Front suspension, stock vs Rough Country

They're expensive for a reason. The more you lift, the more you fuck up your drivetrain's geometry.

You can choose to heed all of the advice above or not. It's your truck and your lesson to learn.

 

You actually only want about 2”

 

Take a look at the eibach stage 1 or stage 2 kit, it’s a great product with tons of reviews, and eibach is a reputable company. If you want at least 3” your gonna need upper control arms.
The kit is about $650
UCAs can be about $400-$800
I went with the stage 1 kit, put it on the 2nd notch and got about 2.5” of lift, didn’t need UCAs

 

He's building a mall crawler, he doesn't care about his CV angles.

 

Don't go cheap dude. It usually ends up costing you more in the end than just doing it right the first time.

 

It’s not just about cv angles. In fact that might not be a concern at all. As I said above, the truck comes with 3” of down travel from the factory. For each 1” of lift (when using a coil over replacement) you lose 1” of down travel. Zero down travel is a bad idea. The tires will have a hard time staying in contact with the ground.

Either way, I don’t see how bad cv angles are acceptable for a daily driver.

 

The 3" RC 'lifted struts' are spacers AFAIK. It's one reason why they are cheap.

Maybe not. Ok, probably not.

Not doing it. 2 to 2.5 is about all you want to avoid introducing a whole 'nuther set of problems and expenses.

You might want to do some reading and reevaluate your goals. Or not. For as the infamous @Rock Lobster says,

Hope it all works out for you.........

 

I didn't know what "lifted struts" were either, so I went to the rough country website and looked. They appear to be coil overs, but I could not find any information on spring rate, spring length, preload, or an estimation of lift besides the "3in" in the product title (which is the same regardless of whether you select spacers or "lifted struts" from the options). I suspect they are designed to give ~2" lift on a stock truck with no added weight.

 

In my SCCA suspension play days, the dearth of info like that on a product always meant 'move along' to me.

Good products will include the deets. Including ones I didn't even know I needed to know.

 

I was turned off by that too. I think I may have been even more tuned off by the images they choose to display the product with. They have several images of a truck driving through a puddle in a parking lot. wtf?

 

That’s essentially what the OP sounds like he wants to do..

 

For what it’s worth, OP, I’ve not been on TW very long but I’ve been modifying cars and trucks since before I could drive and been on various forums even longer. It might seem like you’re getting a lot of flak and you might not like what you hear but listen to these guys that have probably seen RC issue threads pop up over and over. Take advantage of the collective knowledge and avoid the cheap shit.

Also, looked up the RC product page. There’s a shocking lack of info on those components. Just a lot of words like smooth ride, lift expectations, and other things to put the buyer at ease.

 

Thanks for the recommendation, ill check them out

 

Thanks for the good response, so many people seem to be salty about a question, I am going to avoid RC after seeing what people said. The only reason I was set on it was because of the price + good reviews on the website I was on (extreme terrain).

 

Thanks for the useful responses, ill check out other companies and go down to 2.5

 

Bilstein 5100's at 2" with a 1 inch spacer and AAL would have you in at under $1,000 including strut/spring build and alignment if installing yourself. Would also me much better that RC.

 

Why combine a spacer with a preload-adjustable shock? It seems like doing it right and doing it wrong at the same time.

 

Love my 2/1" Bilstein 5100 Lift. Only a 1" Block in the rear. Looks nice and lifted, and still feels like original ride. (Basically the OEM TRD lift at less than half the cost).

Wouldn't be worth it for me to want a 3" Lift, especially a spacer lift.

 

It is an option if he wants a decent 3" set up without just sticking a 3" puck up front. Ride quality would be just fine. Guys add 1" leveling kits to TRD Pro Fox suspension so why not? Although I would avoid this is someone is doing severe off-roading.

 

I stated my concerns about top-of-coil spacers earlier in this thread. It comes with risks at full compression and full extension. You don't have to be off road to encounter those situations, but it is less likely for sure.