I recently finished the suspension lift and tire/wheel upgrade on my truck. I wanted to share the details of the process, what worked and what didn't, that might help other members make decisions with the investment of their future truck build. I gained a lot of information on this topic from other members on this site, so I felt obligated to pay it forward. In today's economy nothing is cheap, especially if you want to utilize quality, mid-grade suspension parts and totally avoid the cheapest route to take. Keep in mind during this thread that my truck is used lightly for daily city driving, highway/interstate traveling, boat and buggy towing, occasional off-road driving on Florida sand roads/trails (my Beast Buggy is used for anything more extreme). If you want to run a hard-core off-road truck, this thread is obviously not intended for you. It is important to note that my truck has the factory "Off Road Package". All suspension parts used were intended to work for ORP trucks.
My goals were:
- run 35X12.50 tires on 20X9 wheels
- keep a quality street ride (as close to factory as possible)
- keep the original front suspension crossmember and related components
- stiffen the rear suspension for better towing performance
- have no tire clearance issues withing the front fender wells
- have between a 1" rake (for towing) and a leveled truck
- be able to park the truck in a typical 7ft tall garage door
Suspension lift components:
Front suspension
- Bilstein 5100 strut shocks (2” lift)
- Motofab top hat spacers (1/2” lift)
- Rough Country upper control arms
Rear suspension
- Icon dual-rate coil springs (1” lift)
- Motofab coil spring spacers (1” lift)
- Bilstein 5100 shocks
Wheels: Fuel, Ammo 20X9 6X5.5 +1 offset
Tires: Toyo, Open Country RT Trail 35X12.50-20
Results
Did I meet all of my goals? All but one! It rides great, tows better, sits dead level and I can still park it in my garage (the cab and roof antennae barely clear by about 1 inch, but it does clear) The one goal that fell short was clearance, the one small issue that bugs about all of us with lifted 5th gen RAMs. The dreaded factory front mud flaps are evidently a curse. I have slight tire contact here when the front suspension is canted or when in reverse in a tight turn (I have yet to find a mud flap solution that will maintain a factory look without removing or cutting it) Also, the flimsy front wheel liner (toward the front of the tire, at the bottom edge near the center) made contact with the tire at full turn. This issue was solved with using a plastic push retainer (8.5mm) and zip ties. The addition of the push retainer inside the wheel well (used as anchor points for the zip ties) gives a clean appearance that looks like a factory install.
Lift Height (measured from wheel hub center to the top center of the fender well lip)
- the truck height with stock suspension sat a 22.5" front and 23.5 " rear
- the lifted truck height now sits at 25.5" front and 25.5" rear
- total lift was +3" front and +2" rear
I was surprised to see that the front end was .5" higher than anticipated. I have driven the truck almost 100 miles and it still sits the same height of 25.5". The truck sits dead level (note: The truck bed has some weight additional weight that is present 24/7. The Retrax cover, Go Rhino racks, as well as gear inside the bed. This weight compresses the coils springs roughly .5")
Conclusion
It was definitely a fun project, and I am incredibly happy with the results. Now I will focus on some smaller details such as adding step boards, removing chrome emblems and replacing them with black ones. I hope someone will find a few ideas in this thread that will help them with decisions that will work for them on their RAM ORP truck project. God bless and pray for our Country.
