nate538

No there is no front drop hanger that exists, the factory one is welded on with a solid bead it would take some major grinding to remove it. The only way around doing a flip for a 4 in drop is to combine lowering leafs with lowering shackles but then you would still have to contend with the spring bolt on the drivers side being blocked in by the gas tank. At that point you should also remove the bump stop mount from the frame as you will have almost no travel left with it there. I had my truck dropped 2/3 and I was happy with it. It could have been a little lower in the rear but that's a lot of work for an inch

Once you go past a 3in drop to a flip kit the labor gets a lot more involved. No one changes the front spring hanger anymore since they started fully welding them to the frame. To get a 5 in rear drop with these trucks you would have to do a flip kit with hangers and shakles. The hangers flip the shakles over so that the spring is on the bottom and the hanger is on top. This is to raise the truck back up from the 7 in drop you get from the flip kit. You would then use a lowering shakle on the first hole to further raise the truck to the 5 in drop. Hope this makes sense

Your forgetting about the thickness of the leaf springs and the mounting hardware. Any gap between the axle and the spring lowers the truck when you have a flip kit instead of raising it like the stock setup Look here you'll see they say the 7 in kit is easiest to install and comes with the fewest partshttp://djmsuspension.com/applications/chevroletgmc/2007-2012-silverado-2wd-kits/2007-2012-silverado-2wd-parts/ '> http://djmsuspension.com/applications/chevroletgmc/2007-2012-silverado-2wd-kits/2007-2012-silverado-2wd-parts/

Let me see if I can help clarify this a little for you. I'm not positive this is true for the rough country kit but with other flip kits you can adjust from 4-7 inches of drop with no additional parts if you start with a 4in. Here's how it works Flipping the axle only with no other parts =7 inch drop Flipp with new shakle mounts and factory shakles =6 inches Flipp with mounts and lowering shakle 5-4 inches depending on what hole you use in the shakles

Let me see if I can help clarify this a little for you. I'm not positive this is true for the rough country kit but with other flip kits you can adjust from 4-7 inches of drop with no additional parts if you start with a 4in. Here's how it works Flipping the axle only with no other parts =7 inch drop Flipp with new shakle mounts and factory shakles =6 inches Flipp with mounts and lowering shakle 5-4 inches depending on what hole you use in the shakles

You will be fine with the old nuts

Yes the angle between the driveshaft and the Trans will change but that's OK because as long as there's at least .5 degree of angle between them to keep the u joint moving your ok. With the amount of drop your talking about I don't see you having a problem there. The only angles that are going to cause a vibration are the diff and trans themselves because if they aren't the same they won't cancel out the movement of the u joint

Really for what we're doing you just need to get the diff on the same angle as the trans. If you're using lowering shackles the diff is going to get turned downward toward the ground due to the rear of the springs going up. In order to correct this you need to install the shim with the fat part toward the rear. If you're using a flip kit with less than the full 7 inches of drop, the opposite is ture because they lower the rear of the spring to reduce the amount of drop so you would put the fat part of the shim to the front

Here's where I posted some instructions way back in this thread

I don't have any personal experience with them since I have a 4wd but I did come across this in my research

If you buy the kit it's one thing, but he was talking about just going and getting the bolts from the hardware store. Either way I'm still not entirely comfortable with the idea, just because if I pull the bolts out of my strut I could probably drive around the block with no issues. If you do that with the strut under the arm your not going anywhere. I'm sure there's plenty of people that will have no issues with it but it's not for me

Personally I like drop spindles because they maintain your factory strut and suspension angles, therefore ride quality is unchanged

Imo I wouldn't do the strut under the control arm thing. When you move the strut under the arm your putting the entire weight of your front end on 2 bolts. For the rear I'm currently running factory u bolts with the blocks on top the springs, which isn't the best idea either. Soon I'll be changing to 2wd nbs u bolts

Like I said I think mine was a little off from the factory. If I where you I would just do the shackles first, then if you suddenly get a vibration when braking go pick up the shims. The shims where right on the rack at the parts store, I actually picked up the lowering shackles there too. Part # 13-4100 for the shackles 13-1250 for the shims

Sorry for the delay guys, Keakar is exactly right about the shackles rotating the axle. My truck always had a very slight vibration when braking right off the dealer lot. When I installed the the lowering shackles it became very noticeable. That's when I realized the pinion angle was messed up, now with the shims its better than factory. Since my truck was weird to begin with I can't say whether or not you guys will have an issue, but I really wouldn't worry about it, it took me like 5 min to measure the angles and the shims where on the shelf at the local parts store

I used an angle finder app on my phone along with some instructions I found and posted back in this thread somewhere. You basically have to get the diff and the Trans on the same angle

Stock shocks where fine for me with 2in drop shackles. I went with beltechs now that I also have the block removed. Also I needed to shim the diff 2 degrees after the shackles because they rotated the diff downward. 2014 RCSB 4x4

Interesting I was looking at those drop arms but I didn't know the turning radius would be reduced. Do you have any idea why that is? Are the steering stops not welded in the same spot? Also where your stock arms steel or aluminium?

GM part # 15002781 is what I plan on using when I do mine. That's the u bolt from a 2wd NBS when they used to come without blocks from the factory. Not cheep but I like to know the bolts holding my axle in are quality stuff

So far I've talked to Mcgaughys and Belltech. Belltech told me they haven’t tested anything on the 4wd yet and the don't recommend trying to use any of their 2wd products on a 4wd. Mcgaughys has a 2/4 kit but I personally don't like it, They did tell me that the rear parts are all the same but they don’t have anything available to get the front lower than 2 inches. If anyone knows of anything else available I'd like to know

Hey guys I've been lurking around here trying to get as much info as I can, I should be ordering a RCSB 4WD (it snows here) this week and I plan on doing a 2/4 drop on it. Anyway I thought this might be helpful for those of you with vibration issues http://www.hurst-drivelines.com/files/Universal_Joint_Alignment_Proc_111606.pdf Also does anyone know why you can't buy a flip kit for a 4WD? Is the rear axle different in some way?