How much will front end settle?

[Deerwashed]

Hey guys,
i bought an lml, but am keeping my previous lly extended cab long bed as a work truck. It had a 4" cognito and i wanted it to be back to stock or close to it, without spending money on stock parts and removing the lift. so i removed the torsion bolts, and through the stockers with 265's on it. Well now obviously it looks a little stupid.

i removed the torsion bolts, and then drove around for 5-6 minutes and then brought it back in my shop and measured it all out. The front sits 2" lower than the rear, and the rear has 2.5" blocks. i would prefer to remove the blocks and have it be level.

i would rather not buy a 1/2" block for the rear. The CV's still dont look 100% level, when i remove the torsion bolts, shouldnt my cv angles almost be negative? or was that a false hope i had?


Any input on my situation to get the rear of the truck back to no lift blocks and the front level with it would be greatly appreciated.


Hank

 

[Hot COCOAL]

For the front, getting it as low as possible, remove the bolts and the UCA bump stops or maybe add en energy suspension universal bump...that was how I got negative angle into the CV's and its not much, maybe 5-10° or so

For the rear, you can do what I did and remove the overlaod and add a 2" mini pack. That pretty much levels out a 4" kit to within 1/2" with torsion bolts/bars in factory preload

This how my truck is set up now, with a cognito 4" lift
I run 35's and it looks legit to my eyez. I like the wheel wells to be stuffed and my CG to be as low as possible and have as much chassis clearance as possible

With smaller tires this would pretty much appear to be like a totally stock truck. It barely sits taller than a stock, leveled 2500hd as it sits with 35's and the ride is acceptable, albeit a little soft up front. The front floats over bumps and holes like nuthin, tho

The ONLY issue I see in your plan is using the stock PYO'S
I do not believe that they clear the Cognito knuckle

 

[Deerwashed]

Thanks for the input!

Yeah my goal is an almost stock appearing truck, almost like most leveled guys with 285's especially if my buddy will sell me the almost brand new 285 toyo mt's he has had sitting on his not running rust bucket f350 for 12 months now.

as for the PYO's: They do clear as i ran them with 285's when i first installed the lift. and i actually have them mounted up with bald 265's right now. I am taking all my measurements with these tires on there.

I already removed the bolts and bump stops, and my cv angles are a tad positive, very close to level. Were yours negative when you removed your bolts? I was hoping no bolts would make it a little negative, as i see all these guys on here with removed bolts, and 2" drop shackles still having a little rake.

I have always like the stance on your truck, it was my goal for this truck with the bmf's and 35's i had before i bought my lml.

 

[TeaBagger2006]

do you have lift keys? on my 8" lift the cv angles are a bit negative with the bolts out.

 

[Deerwashed]

nope stock keys.

If a few more guys with bolts removed say theirs are a bit negative i may drive the truck around a bit more and hope it settles another 1/2" so i can just remove the rear blocks all together and be leveled.

boy would it be nice if it was that easy.....:angel:

 

[Deerwashed]

worse comes to worse, ill fab up some mounts in the bumper for tractor weights, 3 tractor weights on both sides of the front of the truck should get my front end pretty low. :roflmao::roflmao::spit::spit:

 

[Hot COCOAL]

Thanks for the input!

Yeah my goal is an almost stock appearing truck, almost like most leveled guys with 285's especially if my buddy will sell me the almost brand new 285 toyo mt's he has had sitting on his not running rust bucket f350 for 12 months now.

as for the PYO's: They do clear as i ran them with 285's when i first installed the lift. and i actually have them mounted up with bald 265's right now. I am taking all my measurements with these tires on there.

I already removed the bolts and bump stops, and my cv angles are a tad positive, very close to level. Were yours negative when you removed your bolts? I was hoping no bolts would make it a little negative, as i see all these guys on here with removed bolts, and 2" drop shackles still having a little rake.

I have always like the stance on your truck, it was my goal for this truck with the bmf's and 35's i had before i bought my lml.

Glad to help when I can!
Thanks for the compliment
I've put a lot of thought, time and money into it to make it look and drive (when its not broken) the way it does... far more than I would've ever expected

I'm thinking of encasing it in liquid carbon like Han Solo
and then having it frozen and put in Jay Leno's garage:roflmao:

I did not know, or think you could run PYO'S with the aftermarket knuckle. Thanks for the tip, that's really good to know, cuz I want a set of snow tires ready to go and PYO's would be IDEAL!

And no, with the bolts removed I barely got Level CV angles, that's why I took the bump stops out, so I could do boosted launches at will:woott:

I think the reason for this is that the diff doesn't get dropped a full 4"
It's only dropped about 3.75" which affects our CV angle and angle potential

Could be wrong tho

 

[Deerwashed]

Glad to help when I can!
Thanks for the compliment
I've put a lot of thought, time and money into it to make it look and drive (when its not broken) the way it does... far more than I would've ever expected

I'm thinking of encasing it in liquid carbon like Han Solo
and then having it frozen and put in Jay Leno's garage:roflmao:

I did not know, or think you could run PYO'S with the aftermarket knuckle. Thanks for the tip, that's really good to know, cuz I want a set of snow tires ready to go and PYO's would be IDEAL!

And no, with the bolts removed I barely got Level CV angles, that's why I took the bump stops out, so I could do boosted launches at will:woott:

I think the reason for this is that the diff doesn't get dropped a full 4"
It's only dropped about 3.75" which affects our CV angle and angle potential

Could be wrong tho

Great point!

I did not even think about the location of the differential, only the geometry of the suspension!

I dont mind where the front is at now, obviously i would prefer it to be down another 1/2" so i could remove the rear blocks all together, but in the case that it wont settle or go down anymore, i would like to bring the rear end up 1/2" so it is level.

Does anybody have any idea if a 1/2" block is even made?

Its a work truck so i have no problem buying airbags, might not be a bad idea anyways, so if i bought a set and just left like 5-10lbs in the bags at all times, think it would lift the rear up a hair?

 

[Hot COCOAL]

Oh yeah, air bags will give you all sorts of ability to toy with the rear ride height, I have a set..and can get 3" of rise, but here is the rub, the rear end is already stiff, so if you're empty and using the bags to give you even a tiny bit of rake, its gonna be even worse... Been there, done that...I run them with ZERO PRESSURE. I don't worry about breaking them, either. I have an air hose I use to pull air from the tire when I need to air them up, 60psi in each bag is like 2psi out of each tire, I've NEVER needed more than 60psi to level the rear out under laod, the bags are 100psi/5000lb rated

Using tow bags to give the rear a 1/2 WAS part of "my" original plan...now the t-bar bolts are out and the bump stops are gone

But, using air bags with a load rides like a friggin dream and puts you at no sag, no problem:thumb:


EDIT:
For what it's worth, in my eyes, the truck/stance doesn't look right if the rake is less than 1" front to back...the rake of my truck right now is 1 3/4" and I think it's perfect... At 1" of rake it looks level still... That's just my opinion

Lowered trucks is a little different, but I still prefer there to be some rake, I don't like the squatted look on a truck, at all.

Keeping the wheels pushed out a little bit also helps the look, I bet the front looks good with PYO's on the aftermarket knuckle, at that point I would without hesitation get a set of wheel spacers on the rear, or IMHO...it won't ever look right

Just my .02

 

[Deerwashed]

i am gonna go buy some stock u bolts, remove the blocks, and see where that leaves me looks wise.

if it turns out to be the same front and rear, i will be happy as can be.

if it turns out to be lower in the rear, but i dont really notice it looks wise with no weight, i will buy bags and just air up when needed/work season.

if it is noticeably lower, i will do add-a-leafs or a 1" block, whatever is lower.

but still any other input from anybody on getting the front a little lower with no bolts in the keys would be appreciated.

I don't have a plow on this truck, but maybe i will pretend i do and throw the push plates i got laying around on the truck as some added weight. :roflmao:

 

[Rancelot211]

I'll buy the lift and send my stock parts. Also have bilstein 5100s with 3k miles
On them

 

[Deerwashed]

i appreciate the offer, and i would even almost give it to you at the cost of whatever the differential bracket costs to bring it back to stock height. but freighting all this shit out to you is way more difficult, and time consuming than free time i have available at the moment. Also the hassle of if i forget to send you a bolt or something would be an annoyance. if you were within 3 or 4 hours of me i would gladly drive out to you and swap everything over with you, but ohio is just a tad too far.