Tow rig Suspension and Axle upgrades questions (4th Gen Dodge)

zayne2427 · Jun 27, 2017

Took the plastic battery boxes out and will replace them with a slim line steel trey. Did some more measuring and I should be able to comfortably fit at least 28-31' eye to eye at ride height. That gives me a ton more room and should be able to fit a 14'' coilover. Pretty stoked about that and now just have to make sure my buddy is willing to work me in for suspension upgrades in the near future...

TRD · Jun 27, 2017

Awesome! A 12 would be great, 14 would be good too, if you can get more up travel.

Ideal is a 12" travel with 6" of shaft at ride height (5" true up travel) and 6" down. This results in pretty reasonable spring rates. I estimated corner chassis weight at 1900 lb in the front.

zayne2427 · Jun 27, 2017

Yeah 12'' should work perfect. I probably wouldnt be able to use the full 14'' travel anyways. If i go ahead and lift it 4 inches from its current height i will be able to get a full 6'' of up travel and not worry about stuffing into my fenders.
Front axle will be moved foward 1 7/8"for it to be centered in the fender. Then if i lift it 4 inches it should give me full range of a 12'' coilover

This is pictured with a bald 35. The 37's should still clear nicely once the axle is centered and lifted 4 inches

paradisepwoffrd · Jun 27, 2017

Re: Re: Tow rig Suspension and Axle upgrades questions (4th Gen Dodge)

zayne2427 said:
Yeah 12'' should work perfect. I probably wouldnt be able to use the full 14'' travel anyways. If i go ahead and lift it 4 inches from its current height i will be able to get a full 6'' of up travel and not worry about stuffing into my fenders.
Front axle will be moved foward 1 7/8"for it to be centered in the fender. Then if i lift it 4 inches it should give me full range of a 12'' coilover

This is pictured with a bald 35. The 37's should still clear nicely once the axle is centered

with the body work u have shown on the rest of the truck, flaring the bottom of the fenders to widen the opening wouldn't be much challenge, if needed.

I think you will appreciate the SD axle and coilovers, even if you decide to use the factory SD radius arm. The 05+ SD unit bearings and brakes are beef compared to any others.

I have thought about this same upgrade to my 2nd gen to improve the ride. Even with the bilsteins its so stiff.

Since you are drw, not sure if the axle you got is, but could possibly run 8x170 to 8x6.5 adapters to retain use of stock components.

zayne2427 · Jun 28, 2017

Yeah i had thought about incorporating a larger flare into the original fender but want to keep it appearing as much "Stock" as possible. I will probably end up going with an aftermarket set of wheels and tires and will just buy 8x6.5 dually wheels for the rear and 8x170 or 2x200 (Whatever the 07 f350 lug pattern is) for the front either in dually wheels or a deep dish standard wheel up front. Havent decided on the style wheel to run up front yet

paradisepwoffrd · Jun 28, 2017

Re: Re: Tow rig Suspension and Axle upgrades questions (4th Gen Dodge)

zayne2427 said:
Yeah i had thought about incorporating a larger flare into the original fender but want to keep it appearing as much "Stock" as possible. I will probably end up going with an aftermarket set of wheels and tires and will just buy 8x6.5 dually wheels for the rear and 8x170 or 2x200 (Whatever the 07 f350 lug pattern is) for the front either in dually wheels or a deep dish standard wheel up front. Havent decided on the style wheel to run up front yet

Only thing that comes to mind when not using a dually when up front, what do you do about spares?

Could always use a 07 f350 rear in it too? Not sure if the original donor had ABS or speed sensor in the axles, and how to adapt that to the ford axle.

zayne2427 · Jun 29, 2017

Re: Re: Tow rig Suspension and Axle upgrades questions (4th Gen Dodge)

paradisepwoffrd said:
Only thing that comes to mind when not using a dually when up front, what do you do about spares?

Could always use a 07 f350 rear in it too? Not sure if the original donor had ABS or speed sensor in the axles, and how to adapt that to the ford axle.

Yeah i thought about that too.... I still have to go pick up the ford axle i will have to check all that out when i get it....

I have been searching for the rear springs and have found 4-4.5'' springs for the rear anywhere from $300 for "Soft Ride" springs up to $1200 Carli "Progressive Springs". Is there that much difference in ride quality? All of the mini pack Add-A-Leaf kits are 3/4-1.5'' lifts and i need to be around 3-4.5...
Carli offers a 1' progressive mini pack that replaces the lower leaf i have now and adds a 2'' billet block and calls it a 3"
Any suggestions?