I would like to see Ball Joint Pic's of anyone who's running a 6" lift with a
1"-2" spacer or 2" Bilsteins to see what kind of stress they have on them. I have the 2.5" spacer and my ball joints have to much stress on them. I'm either going to take them off and put the 2" Bilsteins or run just the 6" lift w/o spacers or bilsteins added.

 

Heres a pic of mine with my coilovers cranked up 2"
[IMG][/IMG]

 

2" Auto Spring Leveling Kit

 

Those look close to how mine are.

 

That pic was taken the day I got it out of the shop,and I just remembered they actually had them cranked 2.5" because after so many miles they settled in and drop to about 2". Let me go outside and take a pic of what they look like now

 

Ok heres a before and after of upper and lower ball joints
Before
[IMG][/IMG]
After
[IMG][/IMG]
Before
[IMG][/IMG]
After
[IMG][/IMG]
Its hard to tell in the pictures but in person you can tell they dropped about an .5"

 

It's hard to say if they have any less stress on them in the after pic's. I'm definatly going to take the 2.5" spacer's off, but still not decided on if I'll put anything else in there place.

 

Thats what I dont get about mine. Mine are cranked just about the same as yours and my CV's are dead straight.

 

yeah its hard to tell on the ball joints, but you can tell that the cv angles are a lot better than what they were, I think if you took the spacer off and put the bilsteins on you should be good, you could look at fx4life his angles arent too bad with the bilsteins.

 

Well I just thought of this you could always get the bilsteins put them on the 2" setting and if you dont like it, then you can just put them on the 0" setting, i think thats what you should do since kinda in between decisions, that way you would get rid of stacked spacers, and if you dont use the 2" setting now, you will always be able to do it later when you regear

 

You're right. I may go that route. I think the Bilsteins are around $250 shipped. I'll probably put my Terra Grapplers on and store my Kumho's until I can regear.

 

10/4 I think thats the best way to do it, plus you can get rid of the crappy oem shocks

 

Exactly which Bilsteins have the adjustment to level the truck?

I'd rather go with the adjustable shocks than stack spacers in the front to level the truck out.

 

Just a quick comparison from my experiences recently, and take this with a grain of salt cause it is not an 'apples to apples comparison' at all. I put the bilsteins with the Rize spacer on because we are redoing my Kings with new springs and valving, and compared to even the rough ride my kings had the bilsteins just suck now! Granted when I first put the bilsteins on they where smooth as butter and great, then I got the kings and even cranked and feeling every bump in the road they rode better than the bilsteins. AFter the revalving and new springs it should be 200x better. I also noticed bump steer was much more noticeable with the bilsteins, after putting on the kings it was all but eliminated, and I think this has some to do with the addition of the camburg UCA's too. bilsteins compared to my kings was really no comparison at all, i'm totally happy i shelled out for the kings now! I know that not everyone has the ability to drop that kind of cash, beleive me when i say i really didnt either! but they are well worth it! If you could look into a coilover weather it be off the shelf or custom built, you can get the lift you want and the smooth ride! If you spend alot of time behind the wheel of the truck at all like i do it is well worth it.

I just made the trip to DFW on the bilsteins sunday and it was rough imo. I'll let you know about the ride with the new springs and valving on the way back later this week when we finish up the swap.

again, just my experience the bilsteins are great shocks but after having better there is no way i could go back!

 

FX4life- I'm sure you're correct and that any coilover would be much better. I'm using stacked spacers right now so I'd have to imagine the Bilsteins will be 100x's better than what I have now. The truck isn't used as a daily driver which is probably why I haven't had any ball joint issues yet, but want to prevent any issues before they happen.