Just ordered the Hotchkis suspension and would like input from anyone that has already installed it. Any tips , tricks, or things to watchout for? Are you happy with it?

The front and rear sway bars will be ready within 10 days. They have started a list for anyone interested. If you are call Hotchkis and ask for JD. He will take care of you.

The front bar is 1.5" and the rear is 1.0". Both are tubular. $535.00 complete with all hardware. The bushings are urethane.

The springs are rated at: 850LBS front and 220LBS rear.

Hotchkis no longer has cam bolt kits. Anyone know where I can get them. Part numbers? Thanks.

 

Silver Bolt,


NAPA Part number...



$33.00 vs Ford's $100.00

 

mine comes from Summit on 8/31. Thanks for the current info on the bars. I will order them too. I am doing this before any more speed mods. Of course, all I have is the 80MM, Babolt throttle body and the high flow air filter....but i will soon be in MOD HEAVEN

 

Hmmmmm... they told Spike the spring rates were 800lbs and 300lbs

 

Cool the sway bars are finally here. Now i just have to instal the rest of my parts!

 

damn! I will call them Monday! If we get enough different numbers we can just average them like bowling ...bejeeeezuz....I want accurate info....maybe ruslow has a spring compression meter we would know for sure then!

 

I have the rear Hotchkis leafs and they have been great. Seems to have helped with my axle wrap. At least while not running the nitrous anyways!

 

The spring rates came from JD at Hotchkis. Not sure which is correct. I will check with engineering on Monday.

 

Thanks to Speedin advise I went to NAPA and picked up the cam bolt kits. $13.85, I was like WTF?? He showed it to me same p/n so I bought 2 of them just in case. Also picked up the NGK 4177 for $1.97/ea. Cheap.

 

Now all we need is some shocks tuned for this setup.

 

NeedFor,
I am going to try the 01 Bilstiens first. I am sure they will be an improvement over the stock 00 shocks. If the don't perform upto expectations I will opt for the adjustable Koni's.

 

Hotchkis corrected spring rates.

Front = 850 lb

Rear = 300 lb

Anyone know what the factory springs are rated at?

 

I just received an email from Hotchkis. Here's a shortened version:

...The springs you have are 960 lbs/in in the front and 300 lbs/in in the rear. It looks like JD accidentally quoted ... the dakota spring rate on the leaf
springs.

The sway bars are being sent to powdercoat tomorrow. We should see them late this week and on Monday we are taking installation photos and the kits should be ready for shipping at the end of the week (approx Aug 3rd). The sway Bars are going to be 1.5" OD hollow on the front, and 1" hollow on the rear.

Right now, the tuned shocks are several months away. ... the 2001 lightning shocks aren't bad. They are a Bilstein shock. We are planning to tune them in the next month or two.

-Gary Pinkley
via Spike

I guess the fronts spring rates are now in question

Regarding the factory spring rates, here they are:
650 lb. (front) - 200 lb. (rear)
http://media.ford.com/products/press...section_id=422 (see http://nloc.org/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000669.html)

BTW, I've been talking with Koni about tuned shocks. Maybe a little competition for Bilstein would be beneficial. Stan, are your shocks Koni's?

Spike

 

ladies and gentleman......its bowlin' for dollars...with Chick Hearn....

 

I talked to the guys at http://www.shox.com

Supposedly Koni and Tokico both have adjustable shocks for our trucks.

I still plan to try the Bilstiens first. The price is too cheap not too. If not happy then the Koni's sound the most promising. Absolute best choicr is the Penske's. One small problem $750-$900 each. Ouch!.