Here's what I'm thinkin'bout
Thread Starter
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Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 164
Likes: 0
From: Jacksonville, Fl
So I found these Hankook's, they were priced good, so I did some research on quality and the feedback was good, so I got them from DiscountTireDirect on Ebay.
Wheels came from a guy in texas. Found 'em cheapest on ebay.
Thread Starter
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Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 164
Likes: 0
From: Jacksonville, Fl
Well, now comes the cool part.
I got off work early for a function for my little one and headed home after that to start installing my leveling kit. I went with the 1.5 inch from AutoSpring. I really didn't 'need' the leveling kit as these tires were pretty much the same size as stock. A tad wider and a tad taller. But I decided it would look cool to have the truck level. I went with the 1.5 because I absolutely didn't want the truck to sit looking tail-heavy.
I had all the tools handy and started the install with the guidance of the how-to that's posted here on the forum. Very handy thanks to TXST8tj.
See:
https://www.f150online.com/forums/su...t-install.html
Let me point out that he stresses the difficulty in getting that 30mm nut loose. He's right. I didn't have a breaker bar, I had an impact wrench and it still took the impact wrench some time to start to loosen that thing. It was a B1tch to say the least. The second one was on even tighter. I had to put some breaking solution on that one.
Also a shout out to Advanced auto parts for their tool loan program. You basically pay for the tools with a credit card and when you return them, they fully refund you. I got a kit that had the 30mm impact deep socket and also a kit with the pitman puller.
Everything came apart very much as expected. It was a bit more difficult to get the shock/spring unit out from under the tower than I expected and then it hit me, How am I gonna get this back in there when it's 1.5 inches longer. I certainly am not going to be able to compress this!!!
I got the leveling shim/disk thing mounted and started to try and get it in. I couldn't for the life of me get it in there. The Brake lines were preventing the bottom A-arm from dropping as low as I could get it in order to have more room to re-install the shock/spring. I figured out that if I unmounted a bracket that the brake lines were held to it would give me some more flex of the lower A-arm. But it still wasn't enough. Once I figured out that I wasn't going to rip out those brake lines I began to Sit on the lower A-arm as I was trying to push and pry the bottom of the shock back into it's position where it bolts in. Finally after (a dinner break and) about 2 hours I got it in. Whew, that was a relief. All the rest went together fairly easily.
Now I gotta do the other side. Everything came apart even easier now that I had experience on the first one, but I was dreading the re-installation of the shock tower. Just about the time I was ready to install it my neighbor and his wife came home from dinner out and he was handy to help me push down the A-arm while I pried the shock back into position. Got everything all buttoned up and pulled the truck out of the garage and drove it around the neighborhood to make sure all was well. It was a little after 10pm when I finished and I was kinda pooped. I needed to get up early to get the truck to the local tire shop for the Mount/Balance and Alignment.
So I got up at 6:30am to head for the install and got the truck back around noon.
Here's some pics
#1 is truck before level
#2 is truck after level
Everything else is views of the new stuff
I got off work early for a function for my little one and headed home after that to start installing my leveling kit. I went with the 1.5 inch from AutoSpring. I really didn't 'need' the leveling kit as these tires were pretty much the same size as stock. A tad wider and a tad taller. But I decided it would look cool to have the truck level. I went with the 1.5 because I absolutely didn't want the truck to sit looking tail-heavy.
I had all the tools handy and started the install with the guidance of the how-to that's posted here on the forum. Very handy thanks to TXST8tj.
See:
https://www.f150online.com/forums/su...t-install.html
Let me point out that he stresses the difficulty in getting that 30mm nut loose. He's right. I didn't have a breaker bar, I had an impact wrench and it still took the impact wrench some time to start to loosen that thing. It was a B1tch to say the least. The second one was on even tighter. I had to put some breaking solution on that one.
Also a shout out to Advanced auto parts for their tool loan program. You basically pay for the tools with a credit card and when you return them, they fully refund you. I got a kit that had the 30mm impact deep socket and also a kit with the pitman puller.
Everything came apart very much as expected. It was a bit more difficult to get the shock/spring unit out from under the tower than I expected and then it hit me, How am I gonna get this back in there when it's 1.5 inches longer. I certainly am not going to be able to compress this!!!
I got the leveling shim/disk thing mounted and started to try and get it in. I couldn't for the life of me get it in there. The Brake lines were preventing the bottom A-arm from dropping as low as I could get it in order to have more room to re-install the shock/spring. I figured out that if I unmounted a bracket that the brake lines were held to it would give me some more flex of the lower A-arm. But it still wasn't enough. Once I figured out that I wasn't going to rip out those brake lines I began to Sit on the lower A-arm as I was trying to push and pry the bottom of the shock back into it's position where it bolts in. Finally after (a dinner break and) about 2 hours I got it in. Whew, that was a relief. All the rest went together fairly easily.
Now I gotta do the other side. Everything came apart even easier now that I had experience on the first one, but I was dreading the re-installation of the shock tower. Just about the time I was ready to install it my neighbor and his wife came home from dinner out and he was handy to help me push down the A-arm while I pried the shock back into position. Got everything all buttoned up and pulled the truck out of the garage and drove it around the neighborhood to make sure all was well. It was a little after 10pm when I finished and I was kinda pooped. I needed to get up early to get the truck to the local tire shop for the Mount/Balance and Alignment.
So I got up at 6:30am to head for the install and got the truck back around noon.
Here's some pics
#1 is truck before level
#2 is truck after level
Everything else is views of the new stuff
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 224
Likes: 0
From: Jax, FL
Bringing a thread back from the dead... So I ended up with these wheels n tires... The tires have held up great and are still good. The wheels on the other hand They had a few marks on the inside when I scooped them up but today I went thru the local car wash and Chrome started just sheeting off... Doing some research they have a 3 year warranty... You don't still have the receipt by some odd chance do you?