DIY SUSPENSION INSTALL HELP

Everything done to my truck was done by me on my driveway. I watch a YouTube install video 3 or 4 times, then get to it with the video playing on the TV in my garage.

So far, so good! I've done a lift, bumper, skids, prinsu, winch, lights, ARB, loads of stuff.

 

My standard list includes

$124 Milwaukee M18 Cordless Lithium-Ion 6-1/2" Circular Saw - 2630-20 - ( MILWAUKEE ) - BARE TOOL

Milwaukee M18 Medium Impact 1/2" makes a world easier to do suspension work.
Wrenches 14, 17,19,22MM (But have other sizes on hand as well.)
Sockets up to 21MM (Deep and Regular)
3 pound Hammer
1 Jack stand and another jack for the corner that you are working on.
1 8 Ton bottle jack to place under the lower control arm, and to use in the rear to lift suspension parts into place
1/2 torque wrench.

This is a basic list, but there is a lot of other tools on hand that are sometimes needed.

 

Yep.. these are a lot of what I used this week. The 22mm and 34mm were helpful as well for the SPC UCAs

 

Alright guys, so this AM I went to Home Depot and Lowes and between the two spots I picked up the following:

3/8 Drive Ratchet/Socket Set SAE & Metric
3/8 10” Extension
1/2 Drive Torque Wrench
1/2 Drive Sockets
Grease Gun
Grease
Bungee Cords
Red Loctite

I already had a 2.25LB floor jack and 3 ton jack stands and all the other misc stuff.

I’m working nights right now and my coworker was supposed to wake up early and help me out today. He did not show. I was already sitting there with the truck lifted and factory UCA’s out and decided to send it and it was a challenge. Not the install itself but sitting in AZ heat in my driveway and taking my time to double and triple check everything. It took me about 5 hours all in all and I’m pretty damn happy with myself. Thank god for YouTube videos from the community, seriously. I watched them so much I didn’t even need to reference anything except torque specs. I still need to do the rear but plan on tackling that this weekend, truck is going for an alignment tomorrow when I wake up. I did NOT adjust the Fox coilovers whatsoever as I don’t know what my rear height is going to be yet, when I find that out I’ll adjust for about 1” of take. My starting hub to fender was 21” and I’m now at 23” so I’m living with the bro lean for now. If I had to do it again I would shell out the cash for a 3 ton floor jack and 6 ton jack stands, it was a pain getting the thing up. Thanks for all the input and help guys!

Before:


After:


With 65k miles on the truck now I think it was well overdue.

 

I’ve been debating on doing this myself also but there is a well known shop near me that does great work. Why did you choose those specific Uca’s? I’m debating on going with the spc( heard they are hard to adjust and durability issues) cammburg or icon. I’ve read dirt king ones are really good. From my research, ball joint is the best for a daily driver/occasional off-roader application and you don’t need the expensive kinetic type uca for 1000+

 

I have a shop near me too that’s well known and people say nothing but good things but I called them for a quote and they told me coilover,UCA,leaf pack and rear shock install would be 7 hours of work plus another hour for alignment. I think they wanted me to pay close to $1400 which I thought was insane. I probably spent less than $400 on tools and will pay another $100-$150 for alignment. It took me a while but I’ve gotten to learn a lot about my truck and there’s something rewarding about doing things yourself.

As for the UCA’s, I debated between JBA’s and these but JBA’s after tax and shipping were about $600, I paid $700 for the Camburgs shipped to my door. Another seller for me was Camburg’s “X-Joint” which they claim gives many of the same benefits as uniballs.

 

I just finished my install and one of the reasons I did it myself was to learn how to do it and how to be able to fix it. Great experience.

 

Easy to adjust, and the Uca bushings have lasted 70k miles now. I go through balljoints every 10-20k miles, depends on how hard I wheel. Daily driving I got 30k out of the first set of Bj's.

 

Shop I went to for a lift wanted $5000 to do all of it (including suspension).

I did it myself in a few hours and spent nothing on install and $120 on an alignment.

 

Yeah I’ve heard it’s typcial for a professional shop to do a full suspension in 7-8 hours which is surprising people say you can do it in a matter of 4-5 hours in your driveway. $1-1500 sounds about right.

yeah I want to learn how to do it myself but isn’t a shop liable if they install in and something happens down the road.

 

Nice looking truck!!! Also got DCLB
I just got done last weekend bumping my 6112 to 5/4 notch from 3/2 i added camburg x joint UCA took me forever im running 5160 with deaver u402 in the rear all Recently done my question is what is your alignment settings with your Camburg are u happy how it drives it seem since i added the UCA im steering is jacked up plus bumbing up to 5/4 ride is stiff seems like shops near me cant get the caster right im sitting at 2.5 driver and 1.8 pass seems low from what ive read for caster#’s

 

UPDATE: love it! Still going strong and have not had any issues that I know of… really happy with doing it .