Gents,

I did some searching and have found plenty of folks that have removed the block or added an AAL but not both. Figured I'd bounce my plan off the forum to see what some of yall with a bit more experience with the suspension on these trucks might have to say (SCREW 4x4 with 2.7L & 5.5' bed)

The plan: Install Bilstein 5100s on all four corners set to 1.26" up front / Remove rear block and add AutoSpring AAL

The goal: "Level" the truck with ~1" of rake and retain the ability to haul a moderate load (~1000lbs) in the bed and maintain at or above level stance.

I've noticed that with a full tank of gas (36 gallon tank) I'm experiencing ~1/2" sag in the rear unloaded. I occasionally need to haul upwards of 750-1000 lbs of material/equipment and I'm concerned about the effects this will have on the appearance/handling of the truck when I get the level kit installed up front. I'm currently running 285/70r18s and will keep things that way for the foreseeable future. I figure that the rear combo above will net me .5" of lift over the stock setup once the AAL settles and will keep things in proportion with the tire size.

From what I've read, the folks that have done the AAL in the back have been pleased with the anti-sag capability and I'm willing to give up some "ride quality" over a comparable air-bag setup to keep things simple (install/future maintenance/etc). I'm pricing parts right now, any comments or suggestions would be appreciated!

 

I did almost exactly this.... 5100s all around, except the fronts were at full-height (2.10").

I removed the rear blocks, replaced with the AS-AAL. I've done this same move with several trucks before. On this one ('16 SCREW), you pick up about a half-inch of lift from this move, though I expect it may settle a bit.

You have plenty of thread on your stock u-bolts, but afterwards you will have a lot of thread sticking down. I trimmed mine back about 3/4" to help with the appearance.

I did the rears separate from the fronts, and the rear operation took about 2 hours. Having an extra jack (a small bottle jack, especially) makes the articulation of components into place much easier.

One thing to be aware of... don't tighten down the alignment pins on the spring stack until you have them seated in the locator holes on the top side of your axle. It's possibly/likely to tighten everything up, and the pins are slightly racked so they don't sit into those holes. Build the new stack, keep the pins with the nuts barely threaded on, and then use a jack to raise the axle up to hit the heads of those pins and seat them in the holes. Once they're seated, throw the u-bolts on and tighten everything together with the u-bolts instead of the alignment pins. Do the pins last, and trim the excess threads off if you desire.

 

That's great to hear, how do like the ride? I'm struggling a bit between the Bilstens vs saving for a few months for coilovers. It's nice to see someone else has gone the same route.

 

I've done the 5100's on a number of different trucks of different sizes, never done any other true coilover replacements... so I would defer to anyone else on the forum who can compare between the two. I've been extremely happy with 5100s, though, extremely loud bang for a small buck.

 

Yep, for the price it's hard to beat what you're able to accomplish with those shocks. Thanks for the input!

 

Figured I'd post a follow-up for anyone who may be considering this.

All my parts came in last week and I was able to set aside some time to get it knocked out this morning, overall I'm happy with the results and pleased that it pretty much turned out exactly how I expected it to. I bought everything I needed for the install direct from AutoSpring as they had the best prices and the shipping was quick. I also had them bend up some replacement u-bolts for me so I wouldn't have to hassle with mixing and matching at the parts counter, measurements on the u-bolts came out to: 9/16 x 3 1/4" x 7" and these ended up being the perfect length with the removal of the factory block. The install was pretty straightforward as I had the benefit of access to a lift and a shop full of tools. An extra set of hands would have been helpful to align the leaf pack for re-install, but I eventually figured out what combination of clamps and cursing were required to line everything up (second side went much faster than the first).

I've witnessed no discernible difference in ride quality or handling since the install and the extra payload capacity has been a welcome addition. My previous measurements at the rear fender wells with a full 36 gallon tank were 39.25" Driver / 39.5" Passenger; post install today netted 40 1/8" and 40.25" respectively compared to 40.5" on both sides with a quarter tank. I'm interested to see how they handle a set of Decked bed drawers I'll be installing later this week, might even consider milling the factory blocks down to 1" to gain a little rake back if need be but I'm not sure that will be required. The Bilsteins netted me the advertised 1.26" of lift up front and with the AAL minus factory block I now have 1.5-1.75" of rake which is about perfect for my needs! I hope this helps someone else in the same boat, I'll try to get some pics up later this week!

 

Do you have pictures of the setup and what was your measurements in the front?