2.5" drop bloc question

[taylorjyoung]

I up in canada and the truckis lifted right now cuz its winter but come summer i do alot of hghway driving and not alot of off roading... as in none my question is....

would a 2.5" blcok in rear an a torsion twist look good or should it be dropped more to look even half decent?


i cranked the torsion all the way down to the bump stops for fun to see what it would lok like its def low and with some rims would prob look real god but with a 2.5" block in rear will it get as low as front and look good does anyone have any pics of this set up...?

 

[Black ST]

I have a 4x4 and i put 15" rims and tires on mine, dropped the rear down 2" and its dead level and it looks real good. I didnt mess with anything up front, all i did was drop the back to make it level and if you had 20's or 22's it would fill up the wheel wells real nice and look good. After i dropped it, the back has like 5.25" tire-fender and the front has 5" tire to fender. If you dropped the rear 2.5-3" then cranked the torsions about 1"-1.5" in the front you would probably only be able to fit 20's and your tires wouldn't be able to flex real good so you would have to watch out for curbs.

Hope this helps

Tell me if you want some pictures and ill send you some. My lowering block kit cost $45USD and then i had to get an alignment.

 

[taylorjyoung]

ya thats awesome exactly what i wanted to hear.. i already made my blocks last night (free!) i did 2.5" blocks another question how wide are the blocks you got

what are all the specs on the kit that you bought what size bolts work best, how wide are blocks, how long are the u-bolts that i need?

thanks BlackST for the help

 

[Black ST]

Well i ordered the kit from Summit Racing. Like i said it was $45 shipped. They were 2" drop blocks and and they fit right on the leaf springs. So however wide the leaf springs are, is how wide my blocks are. If you made your own, did you make a little slot on top of the block to fit snugly onto the axle. On the bottom of the axle is a little hole and on top of my block there was a piece that fit inside of the little hole to hold the block in place. And also what did you make your block out of? Mine are cast iron, they rust but they are strong as hell, i heard aluminum will break under heavy loads. And my u-bolts are probably a good 3-4" longer than OEM. They actually could be cut a little bit but i am too lazy to do that. . I dont know if you are a part of this forum MySportTrac.com but here is a project, where i got all my ideas from to drop my sport trac. Here is the link: http://www.mysporttrac.com/mysporttrac/

1. left side of page "Projects"
2. Ride and Handling
3. "How to lower your ST" by Michelle Widell.

Let me know if this helps and if you want me too, whenever its light outside i can crawl underneath and take pictures and show you before and after.

 

[taylorjyoung]

thanksa again.. i meant like how long are they the other way as in along the spring... 3"-4" long? i have the holes drilled on top and bottem thats all good ill have to get under there to see how long of ubolts i need. i dont want anything hanging over but i could always cut them off for a better job anyway... thanks for the link

 

[sporttractuner]

I put in 3 inch blocks in the rear. looks great. they are 2 1/4 inches wide...I had to trim about a half inch off of the front bump stops to prevent from bottoming out. also... I have 16" factory rims, and my leafs actually hang down below the bottom of my rims now...you may get in trouble for this, if you get a flat, your truck will literally be sitting on the ground. I'll see if I have some pics.

 

[sporttractuner]

also...had the U bolts made for me at a spring shop. tok about a hlaf hour, and cost about 30 bucks

 

[taylorjyoung]

how bad would it be if i just took the bump stops right out... cuz i just looked under there drivers side is missing.....

 

[Black ST]

Bad. If i go off a curb just a little too fast, it bottoms and on some dips in the road where the road goes down and then back up quickly and i go about 40, it bottoms. It just depends on what kind of driving you do. If your roads are straight and not rough then you should be ok. And if you take out your bump stops and then you bottom out then its not really good on your truck. I have seen people actually TRIM the bump stops about an inch or two but not many people take them off. Go to that other Sport Trac forum i told you about and go to the projects section and search "Trimming Bump Stops" and see if that helps.

 

[taylorjyoung]

ya no its jsut that my drivers side is gone!!! lol i gotta track one of those down i suppose... right now my torsion is all the way up is it stillpossible to bottem front out cuz ive gotten air like numerous times in the past week lol with no bump stop on drivers side but torsion all wthe way up can i do damage?

 

[Black ST]

No i dont think it will cause major damage. Although bottoming out is not good it wont cause major damage. Although i would seriously consider getting another bump stop and trimming them all down a couple inchs. I personally dont mess with the torsion bars at all but when you do mess with them, it messes with the camber adjustment on the front wheels and the alignment so you could be messing up your tires when you move the torsions up and down because it bows your wheels in and out. So when you get your torsions fixed the way you want it, i would lock them in and get an alignment and camber adjustment and leave them alone. It could cause some serious cupping of your tires and ruin them. Another thing you might need to consider: ST shocks are POS (to say the least) and when i lowered my ST it just made them even worse. So i would consider getting new shocks because lowering a vehicle just makes the strain even more on the shocks so i would go with some heavy duty aftermarket shocks. Maybe some Rancho's or Monroe Reflex's would do the trick. I noticed that after i lowered it, it handled MUCH better around corners and such but it had alot more bounce in the ride. And Im putting on some Rancho RS5000's this weekend and see if that stiffens it up a little bit. They were about $200 for a set of 4 and it wont take but an hour/hour and half. Its one of the easiest projects to do on a ST.

BTW if you register on that other forum (MySportTrac.com) There are a billion more members and anyone over there can answer any kind of question imaginable. They have site sponsors and archive threads. I would just consider joining over there and asking questions because i know there are some more people out there that could give you second opinions on things. And you could get way more attention on that site than you do here. (No offense to any administrators )