Levelling Kit Finally In.....My Impressions

[JHansen]

I have been attempting to squeeze this project in now for 4 months-a variety of circumstances (namely the weather, my work schedule, and the odd bout of binge drinking) conspired to push it off until today. I installed a set of the Skyjacker levelling coils, a set of Rancho 9000 shocks, and a DT track bar. I have a Skyjacker dual steering stabilizer setup that didn't make it on yet due to reasons I'll get into below.



So here's my initial impressions after my 60 mile round trip to town for fuel (yes I live way out there-do you know where the cows go to die? I'm another 15 miles past there ):



SKYJACKER COILS:

Were maybe not the funnest things I've ever installed-but they went surprisingly good-mainly due to tips I picked up on here and a similar (but 3/4 scale) job I did on my XJ. I supported the truck on jackstands off the frame to let the axle droop, raised it slightly with the floor jack, unbolted the shock, sway bar link and upper control arm bolt and let the jack down. Then I went to the opposite side, jacked it to tilt the axle, popped the old spring out and put the new one in. I think this is the way to go instead of messing with a spring compressor-I considered that but the ones in our shop are really for Macpherson struts-they wouldn't fit over the spring wire and I decided it was really not a good day to die.



The Skyjackers are about 2" longer in free length than the 046/039 OEM springs they replaced-so they're a little harder to get in there. But really not that bad..... I installed the shocks and springs as a unit as I was too lazy to unbolt that top shock tower dealie...



RS9000 SHOCKS:

Fronts went easier than the backs-which again surprised me. I used an impact to undo the top stem nut-worked real good. The backs were a PITA-but I persevered. Had to drop the spare tire to get the LH one-and the exhaust hanger is right in the way of the RH one. So is the sway bar at the bottom-this required a big bar and a lot of grunt to pry the swaybar down the millimeter I needed for clearance-needless to say the bolt went back in the other way!



I had read about the adjuster pistons corroding in severe conditions-so I removed each adjuster knob and packed the cavity with Sil-Glyde (brake silicone grease). I installed all 4 with the adjuster knobs facing the back to protect them from rocks and general road debris. I also left the shock boots off.



DT TRACK BAR:

1 word-slick! Requires some drill work on the front engine crossmember-nothing real hard. The bar and bracket are pieces of art. Way cool piece! The old one didn't even fight that hard to come off.



SKYJACKER STEERING STABILIZERS:

These are still on the shop floor-as others had reported the bracket that mounts to the axle is sized for a 1500-the U-bolts are too small. I'm gonna have to have Dad weld a pair of tabs to the bracket so the larger U-bolts that I'll have to find will have somewhere to mount. Once this is done the rest should be cheese... .



DRIVING IMPRESSIONS:

IMO the Skyjacker springs ride better than the factory ones. I'll know for sure tomorrow-I have a couple places picked out that used to bottom the stock suspension out easily. The RS9000s ride great-I think I have them on 3 all around. Mine seemed to have 6 adjusting positions counting the initial one-so I cranked them completely clockwise and then backed them off 2 clicks. Maybe 3-maybe 4. I'll play with the settings over the next few days to see where I like them best. The track bar is unobtrusive-so it's doing its job just fine.....



And as far as I can tell the truck sits perfectly level now-when I get my Ute front bumper on it may slant it slightly forward which would suit me just fine.

 

[HillCountrykid]

I'm looking foward to your impressions tomorrow. I would like to know how stiff the new springs are. I don't want anything that is much softer than the stockers. I know this may be hard to tell with the new shocks though. I sure like Skyjacker's stuff.



P. S. I'm jealous.



Brian

 

[Dave MacArthur]

I have the Skyjacker leveling coils also. I agree completely about the handling. They give a much better ride in my opinion. I had very weak springs from the factory though (I think they were 038,039). I noticed much, much better cornering ability right away. I don't know how else to describe it except to say that the "mushy" feeling is completely gone. They give a much more "sure footed" feel in all situations. I had the Ranco 9000's first and they really helped also. But since I did them at seperate times, I can say that the springs made a very big difference by themselves.



Dave.

 

[JHansen]

I don't know that the springs themselves are any softer Brian-I think what I noticed last night has to do with the fact that the Skyjackers are progressive-rate where the stockers aren't. That and the fact that with the extra 2" or so of clearance up front there's that much more before you touch the bumpstops. I have one particular road in mind I'll hit this AM-it's got a dip in just the right place and it always bottoms out the truck at 90 km/h or above-not harshly, just the shape of the road. That plus the factory shocks allowed a couple extra rebounds in there... ... I'm pretty sure after I hit that spot today I'll have permagrin for a while.....



Dave's description of getting rid of the mushy feeling is right on the money..... that's what I was trying to say . The truck just feels better... . wish I would have done this a while back. The most expensive part is the DT trackbar-by the time I paid exchange, shipping, duties, and UPS rape fees seems to me it was close to $800 CDN! Too much really for what I got-but it is a sweet piece and there's no way I could have made anything this nice. I don't think the springs are that much money-mine came used from fellow TDR member John West-thanks again John-super good guy and anyone interested in a steel replacement bumper should check out what he's got to offer!



Hopefully I can squeeze in this afternoon for a wheel alignment-I just set the toe last night quick with a tape to 0 or a shade of toe-in to avoid the death wobble. Drives pretty good even with my quickie job-I'm sure it'll be better with a proper one as I imagine I'm a little short on caster right now.



More impressions after work finishes for the day!



Jason

 

[SWC]

Ranchos

Jason, I have been looking for some Rancho 9000 for my 01. 5 3500. Any of the suppliers around Saskatoon are asking in the $150 Can. per shock range. (ouch) Did you get your shocks from a Canadian supplier or did you go south? The prices from Summit after the exchange and shipping are very tempting. I guess the hassle of a warranty issue and trying to handle that across the border is what is holding me back.

Thanks for the heads up about Rod at www.wildcatdiesel.com I have talked to him a few times since. Easy to talk to and knows his stuff.

Stan

 

[MDKram]

Stan, RS9000's in Edmonton normally sell for $125. They sometimes go on sale at Canadian Tire for $99.



The RS 9000's make a huge difference, period. I used to hit the bump stomps a great deal. Last May Long weekend on a 4x4 trip west of Rocky Mountain House, I never hit the bump stops once with the fronts set on 4. Send me an email if you want to chat more.



Regards, Marc

 

[JHansen]

Hey Stan-good to hear from you again! Glad to hear you found Rod helpful-he's helped me quite a bit as well..... I got these from North Shore Off-Road in BC-if I remember right they were $103 CDN. Like Marc says, the places I tried in Calgary were up close to $130. The same deal applied to the Skyjacker steering stabilizer-NSOR's price was around $70-80 cheaper than Modern in Calgary! So it was pretty much a no-brainer to order from them..... I never even thought about Canadian Tire until Marc mentioned it-my Dynomax exhaust came through them but it was a PITA dealing with the drones!



NSOR does have a website at www.nsor.com and there should be phone #'s listed for them on that site-even toll-free if I remember right. I did it all over the phone and was very happy with the service I got-I'd order from them again!



Any more questions drop me a line and I'll be glad to help... .



Jason

 

[JHansen]

More driving impressions.....

If I had to explain in 1 word-it would be controlled ... ... everything seems to be so much more "together" now for lack of a better way to put it. The factory shocks were obviously more worn-out than I thought-but the springs help quite a bit too. The spot that used to bottom the truck out and make it undulate a couple more times is now simply a minor dip in the road. Even washboard is soaked right up... ... this combo is sweet!



Wheel alignment to come this afternoon-so more impressions after that.



Jason

 

[HillCountrykid]

Thanks Jason and Dave. I want to get the leveling kit and add-a-leafs with a smaller block in the back. I'm going to install a 200 lb. or so bumper on next week and wanted to make sure the new springs would'nt be too soft. Sounds like this kit will probably fit the bill.



Brian

 

[JHansen]

I have not changed my impressions in the last 10 hours or so-still very happy. I'm going to play with the shock adjustments over the next couple days to squeeze the last micron out ride-wise... .



Surprisingly I had the toe pretty close-they never touched caster as they said it was within specs ... . I'll live with it until I get the bumper on-then I'll take the magic alignment specs with me and have them set to that. Drives pretty fine right now I must admit though... .



Jason

 

[JHansen]

LONG POST! More of my ramblings..

My truck now drives better than it did exactly a year ago when I rolled it home from the dealer for the first time! It had to have a steering box adjustment right off the car carrier to make it civilized to drive (shame on you DC! )-2 more adjustments over the passage of time and finally a steering box replacement just before bumper-to-bumper warranty ran out (did I tell you I put on a pile of miles? ) . Even with the new box it never drove this good-I suspect the track bar balljoint was loose for quite a while now and the DT one solved that problem. Even cornering is improved-I quite literally have made a major improvement with absolutely no tradeoffs other than increased step-in height.



Before the Silver Money Pit came along-my previous tinkering machine was an '89 Cherokee (XJ for the more-initiated among us-and I know there's a few on here that currently have or had one once). The suspension is virtually identical in design-just scaled up for the Ram. Both share an inverted-Y steering linkage design-in which the link coming from the pitman arm runs to the RH wheel and the link coming from the LH wheel connects to it. By the design of this steering setup, any change in ride height results in a change in toe! Compression of the front suspension results in a change towards toe-out, rebound shifts towards toe-in. IMO it's very important to have the toe set at a reasonable frequency to compensate for additions that have been made to the vehicle, settling of the front springs, blah blah blah..... toe-out is a very bad thing-ever felt the Death Wobble? I did on my XJ-more on that further below.



IIRC, YJ's come with an inverted-T steering linkage-where both wheels are connected together by a link and the pitman arm link connects to that. No toe change during suspension action which is a definite plus... . however steering can be vague due to the bottom link rotating fore and aft on steering input. This can be corrected by torquing the tie rod ends on each side to force the link straight-but it's a band-aid cure. I only mention this inverted-T linkage for reference really-don't know anyone making it for Rams anyways.....



The Death Wobble-anyone that's felt it knows it's aptly named. This alone is the #1 reason I peddled my butt over ASAP for a wheel alignment after my front end work-the bout I got with my XJ was bad enough to literally blur my vision..... nothing to fool around with. There's a number of things that can cause it-drawing on my XJ experience here: incorrect toe setting (toe out is bad bad bad), not enough caster (you lessen caster when you lift on our design of suspension), out-of-balance tires (I fell through a pipeline right-of-way the morning after the suspension job and sunk almost to the frame), weak front shocks, worn-out steering linkage, poor front tires, bent rims, worn-out or inadequate steering stabilizer... . what have I forgotten here? You can see looking at this list and my comments why I drove on eggshells all day Thursday until I could get to town, clear out a bunch of mud and get the toe set. You can also grasp now why I am so set on twin steering stabilizers-if all else go bad they seem to be the last saviour between you and a bout of Death Wobble.....



So to summarize-I guess what I'm saying is-absolutely no regrets for what I've done so far-but I'm not done. And I firmly believe that a toe-in check (and reset if necessary) should be on the list of scheduled maintenance along with oil changes, tire rotations etc. -not that often obviously-but something not to be neglected.



Jason

 

[Chipstien]

How much was the DT?

Is there a website that has them? ThanksOo.

 

[JHansen]

The only website they have is one that one of their customers put up for them. I put it up on a thread here a week or two back and got flak because it has pop-up ads... . like I made it ... . PM me and I'll give it to you and the price on it too-the whole sales pitch if you want!



Jason

 

[TomGolden]

Jason,



Glad to hear ya like your new setup. I finally got my full Skyjacker kit installed yesterday, but have a serious problem with the front end sway bar ends hitting the coil springs. I posted a thread here:



https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39840



I'm hoping that, as one of the responders said, the adjustable control arms can be used to move the axle such that the sway bar ends are clear again.



I also have pictures with my post.



I'm guessing that you didn't have any such problem with your setup?



Tom

 

[JHansen]

Nope-but I did experience this problem with my XJ when lifting it-same exact thing as you're talking about. Lengthening the swaybar links fixed 'er right up!



HTH

Jason

 

[TomGolden]

Jason,



Can you explain exactly what you mean by lengthening the sway bar links?



I had the front end aligned this morning, and they technician was able to use the control arms to move the axle backwards a bit, but the darn sway bar things are still really close to the coils for my taste... .



Thanks,

Tom

 

[JHansen]

Actually physically extending their length-on the Jeep we chopped them apart and welded a piece in. I wouldn't do this now-too many lawyers chomping at the bit to sue if a failure caused a wreck. I saw on your other post where someone mentioned TJ links as being longer-this may be the way to go. Ultimately on the Jeep we fabbed some new super heavy duty quick disconnect ones.....



PM me if I'm still speaking a foreign tongue and I'll see if I can do a better job of explaining it... .



Jason