UofAZCats

My note was in response to his first post questions which were not answered. In his first post he asked if he had to drop the hitch. Thanks though.

If I recall right you'll also have to take the hitch off and there were a couple of tight angles to get bolts out.

Couple of weeks ago I had my baby lowered. It was too low. Today she came back up a couple of inches. Also added 1.5" spacers to give her a wider stance.

My tape measure disagrees with your eyes.

A closer up shot of the wheel of the current wheel position.

If you look at the picture I posted after the original install of just the lower control arm my front wheel was farther back than it is now. The rubbing is definitely affected by the wheel being back but the picture makes it look worse than it is in person. It is improved from original which was pretty damn bad (see below) despite what the above picture seems to indicate. The alignment was done by another company and they had difficulty then getting it aligned. One of the things they mentioned they apparently had to do to get it aligned that first time was to trim the tie rod to get it to work. When I asked Inez why it sat so far back versus most other trucks that had their kit they said the wheel placement was an alignment issue. Tire Kingdom did the alignment and they are a pretty decent company in my other experiences with them, though this was done bat a different shop than I usually deal with.

The Inez arms are still on the truck. I kept them on.

As I noted I have some rubbing at the back of the wheel well when I turn. My installer recommended going to a slightly shorter tire and if that doesn't work he would re-shape the inner wheel well sheet metal. I do need new tires so I will probably go that direction first. I am not that knowledgeable about tires but have been looking through different tire places online to try to educate myself. I originally wanted to get wider tires but the spacers gave me the look I wanted. I am good with matching the width of my 285/45/22 tires. I have just started researching shorter 285's. My installer think just going down to 285/40 will solve the rubbing issue. I haven't been able to quickly find any 285/40 tires that meet the truck load rating. I have only hit a couple of sites but they carry most of the regular name tires I am familiar with. Anyone have 285/40/22 tires or even 285/35/22? I don't really want to go narrower or change out my rims.

Well I am in a much happier place than a few weeks ago. Just picked up the truck and it looks just how I hoped it would. Last time I took it in and they installed the Inez 3/5 kit. Unfortunately the kit was missing the reverse hanger. This left the ass end at a 7" drop. The front end was 3.5" lower. Both were more than I wanted. While the truck did look great from the side it was lower than I wanted. It was drivable but without a C-notch the back bottomed out with any real bump and the front tires rubbed with most turns. I really preferred to be closer to a 2/4.5 drop so i had a good look with all the regular functioning of stock. The new stance is pretty damn close to that. Instead of taking off the Inez lower control arms and putting on a drop spindle my installer recommended putting in half of a lift kit to raise it 1.5" for an overall drop of 2" versus stock in front. It was much cheaper in terms of hardware and installation at this point. Ivan at Inez was great at addressing the issue with the missing part by quickly having it send to my installer. That was installed, and after a little trial and error with the different shackles, got the rear just 0.5" above the front. The rear drop was about 4.5" versus stock. The install also included 1.5" spacers to all wheels. The spacers help to reduce rubbing but, almost as important, give it a wider, cooler look. Lastly I had 1" bump stocks put on the rear, though with the back end sitting higher bottoming out should not be a problem. Before today standing on the rear bumper and bouncing I was able to bottom out (please hold any fat jokes - thank you) after a few bounces. Now I can't get it to bottom out and it certainly feels stiffer. The front tires are aligned but the wheels still sit further back in the wheel well than I ultimately want. If I understand correctly this is an alignment related issue. Has anyone else been able to fix this issue short of removing the lowering kit? Thanks for everyone's input when I initially panicked after the first round.

7 shy of 15K posts... couldn't resist.

Here is my front wheel using the Inez lower control arm only for a 3.5" drop.

Stock 285/45/22 on a 4/7 drop. Lock up front for tight turns. Going to be raising it up to 2/4 soon and adding 1.5" spacers. Looking for that street truck look and want to be able to drive it without steering limitations. For the guys running 305/40/22s on Chevy OEM rims - where did you find tires that size that fit on the 9" wide OEM rims?

I will get some pictures.. Heck once I get it where I want it you won't be able to stop me posting like crazy.

Thinking of going with drop spindles trying to get back up to the 2" drop I would prefer. Is there a quality difference on the spindles? Leaning towards Belltech at this point because tehy seem to have a good reputation and they are about $50 cheaper than McGaugheys. For those of you with 2" drop spindles are you actually seeing a 2" drop or is more like 1.5" or 2.5"?

Did some measuring since I got up early thinking about this thing. Right now the front measures 32.5" from ground to wheel well. Originally my front measured 36" to fender. The rear measures 32" on the driver side rear and 31.75" on the passenger side (which explains why the bottoming out sounded like it was from that side). Right now the truck bottoms out quite easily. Heck if I just stand on the bumper and bounce I can easily bottom it out. With the reverse hanger I had planned on coming up a couple of inches (a 5"drop) which I assume would greatly reduce bottoming out. However that re-introduces the rake, based on the above measurements, that I really do not want. Obviously I can just raise it 1" (a 6" drop) and the rake would effectively disappear but I am concerned that I would bottom out on a regular basis. My goal with the lowering had always been to give it more if a street truck look and improve the ride quality. At this point I am leaning towards changing out the front and find something else that will give me a 2 to 2.5" drop in the front with as few other issues as possible. With that I would raise the back to a 4 to 4.5" drop which I would expect to eliminate bottoming out altogether. I am actively interested in input and suggestions.

Nice smooth look without the badges.

I had a shop replace the chrome emblems that come with the truck (and really look out of place on the Rally editions) with black emblems. I had a custom RALLY emblem made up to replace the LT on the tailgate. Ordered all these on eBay. The RALLY emblem was a custom that one of the sellers agreed to do for me at a very reasonable $20. The black is so much better than the chrome on this model/color scheme. Couldn't be happier with this mod. Note the lettering perfectly straight though the picture does not look like it is. Not sure if this is due to the rain or a strange picture angle or what.

Picked up the truck today. It is still missing the reverse hanger which will allow the rear drop to be raised but the shop needed me to pick it up because they close on Friday for a week due to vacation. The part is due to arrive on Friday and if it does in fact arrive early enough on Friday they will install it before closing for vacation. Hoping for a little good luck. I also have ordered 1.5" spacers that hopefully will help with the rubbing I am getting or anything more than a moderate turn. So far I have 3.5" drop on the front and it does appear that the front end is settling lower since the pictures I posted from the shop last week. The rear is still a 7" drop. These pictures make the truck look more level than the previous but the rear is still lower than the front. Not sure if I am happy with so much drop. My goal was a small drop of 2" in the front which would have mitigated rubbing and not make the drop so pronounced. I'll see how everything looks after the rear gets done. Next is getting new tires. I held off until this step was complete. Anyone have recommendations for 22" wheels? PS - in trying to help Nasty out - Nasty does not endorse this kit or any similar that replaces controls arms. Hopefully this helps saves some wear and tear on his keyboard.

I also had that same shop replace the chrome emblems that come with the truck (and really look out of place on the Rally editions) with black emblems. I had a custom RALLY emblem made up to replace the LT on the tailgate. Ordered all these on eBay. The RALLY emblem was a custom that one of the sellers agreed to do for me at a very reasonable $20. The black is so much better than the chrome on this model/color scheme. Couldn't be happier with this mod. Note the lettering perfectly straight though the picture does not look like it is. Not sure if this is due to the rain or a strange picture angle or what.

I took the plunge. I have wanted to have my truck lowered almost ever since I bought it. I have always liked the street truck look and thought this truck is perfect for that look. I was not interested in slamming it to the ground or anything drastic like that. I initially only planned to do a 2" drop in the front and 4-5" in the rear (whatever it took to level it out). I researched the Lowering thread on this forum and looked at a bunch of kits. I was most impressed with the Inez Hot Rods kits that replace the control arms to lower the front end. Based on what I had read the kit would allow the wheels to be aligned properly, whereas the drop spindles would not. Unfortunately with the Inez kits that replace control arms the minimum drop is 3". While more than I thought I wanted it seemed the best compromise to be able to use the best method for lowering. There is one detractor for this kit, Nasty, that consistently calls this kit out as bad because his experience with similar kits is that they stress out the ball joint causing it to wear out very quickly. The flip kit for the rear that is part of the Inez 3"/5" drop is pretty standard but their kit does include the shocks while many others don't as part of the standard package. I bought the kit from Inez Hot Rods last August during their annual sale and it sat in my garage until a week ago. Part of the delay was moving, part was my apprehension as this is my first time lowering a vehicle and part of it was wanting to find the right place to install the kit as lowering is not that common here in my area of Florida. I took it to a local shop that I became comfortable with as the right place to do the work. As the guys on the Lowering thread know the install has not been smooth. The flip portion of the kit did not include the reverse hanger. Without that piece the flip kit drops the rear 7" (or greater). It took a little while to figure out what piece was missing and took some messaging and phone call with Ivan at Inez Hot Rods (who was very helpful). Ivan arranged to have the missing part sent out. The part is scheduled to arrive Friday but my local shop is closed starting Friday afternoon as the owner is heading to the Keys for a week. That bout of poor luck aside I picked up the truck this evening with the back end sitting too low. Any bump at anything greater than 5 mph causes the back end to bottom out. If the part comes in Friday morning the shop said they will install it before they head out so I am hoping FedEx does me a solid and I can get the truck I want. The front end drop ended up being about 3.5" and there is rubbing on anything more than a moderate turn. I have ordered 1.5" spacers to help with that issue. They are scheduled to arrive on Friday as well. The pictures below make the truck look pretty level but it is still a touch lower in the back.

One other thing came up during my discussion with my installer while trying to get this sorted out. The company doing the alignment said that they were having a tough time getting the front end aligned and were having to shorten my tie-rods to get it aligned. The Inez kit replaces the lower control arm as a means of getting the 3" drop. I chose it because everything I had found said that this method for lowering allowed for the alignment to be better than using drop spindles, which could not actually be truly aligned. I was more focused on the flip kit issue but now that that issue has been potentially resolved I am concerned about the alignment. Anyone with this kit or similar have any insight or thoughts?

Don't mind saying I was quite a bit anxious when I got the call and the pictures. I was pretty stoked to finally pull the trigger on getting this done. Never quite felt right until we got the issue sorted out. I am really hopeful it turns out like I hope.

Appreciate everyone's input. Turns out the kit did not include the reverse hanger (cancels out the reverse caused by the flipping - so to speak) for the shackle which allows the use off longer shackles to raise the rear end up. Took a phone call Ivan at Inez and talked through the issue to get it resolved. Good customer service to fix the mistake.

Need some input ASAP. I finally pulled the trigger on getting my truck lowered. I am having a reputable local shop install an Inez 3/5 lowering kit. The front is looking good, though I am getting some rub. I thought this might be the case and expected it. What I didn't expect is that the rear is coming out an 1" to 1.5" lower than the front. On top of that the shop told me that even with the bump stops completely removed the truck is bottoming out on anything more than a small bump. The rear was only supposed to drop 5" and apparently it is dropping more than like 7". The shop installed the flip kit , 1" lift shackles and included shocks. Anyone have any issues like this with a flip kit?

Been far too long since I could list something I have done to my truck. Today I received my Vitesse Throttle Controller and got it installed. It was later in the day so I was limited in how much I got to play with it. My first impression is that this thing really makes the truck accelerate like I expected when I bought it. No more hesitation. Nice acceleration which is obviously bad for my gas mileage because I can't keep my foot out of it now.