Fabtech 3" suspension kit

when i wanted to lift my truck, i went to the shop, and asked for a 3" lift and heard about fabtech's lift kit and went with that... oh i got a 3" lift alright.. but man i can feel every bump in the road its rediculous... the stock ride quality was wayyyyyyyyyy better.. i have coilovers in the front and blocks in the back, but man idk i have to go like so slow over every speed bump and try to avoid potholes... idk if this will help but ill post some pics..

 

First off,
Me and lots of people on here hate fabtech. lol I think they suck.

2nd,
You have a block in the rear and crappy fabtech shocks. A good thing to do is ditch the block and get an add a leaf. Also look into better shocks. That dont mean more expensive. Just better.

Does the front suck?
When you lift 3" its in your best interest to get new uca's to correct alignment issues.

 

i have that same kit.. it fucking sucks.. recommend you get new shackles and new rear shocks because the fabtech smooth body shocks in the rear are horrible and thats what gives you the shitty ride quality in the rear.. offroadwarehouse has the fox shocks with piggy back reservoirs for 189+tx a piece and a discount i believe. if you get extra dough get those first. remove those blocks also just like jdkeller said, get an aal or new leaf pack.

 

first off the front and the back friggin suck balls. at this point, all i can say is FML. this kit cost me like friggin 1400.... just bought it 4 months ago... man what the hell can i do with this pos kit? should i replace the coilovers as well? man i am so pissed. wish i found these forums before i purchased..shit, but anyhow thanks for your input guys. i really want to know what i want going straight into the store.. i am still relatively new to this stuff so please bare with me...

 

Just read up on here man. Lots of every about just about every lift. Now that you found this site you can do everything right the first time.

 

couple things to add...

on a first gen, you don't need an aftermarket UCA to correct your alignment issues...

the whole UCA thing came up with the newer tacos within the last 2 years...

if you are not doing any fast, hard wheeling, the fabtech coilovers, though not the greatest, will do fine on pavement if you keep them cranked at about 2.75" or less... at 3", just about ANY suspension will ride stiff...

to smoothen the ride on a first gen, what you do with the rear makes a big difference... an AAL on that gen is bouncy, shackles ride better but de-arch the stock leafs pretty bad... if you can get some money together, look into doing a Deaver J59 pack in the rear and then upgrade the shocks to some 5125s or smooth body resi shocks in 8 or 8.5" travel...

 

Thanks mike^

 

Mike first off..YOU RIDE IS EPIC!! Secondly from my understanding i thought a new uca would provide better ride as well? I had this same kit and the front rode like shit and the back was even worse and to top it off the shocks busted after 6 months of use and when i took the blocks off they had a hairline crack. Looking at your truck and the mass amount of pics I see in 4wheel Parts of your truck...what would you recommend for a 3inch with comfort?

 

thanks!

the aftermarket UCAs provide for extra shock travel which helps in wheeling, but for on road use, you figure you likely won't be articulating significantly enough to tell the difference...

if you have the money to spare though, its always good to have the upgrades to make tuning your truck easier...

on such an old truck though, you gotta ask yourself if its worth dropping all that extra money, especially since you stand not to have a significant change... then your stuck with them unless you can find someone willing to buy them off you...

my personal top 3 choices for the older gen tacos would be King, Icon, and Swayaway...

you dont necessarily need to drop the extra dough on extended travel versions if money is a lil tight as its the coils and the amount of preload that make the ride stiff...

what is great about King shocks, is that a lot of offroad shops know how to rebuild them as they are heavily used in race applications, and you can look into getting different spring rates... if planning to crank them up high, see if you can get into a 500 pound spring instead of the standard 600 or 650 pound springs that typically come with replacement coilovers...

 

Well I was trying to justify buying a full coilover system instead of the bilsteins but if i was trying to acheive a full 3 inch lift i should still be able to have the alighnment done and not have to worry about uneven tire wear, correct?

 

Is that the same logic for 2nd gens? Because I thought if you were going to crank them, you would want a larger spring rate so you wont have to crank as much

 

yah... i had my donahoes cranked up 3.25" with no issues...

couple that with tire rotation and i managed to get 35,000 miles out of my MTs

 

thanks for the input guys, will definitely hit up the shop.... hopefully in the near future

 

whered you get your glass?

 

wow 1400? was that installed? sorry to say but i got mine for 950 installed.. :/

 

first off....

oh... sorry... just wanted to have ANOTHER post say "first off"

 

u always pay a premium livin out in the islands... aint no ground shipping...