Okay, so I did a ton of forum reading before I bought my AS 2.5 and I didn't really heed the warnings that I saw. I you would all check out my galley you can see the pics I posted of where my A arm sits when the truck is on the ground. Now I dont have a problem with the way it looks, but if I ever get a flat I could be in some deep trouble.

When I installed the kit, I tried to lower the wheel down with the frame still sitting on a jack stand. Then me and my buddy noticed that the ball joint in the upper control arm was MAXED out! And the tire still could have gone down farther.

One more thing to note, my truck has the extra hauling in the back so it really looked like a stink bug prior to the install, but now it sits completly level. I gained over 3" of lift with the 2.5.

I f anybody has any feed back I would greatly appreciate it, I feel as though something is not right...

p.s. I bought the new style 2.5 AS


THANK YOU!!

 

I wouldn't worry about it. Your angles look normal for a 2.5." I too gained over 3" on my 05 F-150. Never had any problems.

 

I wish I had pictures of mine when it had just the leveling kit on, but I can tell you mine didn't look anything like that and I had the 2.5" kit as well. Something just doesn't look right with that.

 

id be careful man. that upper balljoint is in a severe angle there.

 

That angle does look severe. How far off was the alignment?

 

I remember mine looked pretty bad when I had my 2.5" spacer. This is one reason I went ahead and did the 6" lift. Here is a pic when I had my AS on, you can see the same if you look at the top of the pic.

 

Thanx for the feed back folks. as for you question, i just put the kit on two days ago, so i haven't yet had the chance to get the alignment done, but I plan on getting it done early this week. Even then, I dont think it is going to make much of a difference.

Although I have been doing a lot of thinking, and I was wondering if there is any way to possibly extend the ball joint bolt. I dont have any clue as to how to go about it, but I am in the Air Force and I do have some resources available to me. I just gotta think about it.

I really dont want to make the mistake of hitting some hole to hard out in the woods and busting that darn bolt, could you imagine the towing fee??? I cant even think about it, not to mention the the cost of fixing it.

One more idea I do have though is possibly making some sort of stop for the A arm, possibly getting one of my welding buddies to weld a bolt of some sort on there then putting some really tough rubber under the arm so that i cant bottom out...

anywho, enough of my ramblings. please keep posting, I would love to hear yall's ideas.

THANX!!!


ADD--- I put my "bump stop" idea in my gallery, take a look and tell me what you think.

 

I have had my AS for about three months no problem. I dont think that my angles look as bad as yours though. If you are looking for something to prevent the suspension from bottoming out why dont you look into a limiting strap. Those are simple and only require two bolts once you decide on how long to make them.

 

I have had my 2.5" Autospring on for about a year now. I have had no problems. My angles did not look that severe, but I installed mine after 26,000 miles. The shocks had plenty of time to settle. I have not had any problems with the Upper Control Arm coming in contact with the coil over, and my ball joint appears to be doing fine.

Unless you are pounding the hell out of the suspension I dont think it will be a problem. Thats only my advice though!

 

Mine looks similar to those angles. When installing i dont think you can do anything wrong to make the angles like that!! I think thats just the way they are when you level it with a 2.5 kit!!!

 

I think I have you all beat when it comes to bad angles. Check out my last set up. Daystar 2.5 with Bilstein heavy duty shocks. I only ran this setup for 5,000 miles, and it was really bouncy in the front end. But it did sit up like a 6 inch lift.

I switched to 2.0 autospring, AAL, and removed the front bilsteins shocks and now rides perfect.

It was a combination of the 2.5 level and the bilsteins, mostly the shocks I believe.

 

Looking at your new truck, I see that you went with the 2" AS, any reason? I have the 2.5" AS, I will not have my truck in any off road situations, not on purpose, so I do not anticipate any problems that this other person may be worried about. That being said, what other lift combined with the AS 2.5" would eliminate this issue?
Thanks

 

You may want to check with NCD Customs, they are developing new upper control arms, using heim joints in place of the ball joints. They already have the new heim jointed steering linkage for sale.

 

Hey guys!!
Going exactly with what mt_b8 just said NCD customs is creating new upper control arms for lifted trucks. Thats another solution if you do notice severe angles with your control arms and shocks also camburg is another good manufacturer of upper control arms for lifted trucks.

heres the two websites:
www.camburg.com
www.ncdcustoms.com

 

Next Question...if you need to add the new upper control arms with the 2.5" leveling kit. What about the 2" AS? Obvisouly it will sit about 1/2" lower and would lessen the angle on the ball joints. Would changing the 2.5" down to the 2" be better? It seem to be about 1/2 the cost of puttig new upper control arms on. Camburg wants $550.00 for the parts.