Advice needed

Just finished welding up and installing the relentless bumper and the nose on my 03 4x4 v6 with stock shocks is diving in the turns. Want to upgrade the front springs and shocks but the plan for the rear end is messing me up

Idea is
Front: 5100s with 883s to handle 75lbs of extra bumper. Adjustable later on if I decide to lift.
Rear: 5100s in the rear to replace aged bilsteins. My frame got swapped a year ago so I think my leafs are ok but the 5100s are supposed to not work with stock height. So do I go AAL and keep things cheap or go with General HD leafs and gain an inch or so and more weight capacity.

I don't really offroad so I don't need a massive set up and the the 265/75/16s on the truck look soooooo good at current height that I don't want lift, just less rake than when I make turns with the cow catcher up front.

Feel free to make any suggestions on tweaks etc. Thanks for looking.

 

do you plan on running skids or a winch? maybe consider the 882 coils with the nitro ome shocks, i hate 5100s but thats just my experience.

 

If you don't want lift you don't want 882 or 883 coils. Get 881s.

 

Definitely no winch. If I wanted to eventually do a lift I would likely go no higher than 2". Though I really do love the look now.

Regarding additional weight, my rear bumper is rotted through and I'll likely weld up steel a steel tubing bumper to replace it.

Regarding ride quality, I'm looking to reduce body roll and keep the nose from diving due to extra weight.

 

Even with the weight of the bumper(s)? I put it on last night and the weight is very noticeable in the turns. The rear leafs look like they were replaced with the frame but the front and rear shocks and coils do not look new. 113k on the clock.

 

yea if you don't want lift, the 881s are what you want. They give about 1.5-1.75'' of lift on a stock truck. So should be fine with the bumper.

the 883 will give you almost 3'' of lift even with the bumper. Settle to 2.5'' or so. So you'd have to lift the back too.

 

Gotcha! Would the ride be firmer with the 881s and the bumper or equivalent to stock after the extra weight?

Second quandry, every site states that the rear 5100s are sized for a minimum 1.5" lift and everyone hates on the stock leafs. For road travel the general HDs look like my best option with minimum to no lift and no axle wrap. Any other suggestions to keep the height and match the 881s or 882s?

 

Gentlemen, I know you're all covered in grease changing shackles and shit but me and my taco are all sad and shock-less. Please help a taco in need!

 

It'll probably be close to stock. Not very stiff anyways. The shock valving has more to do with that though.

You can get 5125s that are made for OEM applications. As in no lift.

 

Finished install of 881s and 5100s front and rear last night. Front went from 35 1/4 to 39!!! Sitting a little higher in the front than the rear now and desperately hoping they seat themselves and "settle." Not looking to do leafs until next year or so.

Sitting here now getting it aligned. Do you guys get he trucks realigned again after a couple of hundred miles?

 

Did ou move the retainer ring on the the 5100 downtown the lowest setting? It sounds like the coils are precompressed. That is way too high for 881s

Get an alignment ASAP. Or your tires will be destroyed.

They will settle.

 

Lowest. Had them pre-assembled by wheelers. Measurement was taken with zero miles on the springs so maybe I'll measure again and see if there's any movement after 200 miles. Truck has 113k on the clock so the fronts may have been shot. I can definitely tell the dampening is monumentally better now when I slam through pitted roads.

May have some new front end clunk to investigate. Any ideas?

 

Haha then your stock suspension was just so clapped out it is just higher then normal. Should settle after some abuse.

 

Quite likely. I know the rears we're rusted and the upper belows was misaligned and slamming into the oil reservoir, so I'm glad I installed the lot. May have also tracked down the clunk. The plate bumper sounds like it's pinning the underside of the grille or rubbing on the front sheet metal. Guess I'll see tomorrow during the skid weld sessions. Anyways thanks Blackdawg.

 

37 7/8ths after 200 miles. Rears still 1.5" lower.

More useless updates coming up in the future.

 

Not useless information at all. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to settle (or at least the initial significant settlement)

 

Thanks. Also clunk corrected. Relentless bumper needed to be shimmed away from the fender.

 

Keep the updates coming! I'll be in the same boat of picking new front and rear shocks and springs soon. This thread is a help

 

good thing you didn't get 882/883s..be at least an inch higher haha

 

Truth. If there's anything to gather from this thread it's that unless you have a winch and an ARB kangaroo murdering cow catcher bumper you should not exceed the 881 coils. The ride hasn't become cush by any measure of the imagination, so more preload on the beefier 82-83- eibach coil reduces from the positive effect of the new parts