Ram 1500 6" to 4/3.5 lift

[Burnie]

Hey guys first post here, already gleaned some information.

I am buying a 2019 ram 1500 with a RC 6" lift, has the new longer struts and dual rate rear coils. I would like to go from the 6" 35" tire setup to a 3.5" or 4" with 33" tire. Young kids and functionality.

My question does anyone know how much lift everything adds in the front? Example: lift knuckle - 2.5", strut - 3", drop crossmember - 0.5".

I reached out to rough country but he wasn't much help. He said you need to get new rear coils and shorter struts from our 4" lift. But when asked for similar breakdown the question was avoided.

Current plan: Rebel/ORP 1" lift spring all around, Bilstein 5100 rear shocks, and the 5100 coilovers on the lowest setting. I believe with the knuckle, drop member, and 1 " spring this would give me 3.5-4" front and the rear about level. Thought this would give the smallest lift and good suspension travel, front end geometry, and pretty decent ride. Thoughts?


Also if anyone is interested in upgrading their 6" RC lift to struts and dual rate coils. I will be selling the front RC N3 setup and coils. Would be a cheap upgrade. Thinking $500 not sure yet. It has less than 20k on it.

 

[boogielander]

hmm took a risk of messing up my algorithm and went to RC website to check this for you.
the RC rep was no help because they don't make anything that you're asking for. their 3.5" kits are spacers and they don't have anything for 4"

unfortunately, there's nothing you can do to make it go that way. I'd skip one with a 6" kit installed and go with a stock truck, then put on some bilstein 5100s set it at 2.5" instead to fit 35" tires while retaining good ride and decent suspension travel if you haven't paid for it yet. installing 6" kits are path of no return.

 

[Burnie]

Understand, RC stated, when I reached out, to replace the rear coils, shocks, and struts with stock struts and spacers from their 4" lift (doesn't exist) so I assumed their 3.5" lift.

I'd rather not go spacers so I'm thinking I will try the Bilstein 5100 struts and try to get close to 4". The zone kit uses the lift knuckles, drop member, diff drop bracket, etc with strut spacers. My thought is it may be better than a RC 3.5", would be more like the Zone kit with Bilsteins being an upgrade over factory struts and spacers.

Honestly it will be a pain but the Bilsteins have the height adjust so I can get it together and check the height, CV angles, front drive shaft and make sure it all looks good. If not I can adjust the height again, hopefully get it right the first time!

It's a pretty good deal on the unit and I don't mind doing the work. I enjoy it on the side, building my 72 C10 at the moment. Going down though not up and making it a bit spicy.

 

[boogielander]

Understand, RC stated when I reached out to replace the rear coils, shocks, and struts with ones from their 4" lift (doesn't exist) so I assumed their 3.5" lift.

I'd rather not go spacers so I'm thinking I will try the Bilstein 5100 struts and try to get close to 4". The zone kit uses the lift knuckles, drop member, diff drop bracket, etc with strut spacers. My thought is it may be better than a RC 3.5", would be more like the Zone kit with Bilsteins being an upgrade over factory struts and spacers.

Honestly it will be a pain but the Bilsteins have the height adjust so I can get it together and check the height, CV angles, front drive shaft and make sure it all looks good. If not I can adjust the height again, hopefully get it right the first time!

It's a pretty good deal on the unit and I don't mind doing the work. I enjoy it on the side, building my 72 C10 at the moment. Going down though not up and making it a bit spicy.

when it comes to mixing parts from different manufactuers it's always a toss up, you'll need to do more measuring, testing, and calculating.
if you're ok with that then do it and let the board know how it goes lol

 

[Burnie]

Haha alright if I do I'll be sure to post some progress!

I was hoping to get a list of each component in the RC lift, it's purpose, and how much lift it adds.

From what I can tell the strut, knuckle, and maybe the drop member and the components in the front. Everything else is to fix drive line angles and steering linkage angles. I guess we will see!

 

[SKT Customs]

I assume with the RC 6” front lift (5” rear) you can safely get it down to around 4.5-5” up front with different coilovers/struts and 3” in the rear with different rear coils, shorter bump stop extension pads, (maybe) rear shocks, and (maybe) rear sway bar end links.
That being said, going lower than 4.5-5” could actually invert your front suspension geometry so now your CVs, Tie Rods, Control Arms are aiming up instead of down, so depending on how they’re designed you might be more likely to bind them. I’d say try to get coilovers or struts that’ll get you to 4.5” and then in the rear I’d get some shorter coils and measure the shock’s length and compare it to the rear shock specs of a smaller lift to see if they’re any different. BDS for example uses the same rear shocks for the 3” and 5” rear lifts. Your sway bar will be fine with that 1.5” rear drop but if you want to drop it more than that you should consider shorter end links. If you’re dropping from like a 5”-3” coil in the rear, make sure to get shorter bump stop extensions too or your truck will ride like crap.

Also, I agree with what Eric said about how mix matching brands is a toss up; however, if you’re trying to find rear coils to get the height you want, you can cross shop any lift brand and get their rear coils and they’ll lift your truck the same as Rough Country ones would.

I’ve played around with different heights on my truck too; the front has been 4.75”, 6” and 6.75” and the rear has been lifted 1.75”, 2”, 2.5”, 2.75”, 3”, 3.25”, and 3.5” lol

As you can see I like the front a little taller than the rear.

 

[Burnie]

Hey thanks for the input SKT!

Yea I was looking the other day, the CV's don't seem angled down a ton. I will refer to this a negative angle, as in parallel to the road being 0 degrees.

They are maybe -10-15 degrees. I will likely in the next couple weeks take some measurements and see what it may be if the struts had 2" less lift. Curious what is ideal CV angle? Assuming parallel isn't ideal because when the suspension is compressed you CV would be pointing up.

Need to figure out the lift on each component, if anyone has a OEM steering knuckle they could measure that would be awesome! Overall height, ball joint top mounting and bottom mounting length. Then distance from bottom to center of hub.

Thanks Reuben

 

[JerryBsizzle]

Not sure about Rough Country, but I have been in contact with BDS about going from 6" to 4". The only thing different between the two kits are the front spacer, rear coil springs, rear shocks, rear swaybar links. Every other part is the same between the two kits. It's $732 for all of it including the Fox 2.0 shocks.

 

[Burnie]

So it's a spacer lift in the front and longer coil in the rear on your setup?

That seems good for new coil springs and fox2.0 shocks.

 

[JerryBsizzle]

Yes exactly. I had them break it out too. The new 4" front spacers were like $92. The new rear coil springs and swaybar links were $220. The Fox 2.0's were around $390.

 

[Burnie]

I am thinking for now replace the front and rear coils springs with Rebel/ORP springs and Bilstein 5100 struts and shocks. Measure and estimate drive line angle, steering, and sway bar angles before hand and after.

If I were doing it from stock I would likely wait so a level with Fox Coilovers and Fox shocks in the rear which would be about the $1800 the previous owner spent on this setup. I prioritize good suspension over a certain look or lift height.

Plan to evaluate tire clearance after I drop down and run a 20x10 -24mm offset with 33 or 35 /12.50's. More form over function.

Going for the white or black RAM, the white RAM in front of the garage is currently mine. Not digging the 6" and 24x12 wheels. Looks good but not functional daily with 3 kids (7,5,3) or real functional off-road. Don't do much offroading but an 45 mins south of silver lake sand dunes here in Michigan.

I am biased to BDS stuff also as I am from the Coldwater, MI area where it is based. My cousin did regional sales for years there but missed the discount haha!

 

[JerryBsizzle]

I don't think that is going to get you what you need. With the crossmember cut and new cross member and diff drop you have now you will want to maintain at least 4" of lift (non off road group). The Bilstein 5100s with Rebel/ORG springs is only going to get you like 3". I would do a lot of research before trying to run that with a diff drop and driveshaft spacer and all.

 

[Burnie]

Yea that's was I was looking for is 4" total. I thought the lift knuckles make up some of that.

What I have been trying to answer is of the 6" lift what components make the 6 inches?

My assumption is the lift knuckles are 2-3" and the struts are 3-4". So my thought was if I get the Bilstein 5100 and put it on #5 or 6 with stock springs or #4 or 5 with the Rebel springs that would put me around a 4" lift.

Doesn't have to be exact, want to lower it down and still maintain proper drive line angles.

Just some background I have done suspension work, I just did a whole air bag setup on my 72 C10 different direction but many concepts apply when it comes to steering and drive line angles. I'm not opposed to yanking the whole lift off but if I can get to 4" with a strut change life is much easier haha.

I don't have any stock components to measure against. May have to buy a stock steering knuckle, measure, and return.

 

[Burnie]

I will measure the CV Angle, if the the knuckle (or better yet center of the outer CV shaft) moves up 2" in relation to the center of the inner CV shaft going into the differential that will give me a pretty good idea of CV angle if I lower it 2".

It's just like 10 degrees here in MI haha!

 

[JerryBsizzle]

The lift comes from the spacer or extended length coilovers. The longer knuckles allow all your drivetrain components to move up with the lift and keep factory alignment. They are necessary as a result of the lift, they don't cause any lift. Your upper/lower control arms, tie-rods etc. The differential gets dropped so your cv axels stay correct. The solid rear axle doesn't change position no matter the lift, so a spacer or longer driveshaft is required because the front of the driveshaft is now higher but the rear is the same, creating a longer angle. Then to compensate for the changes from the lift you have things like bump stop extensions, new mounting brackets for rear control arms, extended swaybar links, longer shocks. I would definitely not count on any lift from just the knuckles. But I always say hey you do you.

 

[Burnie]

Got it, I was assuming it was moving the bore for the wheel bearing down giving lift in addition to the spring. Then the drop member for the lca's was increasing the distance to allow for the longer steering knuckle. I understand all the drop brackets to get steering and CV angles lined up. I guess I was not thinking the strut assembly alone was providing the whole 6" of lift.

I thought it was similar to drop spindles but in reverse, moving the wheel center point down.

Thanks for the insight. Just want to only do it once. I may just have to rip it all out a do a 3.5" lift!

It's winter here now, no way I'm doing it in sub 30 degrees!