Not sure what forum this post belongs but considering a lot of people here have lowering shackles installed on 04+ thought I'd ask here...I just installed some belltech lowering shackles on my 04 Scab (2wd). Just for Shoots and giggles, I decided to measure front vs back to see how "level" the shackles made my truck...measurements are from the bottom of the wheel well to the top of the the tire. Heres what I came up with...the back left and front right measure approx 7 1/4 inch and the back right and front left measure approx 6 3/4 inch. I was expecting the rear to be about 1 -1.5 inches higher than the front and not criss crossed. Ride quality is not an issue, just wanted to know if those measurements sound normal or did the shackles mess things up. Can shackles be installed wrong? It seems pretty simple.

 

im sure you did it right, measuring the height is a tricky thing to do, depends where you parked, how you parked, if you moved it after you unloaded and reloaded the suspension, etc. sometimes the rear of my truck looks lower than the front, sometimes its opposite, at any rate its better than the horrible stock rake!

 

I agree it looks much better without the stock rake. I was concerned with suspension wear issues. I guess as long as the ride stays smooth I have nothing to worry about

 

it will not wear anything funny, so dont worry about it. did you use pinion shims?

 

No shims. After doing some research about the shackles, I found the general consensus was no shims work fine.

 

id say its about 50/50 on that argument, i have the shims in mine. if you get a vibe youll need shims, if not you should be ok

 

nuscab,

It's pretty much a crap shoot on the shims. Some need them, some don't. Mine did. I bought the Ground Force 2" drop shackles and they come with the shims. My rear on my FX4 scab sits 1" higher than the front. It looks perfect. Pics are in my gallery.

 

As others have said, depending on where you park, ride height can looked a little skewed. I've got the 2" DJMs on my truck. At 2", I had a slight driveline vibration from 30-40 mph. Raised it up to the 1-1/2" holes and most of the vibration is gone. I'll shim it someday, just 'cause the truck looked perfect at 2", at 1-1/2", it's still got a slight rake.

 

Thanks for all the replys...I feel a bit better on the measurment issue. I've only had the shackles on for about half a day now and really havent noticed any vibe issues yet. I guess all I can do is the wait and see thing. Thanks again for the info, this site makes owning a F150 that much better

 

I have the Belltech shackles and am just about level. The rear is maybe an inch higher, which looks fine. I have a slight vibration at 20 MPH, but only when accelerating slowly. Moderate and WOT it doesn't vibrate at all.