Hello,
I have a 2012 supercrew 4x4 that I just bought. I am in a wheelchair due to a motorbike accident and have a crane/boom that lifts my chair into the bed after I transfer into the truck. It is working well but I have a problem as it hits the roof of my parking garage when it lifts the chair over the bed rail.

I need it lower when parked, but don't mind the stock height. Is there a way to lower it when I park, maybe using airbags? and have it back to stock while driving and towing etc?

Any help would be appreciated.
thanks
ryan

 

Air bags sounds good, you could probably get away with just doing the rear and not have to touch the front.

But how much clearance do you need to avoid hitting the ceiling?

 

Thanks Coobies for the quick reply, 4 inches would do my garage nicely, but as much as I can would be great to ensure I can get in other garages... And yes if I can, I will just do the rear.

thanks again for any help guys.

 

Maybe a 2/4 drop?

 

I'd make a thread in the general suspension sub forum and see what others have to say.

They can help you narrow down what will be the best way to go about it.

 

Hey H2X,

I'm kinda in the same boat, T10 para bike wreck 9 yrs ago, we are lowering my wife's 2012 4x4. But we are just doing the simple drop, a 2/3, it would be a 2/4 but I only measure a 1" diff from front to back. We don't have a crane because if I'm in it, she is too. But I do have an XL-Seat lift in it, and that is why we are dropping it, make it an easier transfer.

Getting it done in a week, I will post some pics when done.

edit: just had a thought; my DD is a mod'ed ramp minivan, it has a "kneeling" function when the ramp comes out, to lessen the ramp angle. I've never seen the mechanism, but they tell me it is an electric motor with a chain wrapped around the axle, and it just "pulls" the van down, I've killed my battery before by leaving it knelt for too long so it sucks juice. I wonder if something like that could be mod'ed to work on your truck?

 

 

Just keep in mind that when you remove the rear factory lift block, you also remove the tab that contacts the frame bumber and leave it to the axle to do so now .... which means more compression of the shock absorbers.. The 4WD rear shocks will bottum out before the frame bumper which will transfer great stress to the shock mount on the frame and axle.

Just be aware and maybe throw some shorter 2WD shocks on there.

 

I don't think I posted up about the lightning leafs.....I was using them for awhile but since they dropped me a lot, I had to put the original 4x4 leafs in. Carrying just even 200lbs in the bed I'd bottom out really easy, with the 4x4 leafs I could carry 800+lbs and not bottom out.

Black leafs are my originals I painted and the white primered and a little surface rust are the lightning leafs off a 03





About a month ago or so now I put some helper bags on that I got for free from a guy on some other forums and one of the bags had a hole in it. Lucky me, a friend had a extra one that I could have, unfortunately it was a lot smaller than the one I got before. Just the other week I was noticing one side would leak down a lot faster than the other, after taking off the tire and using some soapy water I found out that the larger bag had rubbed a hole in it and I went ahead and ordered a replacement bag from summit that is meant for lowered vehicles and voila! I now have working helper bags and I shouldn't ever bottom out.



No air in the bags


About 60psi


And here is where I mounted the schrader valves (I have 1/4" solenoids and all the fittings to tie into my onboard air so I can just air up or out from inside the truck with a flip of a switch, but it's been too hot out and I've just been holding off too)
For now, I carry a jumper box that has a compressor on it and it's been working for me

 

I put new shocks on for the drop

 

I started a thread in Street Scene, but thought I would post here too, Patman just finished doing a minor drop on our '12 Screw 4x4. Looks better.
before:


after:

 

some nice trucks in this thread! i currently have a '10 screw with a leveling kit and 33" nitto trail grapplers. im thinking about removing the leveling kit and lowering the truck with either 22s or 24s. i mostly drive on the street and highway now and dont go offroad but need 4x4 for snow in the winter. after my leveling kit and tires, i lost 1.5mpg in town and probably 2-3mpg if not more on the highway. i was wondering if everyone that has lowered their trucks in this thread saw an improvement in fuel economy after doing so? if i lowered my truck on 24s, what kind of difference do you guys think i would see in mpg's compared to my current set up?

 

not sure on big wheels and on a newer truck
but when i was stock height with cranked t-bars i got a best of 15-16mpg city/hwy mix

now i get a consistent 17.5-18.5mpg but i have intake, tune, exhaust and 277k miles

 

I would think the weight of the heavy rim would balance out to the heavy weight of an m/t tire. ^This guy is getting great mileage because he's using stock wheels and decent sized tire. Of course air resistance comes into play, so a lowered truck has its advantages with mpg over stockand higher

 

Put my lightning grille in finally and some lightning spec bilstein rear shocks on