Shackles are much easier than hangers and you already mentioned coils very easy instal on a 2wd truck

 

Agree - but I already have the shackles on my truck. I need to go another couple inches lower... I'm assume either replacement springs (not preferred) or hangers. I do appreciate what a pain in the ass hangers will be, but if it's my only choice, I'll make it happen. I got a sway bar on there, so I'm used to bleeding all over the garage.

 

Here's the truck as it sits. A little high... lots of space between tire and fender-lip. Note the front is a little higher than the rear (seems to me, anyway).

 

dropping

I see no pics? Anyways, If you just cut off one coil in front, you get nice and low. Then you need to saw off a half of the rubber bumpers under the frame area. I really cant see getting much more without dropped spindles, because the lower a arm will hit the frame on any bump. I did 1/2 coil and the tire/opening gap is even all around........ Now, in the rear, even the longest shackles will not get low enough. Remove rear shocks first..... Then cut off frame rivits to rear spring hangers. Then lower truck with jack until it looks good to you. Then weld or drill and bolt to remount. You just changed the suspension too much for the shocks to use the original mounts..... With the axle housings on blocks and truck weight on them at rest. Use a grinder to cut off lower mounts. Remount rear shocks in rear positions at top. Then extend them half travel. Attach lower mounts to shocks. Push them over to touch axle housing. Weld them in place. Your truck might need the crescent frame cuts just above the axle housings, depending on year. Truck is nice and low now!

 

Holy shit dude, you just scared the shit out of me. I was hoping front coils and hangers. Even hangers scare the shit out of me. Is this what people are doing to lower their truck these days? I don't want to "slam" it. Maybe I should just suck it up and live with it??

Sent from my SM-P607T using Tapatalk

 

Yes, his recommendation is way more complicated than it needs to be. Like Harley#356 said, installing sway bars and hangers aren't even close in comparison. Hangers are indeed a PITA. If you decide to go this route, I strongly recommend pulling your bed off and do everything at once- will make your life a lot easier.

My current setup is:

Rear
JLP shackles on lowest setting
Belltech Hangers
Belltech C-Notch
'99 Isuzu Rodeo Bilstein shocks (shorter shocks to accommodate lowering)

Front
Belltech 2" Drop Spindles
MAD Enterprise Sway bar links

Not the greatest picture, but you can see I'm sitting pretty level. I may cut half a coil in the front though.

It all depends on how much money you want to spend/ work you want to do (obviously). To me, the most logical way to progressively lower the rear is shackles (easiest), then hangers (most difficult), then FAF leaf springs or remove a leaf (easier than hangers but you reduce your payload capacity). Someone also pointed out in another thread that our leaf packs don't have a "helper spring", the springs are simply thicker than the earlier years.

Cutting a coil upfront is obviously the cheapest and possibly the easiest method to lower the front. I went with drop spindles, but if I had to do it again, I would definitely consider the DJM lowering arms. If you do your research, you will see that drop spindles will reduce your turning radius. It seems like this can be fixed with a little grinding on the stop, but I haven't personally done this yet to see how much it helps. If you're not familiar with Stifflers, they have a sweet set up of lowering control arms and adjustable upper control arms to allow for much easier and accurate alignment. The lower control arms should be available in ohh I dunno, about two more weeks.

 

Jeff,
If you measure your gaps from the center of the wheel cap (or from the ground) to the fender lip, you'll probably find that you're just about a half-inch higher in the rear. The shape of the wheel wells is different, which makes the front gap look a little wider, but your overall body height is pretty even, or raked slightly forward, I'd say. I'm kind of in the same boat as you, and been through some of the same questions with my recently acquired 04L.

Eibach does make coil springs for the truck; check with LMR. They advertise a 1" drop. From the driving and stylistic needs that you described, that would probably put you in a good place... no need to go lower. Again, I'm planning to do the same thing, I just want to get some brake parts lined up and do those too while it's all disassembled.
Happy motoring to you!
Ken

 

Did a ton of research mainly on this forum before I pulled the trigger, but I just lowered mine with djm, upper and lower control arms up front, djm shackles and hangers in the rear, pulled a leaf as well. got her right down where I want her.

Im guessing its about a 3 inch drop up front, and 4 inch drop out back. It was pricey, about 1100 in parts, and I just picked up a c notch kit from djm which is about another 3" of axle travel in the rear.

Going to do a writeup on it in about a week once I install the c notch kit. Rides better than stock on the freeway, bottoms out occasionally on these crappy LA streets. Which is why I'm going to c notch the frame.

I'm still using stock springs and shocks (shock extenders in the rear) But worth every dime!! Rides and handles like a dream, and the truck sits almost level.

I can post pics if you like.

 

1 - stay away from eibach springs on these trucks. they suck, they'll collapse on themselves over time, been known forever.

2 - you can lower the front several ways, the easiest/cheapest is to cut a coil. It'll ride nearly exactly like it used to, but sit lower. Cutting factory springs is perfectly safe and acceptable to do because they're a linear rate spring, just don't cut them with a torch or it alters the spring properties from heat. An angle grinder works perfect. Rule of thumb is 1/2 coil for every 1" (roughly). You can do UCA/LCAs or spindles, both have drawbacks though. You can also do aftermarket coils like belltech or hotchkis. They'll lower it but they'll ride firmer. That will handle better, but ride stiffer. That's why so many prefer just cutting stock coils. Rides nearly the same (slightly firmer but still softer than other drop coils) and gets the look you want, at a free cost.

3 - you can lower the back several ways, you already have shackles, you can get a bit more by getting the JLP 2-3-4" shackles. Most 2" shackles actually net a 1.5" drop. JLP 2-3-4" shackles net a 3" drop. You can do hangers, but they're a huge royal PITA. If you think a sway bar was tough, it's not even in the same league as hangers lol. A sway bar unbolts/bolts up. The hangers require hours of drilling/grinding/punching out hardened steel factory rivets, to bolt in the drop hangers. It's a cheap method, but it's pricey. Those will give you 2" more rear drop, which with shackles and hangers, you're typically at the point that you need a c-notch, or live with frequently bottoming out. Shorter bump stops are definitely needed. You can also do leafs. They cost a bit more, but they bolt right in, way easier than hangers, they do stiffen the azz end up a bit, but that helps reduce bottoming out as often with the bigger drop. Belltech used to make leafs for us. Hotchkis does too (or did).

Bottom line, the easiest/quickest/cheapest way to get a bit more drop, is swap the shackles for JLP's and cut 1/2 coil off the front. That will get you about 1" more front drop, and about 1.5" more rear drop. Should sit pretty level, and eat up some of that fender well gap. Cheap upgrade, easy installation, noticeable results.

 

Hotchkiss leafs are the easiest way by far. You may need to go back to stock shackles though.

 

This is Sports machines and hotchkiss leafs. They were super easy to install. I have stock shackles and hangers. I've never bottomed out or anything.

My driveway has a slope. My rear is actually about 1/4 inch higher than my front. My front is hotchkiss coils with 1/2 coil cut. I retained the factory isolator.

 

This is Sports machines and hotchkiss leafs. They were super easy to install. I have stock shackles and hangers. I've never bottomed out or anything.

My driveway has a slope. My rear is actually about 1/4 inch higher than my front. My front is hotchkiss coils with 1/2 coil cut. I retained the factory isolator.

Any chance you still have the part number for the rear leaf springs you purchased?

 

suspension suspense

Hard to do...LOL Being a retired race mechanic, I got the time and everything else to do a simple drop. Yes grinding off and punching out the hanger rivits is time consuming, but I have an air rivit driver tool to punch them out. Keeping the stock shackles and moving the hangers up gives the cleanest result. Yes, it requires adjusting the rear shock mounts. After the coil or half coil is cut in front, I hack sawed the rubber bump stop to half height. Then used QA1 shocks in the stock place. They center beautifully. Only the c-cut frame kit requires a welder. (Unless you got one of those chicken crap ones that bolts in. and your frame will crack in a couple of years)

 

I'll play!

Same wheels/tires as you FYI

My drop consists of:

Front - DJM upper and lower control arms (factory springs with factory isolator)
Rear - Hotchkis leaf springs, JLP shackles (on the highest setting)



Why did I pick what I did? I didn't want stiffer front springs. Period. I felt I would need to cut more of the stock front spring that I was comfortable doing to achieve my desired ride height. I don't like the decreased turning radius associated with Belltech drop spindles. So that left me with drop control arms. Have zero complaints. Many have had sway bar endlink bushing problems with these control arms, however I have not. They are paired with Hotchkis sway bars.

In the rear, well, a bit more complicated, not much. I didn't want to do hangers. It is such a PITA to remove the stock ones that are riveted to the frame. Many have also had pinion angle problems with hangers, so much so that the couldn't find a big enough shim to correct it, and had to re-weld the spring perches on the axle. Hotchkis rear springs are bit stiffer, but also handle better, and some of the fastest 60' trucks around have run Hotchkis leaf springs. So they're good for both curvy and straight line racing. To achieve my desired ride height, I paired them with JLP drop shackles, however they're actually at their highest setting. They can go significantly lower than I have them, but I wanted a bit of rake. They are still lower than stock shackles even on their highest setting. Some have complained about the stiffness of Hotchkis leaf springs. I don't. Combined with my adjustable Strange shocks, they ride pretty well. The bigger reason I think they ride well on my truck, is I have an aftermarket X-brace that stiffens up the rear of the frame where the factory tow hitch used to be. I also have a Hotchkis sway bar, BroncoBeater traction bars and panhard bar in the rear.

So that's my suspension, and why I chose what I chose. I have zero tire rubbing or any issues with it.

 

drop

no pics to post,my truck has belltech drop shackles and hangers out back and drop spindles up front.i use my truck for work so I added air helper springs (bags) out back that can absorb quite a bit of weight or to level a trailer when towing.they were a pita to install and took all day even with my welding and fabrication skills plus having a shop and a shitload of tools/having installed many sets as a tech.i lost a bit of ride quality but cant be bottoming out with dirt bikes in back or carrying tools/materials.i carry a small battery operated rechargeable air compressor to fill them through a Schrader valve I mounted at the back of the hitch.i bought my truck lowered,it came with the stock spindles included and I will be putting them back on when I rebuild the front end .I just hate the shitty turning radius and no you cant just grind down the stops to make it better-your wheels will rub(grind) on the lower control arms.gonna do some lowering springs up front or get some new stockers and cut them..looking at your pics I would just go with it and not try to slam it cause after all it is a truck,and you can still use it like one if you want to /need to,,good luck

 

Awakening an old post on the bump stop issue. On another thread, good old Stoffer said that when guys cut the front bump stops, their trucks look like ass. I don't get how cutting the bump stops has any affect on aesthetics, since they are behind the wheel and unseen. Other than that, lowered is lowered, right?

I only bring it up because, as I posted on another thread of my won, I am having problems with the front bump stops riding hard on the lower control arms on a stock front end. And I'm either going to have to cut them, or get new ones. The lca's have a very heavy orange color embedded in them from the stops hitting them constantly.

Was looking at them yesterday while the front tires were off being replaced. They appear to have a bucket that attaches to the frame. So, when you all are cutting them, I assume you're doing so half way in between the bottom of the bucket and the bottom of the stop itself?

And exactly how does doing that make your truck look like ass, in the words of the Great Stoffer? otstirring

I have a link for some replacement parts that are shorter. How do the stock ones come off, just unscrew them from the frame and screw the new ones in?

 

Awakening an old post on the bump stop issue. On another thread, good old Stoffer said that when guys cut the front bump stops, their trucks look like ass.

I think he was referring to the fact that no one seems to cut them cleanly...they all look as if they've been hacked off by a blind man with a dull Ginsu.

A whole thread on possible bumpstop options here (I'm using the very thin round ones from Energy Suspension as pictured in post #6).

Bumpstop Post

 

Sir,
Quit driving so damn fast !!!

 

But, But, But, that's what I bought a Lightning for! [smilie=3g

 

Thanks for the link. From what I've read, I'm not the first person to have the bump stops discoloring the lower control arms. And also, from what I read, they ain't exactly easy to replace. Guess, for now anyway, I'm going to try cutting them down. They're really soft anyhow and need to be replaced. Will go to Vato Zone and pick up some Energy Suspension parts, as I already have their end links and frame bushings on both anti sway bars.

Amazingly, earlier today I tried using the search function, and the thread you linked wasn't among the results. So much for the much vaunted search function. otstirring

 

No confusion on my part, I meant the chassis bump stops. I think one person was confused early on in my thread, and referred to the steering stops.

As for lowering, I haven't lowered my truck. Far as I know, everything is stock except the anti sway bar hardware. And if it is lowered, it's unintentional. I've made it perfectly clear in the past I never wanted my truck lowered, with the exception of two inch shackles in the rear to deal with the typical 03/04 stink bug look.

I was concerned about the bump stops being ground to dust from constant contact with the lower control arms. But, from a link posted last night, it's apparently quite normal. I mean, after all, Lightning's come lowered one inch below normal F-150 heights. SO, now I'm not too terribly concerned. It doesn't ride all that bad, better than my old Ranger for sure. It's not eating front tires, even though I run skinny fronts. Wore a pair of Michelin 235/50-18's down to the tread wear bars with one inside out flip done last year.

My only real concern now, is if I trim the existing ones down, or put on short ones, will the front end drop down even further and end up riding them in the new location?

 

I thought Hotchkis quit making the TVS kit for our truck. Interesting.

 

They did. The only thing left out there...to my knowledge...is a few drop springs and sway bars.

 

Hotchkis has the TVS system back in stock again. However, it is almost $1900.00 with tax and shipping these days. The Bilstein Spec shocks that used to match the TVS are no longer available.

 

shipping is free. But that kits always been 1500ish or more. Did you confirm with hotchkis its for sale?
They haven't had the shocks for it for years.

 

SO. The 2412 leaf springs are supposedly back in production. I am going to check back in about 3-4 weeks from now. I get all my Hotchkis products from Turn14 Distribution. So, if anyone is interested, feel free to hit me up in a few weeks. Belltech also makes a drop leaf spring for the F150, but it has a spring rate that is comparable to the F150 and not the Lightning.