You gotta take all the opinions on the forums with a grain of salt, the bilsteins ride just fine. It is not the brand of shocks that is the problem, it is putting more preload on the spring (i.e. to get more lift). The compressed spring is what stiffens the ride, but even the bilsteins on the 2" setting I have never thought where rough or crappy to ride on.

The rancho quick lifts may not work with the rize strut spacers since the adjustment nob is on the bottom of the shock shaft and the rize lower spacer clamps around most of the lower end of the shock. Plus preloading the spring to 2" and then turning the dampening all the way down might have adverse affects on the handling with such a large lift and wheel/tire combo. I have never heard/seen the rancho/rize setup being run, so who knows really, but judging from what I have seen/done I'd stick with beilstein or at least try to find someone with the rize/rancho setup(?) Its hard to say on that setup.

you could use the 2.5, I have known many people who have, but I wouldn't recommend it either. It is not so much that it would tear the CV boots (I don't get why shops always say that..), but they would be constantly rubbing 'ribs' if you will on the boot. So, instead of being spread apart with room to breath/flex, now the angle of the suspension makes them always touching on the bottom of the inside knuckle, and always touching on the top of the outside knuckle of the CV. They would probably tear up pretty easily with heavy offroading. I'd hold off till you could swing the coilovers or the bilstein setup (more lift and better suspension capability/performance), I think you would be much happier with either of those setups vs. just getting more lift now with the spacer.. Any of the three ways will work though, it just comes down to what you want to get out of it and how much you want to spend.

the ride will change, and if you are 'ride sensitive' and need a factory feeling, then yes it will change it. BUT the change just makes it feel more like a 'truck' it still has plenty of cush to the ride, but you know you are in a lifted truck and it rides like a lifted truck should. Not bad, but not butter smooth like factory. I backed out of the shop on bilsteins set at 2" and had zero complaints. in fact they rode better than a set of off the shelf kings for an 8" lift cranked up 2" (WAY better). Now with custom valving and internal guts on the kings they beat up the bilsteins.

The bilsteins at 2" will be just fine, hell everyone is running similar setups with 6", 4", etc lifts... They probably just advise not to for liability reasons should something go wrong and they don't want everyone calling and bitching when a truck rides like it should suddenly.

Yes, I have a completely new driveline front and rear. The rear axle is also shimmed up 4* and a double carden rear drive shaft to further cut down the drive line angle out back.

You probably won't find a set of Rize ladder bars, and if you do I would snap them up quick. It is my understanding they stopped producing them a while back because demand dropped off and they where hardly selling. Hell, even finding a rize lift is a challenge anymore. I'd look into on up offroad, or top gunz customs if you want ladder bars, but I see no need for them especially if you swap from a block/spring setup in the rear to a full spring only setup.

My kings are a custom setup from the ground up. Instead of 16" coils I have extended length 18" coils at a 600# rating. The setup I am running requires no cranking at all and rides much better than a cranked up coilover while still giving the extra lift. The downside was the cost to get a one off set produced. I have also had no issues with the extra lift or the 15.50 wide tires, but I swapped all ball/knuckle joints for heim/uniball setups a long time ago.

If your going to attempt 10"s out of the lift kit then I would definitely go with 38's. Otherwise there is no need for 10"s. If you stay at the level your at now, or the stock Rize 8" kit then I would go with 37's. The only way I would go with 24" rims is if I ran 38" tires. I called Rize and talked with them about the traction bar thing already. Of course, they don't make them for our model year. However, the Rize person on the phone told me that someone had bought the 09+ model year traction bars, and modified them to fit our year trucks. This is what I would go for if I went with the Rize, or else I would get a custom pair made. If you want to achieve 10"s of lift with those shocks then go right ahead, because I've heard about it being done, and figured it's not a bad idea. Although, if you do then consider running 38" tires. No matter what the height of the tire is, I would only go as big as 13.5". Anything more seems scary.

Hey, what off-set/backspacing are you going with, with your 8" Rize kit? I called Rize, and they told me that they recommend a 4-5/8's (four and five-eights) backspacing. Although the Rize person on the phone couldn't tell me what that was is off-set, so now I'm trying to figure it out. I'm thinking about the same lift kit, and going with either 20x10", or 22"x10. Thanks in advance.

20x10 Incubus Brawn, 38x15.50 Toyo MT