to a decision for them selves what they want to do on their truck. again at no point have i said do NOT run braces. Just like guys pushing stock rods, they can decide from here and possibly try it them selves. all you have to do is keep an eye on the frame mount at the bottom corners for cracks. these will not instantly fold up and cause you to wreck miss daisy unless you go dukes of hazzard on them. your going to see them start going. ive explained this before in previous posts as well.

and im going to make this clear, im only stating NO need to brace on a street truck. if you want to go out punishing it off road, slam the front end with weight from a sled puller, and so on, all bets are off.

now i figured this comment here would have cleared any discrepancy with my post but it seems not as its been read into too far. that word there in the bold. its pretty key. its reiterating my point on the key factors i posted to those, again, who have read this thread and want to make their own decision based on my findings and what they are comfortable with and others findings on what they want to do. It makes it clear to the reader, or should i say, should have made it clear to the reader that the mount is not a piece of glass and in a street truck application its your choice on what you want to do. no part in there says DONT run braces on your street truck.

i have a truck coming in, in a week or two that will be getting some bracing as the coilovers going on it will see lots of abuse off road and will be valved accordingly

and the last bit. Hey looky there, im actually putting braces on a truck for coilovers. Again because i know where this truck is headed and will need the support. would someone so against them and so willing to risk lives that could kill innocent people, children, dogs, cats, birds, worms, sheep (a shit, dont read that part mike) and damn mosquito's put them on a truck he works on??? lol :D

Dustin, im not saying at no point should anyone ever run a brace, dont run a brace, i know all, my one truck tells all, blah blah blah. i and only i have been one to try going with out the brace and beat on the truck to see what happens with the mount so i posted about it. id be happy to hear from others who may have done the same. ill most likely brace my own damn truck at some point soon because it will see air time when i get time to revalve the shocks.

does this all make sense now? please dont read attitude into it, i have none and is not ment to have any. simply a discussion picking apart my own post to explain where im coming from before we get guys reading too far into it, not understanding what i mean and so on.
 

Chevy1925

don't know sh!t about IFS
Staff member
Oct 21, 2009
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Phoenix Az
Just by looking at the stock mounts it would take all of 10 mins to finish welding and not much more time to make some gussets.

for a good, clean job its going to take you much longer than that. cleaning it up enough for welding is 10-15 min, welding the rest of the mount and getting in there, another 5-10 min. then lets build braces and say you have a plasma and steel handy. making and cleaning those up to look and fit nicely and well as clear the coilovers will take you about a hours worth of work for one side if you work diligently. Then clean the crap off the frame and tack/weld them in. so by lunch time if you started after breakfast, you might have the truck on the ground with braces and coilovers in. for the normal average joe, it will be an hour or two after lunch to finish it up and thats assuming the coilovers he put on came with instructions on how much preload to add or not put in to the coils for the ride height he is achieving.

Now before that gets flipped around and made as a point of "see, your saying not to put brackets on". HELL NO, i only stating the time frame is much longer than you think. im making an argument against the time frame suggested :D