I have an 07 stx.. I think i want to airbag it. I'm worried about notching the frame seeing how it only has 4k miles on it Is there anyway around cutting the frame?

Has anyone tried maybe flipping the axel with a shackle and using a lowering hanger or something similar?

I'm just worried about cutting it because i just got it in august.. it seems a little too early.

 

you can put airbags on it without cutting the frame, it just wont go as low

or you can keep it on springs and do at most about 7" drop but you will have very very little suspension travel (i wouldnt lower more then 6) and i dont think anyone has gone lower then 6" (i have gone down 6")

 

Could you elaborate some? Like what would be the best thing to do for mounting the bags with out cutting the frame

 

Disregard; read my other post below.

 

The best way to bag it without cutting anything is to just buy the full bolt on kit from ART..

 

I agree that ART kits are the quickest, simplest and one of the best engineered kits to go with; and it's bolt on/application specific.

Typically, you need to create space for your axle to travel. That is the sole purpose of the notch. Otherwise, like azmidget91 stated above, you will not get a large amount of a drop; however "large amount" can be subjective.

When looking at the ART kit it does not appear to be incorporating a notch.



ART AirBar Kit for 2007 F150

I'm unsure about or heard of "flipping the axle or using a lowering hanger" as an alternative to a notch and still achieve a real extreme lowered look.

ART states getting a 6/8 drop with their kits; at least with the truck example below. It's an '04 F150 (the same as your's for the most part) on 22's.

"The lowered stance is accomplished by a complete Air Ride Technologies ShockWave™/ AirBar™ bolt-on air suspension with a 6"/8" drop. This entire system is bolt-on - no welding or fabrication needed"

 

...another one.

 

yeah there is no way to go lower then a 8" drop(8" is with the frame sitting on the axel) without cutting the chassis

also it doesn matter how its lowered, flip, hangers, shackles, bags, the truck will not go lower then 8"

well the entire bag setup will basically be the same with or with out a notch(except with a notch you might have a lower ride hight so you would have a little higher upper bag mount and your 4 link would be setup a little different) and everyone has thier own way of doing things so really bag placement you will just have to do your homework and crunch a few numbers to make sure the bag is setup so that your ride hight is where the air bag manufacturer sugested and so that you can go all the way down and up, this you can use leverage to help get more travel

but like others said the art kit is a ok kit to buy ive installed one on a f350 and i had to do some pretty major modifications to the kit to get it to work right....

but i have to get back to studying for my mechanics test(not like an auto mechanic but engineering mechanics, which is basically physics with calculus)ill post more tomorrow

 

forgot to mention i also watched a ART install this weekend and they had problems with the kit....hella expensive kit to be having problems

 

I appreciate all the information. It sounds like the ART kit is the way to go for me. I guess shockwaves in the front sound good too?

Now i just got to figure out what to do about the controls

 

as long as you dont mind the price of the ART kit front and rear then yeah that probably your best bet

i seriously would not bother with the ART controls, here is a decent kit for you

http://www.suicidedoors.com/StarterKit12.php

and also if you just want to get it piece by piece or get exactly what you want there website has everything you need

http://www.suicidedoors.com/index.php

 

this is about 30% of whats involved with the notch


thisi is the other 60% of whats involved.


and this is all you get running 22's with a small tire


loosely compare that to anahiem drew's truck with the ART kit. and you can see that you only gain about 3" more drop.

if you're leery about cutting, absolutely go with the ART kit. if you want more drop in the front, and have the money to burn, run a set of DJM LCA's as well. you'll gain another 2" or so, or the tire hits the inner fender, whatever comes first. check suicidedoors for a mini bolt in notch, which should get you at a nice height with the LCA's

 

why dont you cut out your inner fenders?

but yeah like dribone said look into the bolt in "c notch" yeah your still cutting the frame but not anything like those step notches, and the djm lca's for the front

 

My notch is approximately the same height as Dribones; and I have a similar amount of clearance in the rear. It may drop a tad more when I get my truck back from the floor being cut, but generally speaking it is close to the same.





I'm running a 265x35/22 tire.

...I also have DJM upper & lower CAs in the front
My front fenders are being raised/cut as we speak.

 

I think i'm going with the ART rear kit and shockwaves upfront. I don't want to notch the frame yet because i want to be able to change it back incase something happens to my truck. I appreciate all the help