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Rough ride after level

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Old 05-08-2019, 08:33 PM
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Default Rough ride after level

I recently installed a RC 2.5 inch lift with RC shocks on my 99 5.4 4x4, so it is a Tbar lift. I was able to squeeze 35s on with minimum trimming. After install My truck is riding extremely rough. Bouncing on the highway. Going over speed bumps and gravel rough. Anyone have any ideas to help remedy this? Are the new shocks just stiff? The upper control arms are at a weird angle now, is this the problem?

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Old 05-08-2019, 08:44 PM
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Are we supposed to guess what truck you have?
Old 05-08-2019, 08:46 PM
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Originally Posted by kd4gij
Are we supposed to guess what truck you have?
Sorry Ill edit it. But it is a 99 5.4 4x4 supercab
Old 05-08-2019, 08:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Tjmentz
I recently installed a RC 2.5 inch lift with RC shocks. I was able to squeeze 35s on with minimum trimming. After install My truck is riding extremely rough. Bouncing on the highway. Going over speed bumps and gravel rough. Anyone have any ideas to help remedy this? Are the new shocks just stiff? The upper control arms are at a weird angle now, is this the problem?
Why you think they named it Rough Country??

It's not a lift, and it's a horrible thing to do to your truck, and now you know why.
You preloaded your suspension so that it rides rough, and you've taken out its ability to extend and maintain contact with Road.

These trucks ride like a POS without doing that ....what did you expect?

But hey, at least you got big tires and everybody must think you're cool. Enjoy your significantly short CV joint life, and rough ride. Did you get mud tires and intolerable road noise to go with it? Shorter wheel bearing life due to different backspacing? Might as well go for the whole package.

Some of that is tongue-in-cheek, but did you seriously not know the drawbacks of what you did????

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Old 05-08-2019, 08:48 PM
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Originally Posted by mbb
Why you think they named it Rough Country??
I understand it wont ride perfectly and Im ok with that. My main concern would be unnecessary wear on front suspension
Old 05-08-2019, 08:59 PM
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What's the measurement from center of hub to bottom of fender. Anything over 24.25" is going to severely prematurely wear your front end components... with you saying it's a t bar lift I'm sure you cranked them way past that.
Old 05-08-2019, 09:03 PM
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"My main concern would be unnecessary wear on front suspension"
And you but a lift kit on? As the saying goes you have to pay to play.
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Old 05-08-2019, 09:06 PM
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Originally Posted by fordguy2100
What's the measurement from center of hub to bottom of fender. Anything over 24.25" is going to severely prematurely wear your front end components... with you saying it's a t bar lift I'm sure you cranked them way past that.
this figure has been thrown around for many years.

The problem is, what is it based on?

Because a truck without wheel molding, has a fender bottom up to three quarters of an inch higher than a truck with wheel molding. There can be quite a gap behind that molding between it and the fender metal. You could Crank that truck with the molding three quarter of an inch farther than you intend..... Might explain why some people have stayed within that measurement, but still have been through multiple sets of CV half shafts.... And the good ones are several hundred dollars a piece, the cheap Chinese ones that are $78 don't last very long.



Last edited by mbb; 05-08-2019 at 09:08 PM.
Old 05-08-2019, 09:07 PM
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Originally Posted by fordguy2100
What's the measurement from center of hub to bottom of fender. Anything over 24.25" is going to severely prematurely wear your front end components... with you saying it's a t bar lift I'm sure you cranked them way past that.
Thank you for the feedback, Its too late to measure right now but if I remember right when evening out the t bars I should be around 26 at the most each side. I will measure tomorrow and lower it if needed to see if it is any better. I havnt had an alignment yet (will be getting one tomorrow) so at this time not sure if its suspension or front end just so far out of alignment. My last tires wore very unevenly so hopefully an alignment will ease this problem.
Old 05-08-2019, 09:44 PM
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Originally Posted by mbb
this figure has been thrown around for many years.

The problem is, what is it based on?

Because a truck without wheel molding, has a fender bottom up to three quarters of an inch higher than a truck with wheel molding. There can be quite a gap behind that molding between it and the fender metal. You could Crank that truck with the molding three quarter of an inch farther than you intend..... Might explain why some people have stayed within that measurement, but still have been through multiple sets of CV half shafts.... And the good ones are several hundred dollars a piece, the cheap Chinese ones that are $78 don't last very long.


4x4s got the molding 4x2s didn't so you should have the molding if you're a 4x4... and 4x2s don't have t bars so it doesn't matter.

Also fine don't listen to the number I don't care. Not my truck not my problem. People come asking for help and that's been knowledge gained from the forum. IIRC ibd or another very smart user had the details for that #. Regardless stay below it and your geometry will be closer to stock and you'll have less problems that's just common sense. Farther away from stock geometry the greater chance you have of premature wear.

I'm right at 24" and haven't replaced anything in my front end running that way for 5years on 35s so YMMV.


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