Heated springs and shackles just weren’t my style, so I first threw on a set of Chassis Tech 2.5” spindles and cut full coil off a stock set of springs I had lying around. The spring perches and shock mounts were long gone off the narrowed 12 bolt I had, so I cut off all the 4link brackets and welded on new perches on the underside of the axle for a flip kit and added a set of Thor Bros shock tabs. I removed one leaf on each side (both had one broken each) replaced the drop shackles for stock and bolted up the billets.
They are 22x8.5 and 22x10 with 245/35 and 295/30, I think. Not sure on the front BS, the rears are maxed out at 4” with 6” lip. Rear end has been shortened 2” per side, 3.73s and a Detroit Locker.
Despite the drop being estimated at 3.5/5 I didn’t like the idea of the cheap spindles and the OE cut coils rode like crap. Plus, the truck still sat a little high in the front. I swapped out the spindles for a pair of much higher quality McGauphy’s 2.5” spindles and a set of CPP 1” springs, new bearings and pads etc. I found part numbers for generic shocks available at O’reilly’s from this site, which have worked out ok. This corrected the stance and improved the ride quality tremendously, even though the drop SHOULD have been the same at 3.5”. Got it aligned and started driving it!
I added a new sport bumper and a tailgate band that was in the same shape the rest of the truck was in so it didn’t look too out of place.
