Hi all, I have a question for you suspension guru's out there... Obviously I have a 99 f150 4x4 w/ fabtech 6" lift. I keep eating up front tires! After the lift was installed I had an alignment done. I'm currently running 315/70r/17 bfg all terrains w/ stock wheels and 2" spacers all around. Anyhow, I took my truck in to a local mechanic and was told that I need to have the sleeve that holds my tie rods cut down. He says it's not a camber issue, but a toe problem. He says the only way to resolve my problem is to cut the tie rod sleeves down, but that it still will not solve the problem completely!!??!! Does this sound right? Have any of you guys that run the 6" fabtech had to do this, or is there another solution to this problem? I am sick of paying for new tires. I have gone through 4 front tires so far, and am about ready to take this $#%& lift off and go back to stock!

Sorry for the rant, but I am so frustrated right now. If I would have known about this prior to installing the fabtech, I would have left my daily driver stock!
Thanks guys,
Tyler

 

Oh, and extreme off road in Katy Texas sucks by the way. Not trying to bash/hate on them, but it's the truth. They have messed up several of my friends trucks, and screwed up my buddies mercedes. They are no help, and are only eager to answer your questions when you have your wallet open. Needless to say I have since taken their sticker off of my windshield!

 

wow buddy, i live in katy i see ur truck all the time, im hearin more and more bad things comin out of extreme. how r ur ball joints? on my old 05 after i got the lift installed i went through a set of tires and it ended up bein my ball joints were bad and it wouldnt hold alignment.

they have done all the work on my past 2 trucks my 05 f150 and 07 tundra kind afraid to go back to them when i lift my tundra higher

 

haha yeah that's crazy man, small world huh? Yeah extreme really sucks man. Don't take your truck back there! Go to 4wheel parts or anywhere else but them!

When they installed the lift they put all new ball joints on there, so I really hope that's not the issue!

 

You don't cut the tie rod sleeves, just the outer tie rods 3/8". If you look in the Fabtech manual, it's there. I made that same mistake after replacing the tie rods back when I still had the 33's and 6" fabtech. I kept taking it back to the alignment shop because it would never align perfectly and I wore some almost brand new BFGs down to nothing in less than a year. After the 38's and body lift, I took the truck to an offroad shop for an (extremely overpriced) alignment where they told me the tie rods needed to be cut to get everything in spec. Sure enough, looking in the manual it'll tell you the same thing, and my truck has been fine since.

edit: Here you go:

 

yeah thats not the problem then. yeah prolly takin my tundra else where when i get ready to lift her. my good friend has ur same body style 2000 f150 i believe long bed supercab with a fabtech so if u have any questions i can pass them alnog and get back to u

 

Wow, thank you Cashel, that is greatly appreciated! I guess extreme offroad forgot that part of the instructions!

 

For sure man, I will take you up on that if I need any help!

 

oh nice lookin truck by the way, i remember seein up at extreme all the time with the stock tires on it haha looks much better now

 

No problem man, it pissed me off to no end too. I bought the truck with the Fabtech on it, and didn't have the instructions, so it took me a set of tires to learn that lesson. After that I went ahead and grabbed a copy of the instructions online for safekeeping.

 

haha yeah it looked pretty funny like that huh?

 

yeah but hey im bout to be in the same boat with my tundra, im leveled on 33s and bout to do a 6"

 

Yeah, well at least you have 33's! My stockers were 30s or 31s!

 

So, I took my truck down to this place called christian brothers to have them give me the estimate to cut my tie rods down. $500!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I laughed at them and walked out... Then I took my truck to midas, and they did it and re-aligned my truck for a grand total of $100 no tax!!! I am going to call christian bro's and ask them why the h$#@ they wanted to charge me $500 for something that midas did for $100!!!
-tyler

 

Yeah the offroad shop charged me something like $200 for the alignment + cutting the tie rods the first time around. Needless to say, I haven't been back since. Now I just cut the tie rods myself and take it to another shop