[76C10Stepside]

Thanks, Keith! I installed 2-inch lowering shackles, and I know it's lower, but sure doesn't LOOK any lower.

With the lowering shackles installed, there's 4 inches between the top of the axle and the travel limiters. I won't be hauling any more loads of gravel in this truck. How much room should I leave for travel? Looks like a flip kit would only leave me about one inch, so guess I'll be raising the front leaf spring mounts up two inches.

I noticed that in the photos you posted, the bracket is mounted with the bottom hole in the bracket. But on my truck, the bottom hole on my mounts is THREE inches down from the middle hole, and there's only enough room to move it up TWO inches. Guess I'll just drill four new holes the same distance from the top and bottom of the frame rail as the original holes.

To ensure that the mounts are in the right location horizontally, I'll scribe a line where the front "ear" on the bracket is now, since the frame rail that is straight on that side.

Question about replacing the bed wood with thicker material: The original wood was only 1/2-inch thick, and the Trex decking is 5/4-inch thick. Seems like I have two choices:

a) Mill the Trex down to 1/2-inch in all the places where there is a cross brace or other obstacle. That's a lot of extra work. Probably should also add heat shields to the dual exhaust pipes to keep it from melting, as mounting them against the plastic probably would just make it melt faster.

OR

b) Let the new bed stick up 3/4-inch higher than the original (would have to raise the L-brackets on the sides), and install a metal cover strip over the back edge of the wood. The problem with this idea is that it will stick up 3/4-inch above the tailgate when lowered.

What you would all do? Thanks!