Here's how much my truck got lifted.

This much.



So yeah, after about 4 months of delay delay delay, I finally got everything together to freshen up the sagging suspension on my '99 Pre. The rears were the standouts - the leafs were frowning. The front coils seemed to still hold their own, but the stock shocks were obviously crapped out. I ordered the typical Bilstein package, (5100/5125) for stock height applications. I also did the two leaf add-on for the rears with the intention of only raising the rear back up to stock height. We had some hang-ups working on the rear, mostly due to being unfamiliar with this particular truck. Or mostly due to the proximity of my friend's budding microbrewery (in the next building over). Either way, it was clear after we buttoned it all up back there, that the springs were too much for the "stock length" shocks. I.e., if I pull the bottom bolt on the shock while the wheels are on the ground, the shock will only extend another 2.5" or so. Not much droop there. Of course, my truck is city use only, and I don't expect any mad articulation like back in my Jeep days, but still, I would've rather done it right the first time, and I obviously can't trade in the shocks for longer ones.

Seeing that this would be a "rake" issue, I moved the snap ring on the Bilsteins to the middle setting and swapped out the fronts. I still have more rake than I expected (sorry my animation above isn't perfect so it's hard to see) which doesn't bother me aesthetically as much as it does functionally, I guess. I didn't want to use the full lift setting on the front Bilsteins at the time, as I'd read enough bad reviews about preloading the stock springs that much on this truck. If it wasn't such a pain in the ass to adjust them now, I'd probably go back and adjust them anyway, but whatever.

There's no doubt the truck does ride smoother - relatively speaking of course. The front used to bounce like mad over certain speed bumps for example... not anymore. The rear seems to ride better, but I have noticed some kind of mild vibe in the driveline in the 15-25mph range though. It's odd, hard to describe. Definitely doesn't feel like the driveshaft vibe I recall from my early days of Jeep lifting, and I don't see an obvious pinion angle issue.

I don't know that I'm going to crawl back underneath to change anything though, after all this isn't some off-road rally wanna-be or compensation/mall cruiser lift attempt; it's a city DD with a tired-ass stock suspension that needed some new life.

By the way, I measured the rim-to-wheelwell dimensions before I did the work, so I would be able determine exactly how much it raised up. I saved those measurements on my phone. And, you guessed it, my phone froze up for the first and only time in 1.5 years in the middle of this @#$%ing project, and I had to do a factory restore to get it working again. Which means, that data is gone and I don't know what the measurements used to be.

 

Sweet gif.

 

is it bad i was more intrigued by the surroundings changing.

 

I see you added a fence. lol

 

No wonder it took so long to get the suspension done!

 

How many changes can you see???? I think I se 7 or 8..

 

I went with the full OEM lift to upgrade my suspension and went for a 2" lift in the front. the ride is much better on and off road...

 

Has to be a completely different location, if not im impressed, you built a house in the back yard, a fence, installed new siding, and merged garage doors!

 

It looks like your truck is breathing Nice job

 

You guys are cold.

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Be serious.