Rock Crawler’s 2/4 Drop Saga

[ferraiolo1]

I got mine on their ebay store. It was cheaper. And it shows one left in stock

For Ram 1500 11-18 Spohn Performance D09-1500-104R Rear Adjustable Panhard Bar | eBay

Rear Adjustable Panhard Bar (D09-1500-104R) by Spohn Performance®. Quantity: 1 per Pack. Replace the factory's weak, stamped steel, flexible panhard bar with one of Spohn Performance heavy duty set-ups! Allows for centering the rear end after lowering. The best component for serious off road...

www.ebay.com

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[Rock Crawler]

Brackets arrived today, but I’m still waiting on the panhard bar. Now I have to wait two weeks or so to play with my toys. I may need to seek therapy.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Can this be done without the panhard bar, as long as it is temporary? How far off is the axle with the stock bar? The panhard bar looks like a pretty quick install. So, maybe I can do it one evening after work. HMMMMM! I might have to get started today and drive the Jeep (sketchy) to work for a few days.

 

[ferraiolo1]

It’s close to an inch off with the stock bar. Since the spohn bar comes with the stock setting. You really see how off it is before you adjust it.


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[Rock Crawler]

I started last night and will try to do a write up on it. I don’t have much time since we are being forced to work a minimum of 20 hours of overtime per week. I’m working about 13 hours a day 5 days a week with no end in sight. So, my two days off are for laundry, cleaning house, errands, mowing etc. I’m having issues getting the spindles off. I’ve loosened the nuts and hit it with a heavy mallet multiple times, and nothing. I bought the tools to remove it this morning, but don’t know if I’ll get the chance to work on it again anytime soon.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Plans changed today, so I got back on the truck. Got the spindles off and went to swap over the hubs…………. THEY DO NOT FIT!!! FANTASTIC!!!!!! The hole in the Belltech spindles are not large enough for the stock hubs to fit into. URRRRRGGG.

 

[Clv22p]

That’s not good to hear. Of course being Saturday you won’t be able to talk to anyone at Belltech.

Do you have any pictures?

Now I’m definitely worried as mine arrive Wednesday.

 

[Rock Crawler]

 

[ferraiolo1]

Oh that’s frustrating!!


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[Clv22p]

Update us when you hear from Belltech

 

[Rock Crawler]

Well, Belltech dropped the ball bigtime on this one. Their spindles will not work with trucks that come with 22” wheels. Apparently, the hub size is different between trucks that came with 20” wheels vs 22” wheels. Obviously, they did not properly R&D their products. So, their solution is for me to spend $400 plus on hubs for a 20” wheel. And don’t even know if that will work. This is crazy. The website does not mention this at all, anywhere. I just checked again to make sure I didn’t miss it. I know it is what it is, but I didn’t lower my last truck because I wanted to do it with spindles so I could leave all the front stuff stock and I wouldn’t have to do any geometry adjustments. This would maintain the factory ride. I got my new truck and waited as well. So, I’ve waited about a year and a half, or more, until they finally come out with a spindle. Now they did but it won’t work on my truck. This is so frustrating. Now I’ll be forced to use a lowing kit I don’t want to use just so I can drive my truck. I’ve already started cutting off the axle brackets to install my lowering airbags in the rear. Uirrrgggg.

 

[Clv22p]

Mine came with 20s from the factory, so that gives me hope, but really sucks for you. Seems really short sighted with how many 22 inch wheel trucks are out there. Also the guys with the 22s seem more likely to lower their trucks.

Could you have the spindles machined out to a larger bore? That may be a cheaper solution than replacing the hub assemblies. I would think that any machine shop would be able to handle that.

What is your backup plan for the front now?

 

[ferraiolo1]

Did you verify on rams parts diagram that the hubs are indeed different on the two wheel sizes? That seems really odd ram would do that.


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[Clv22p]

All the parts stores differentiate the replacement hubs as with or without 22s and regenerative braking.

I do think the spindles could be machined to accept the larger hub as long as the bolt pattern lines up.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Mine came with 20s from the factory, so that gives me hope, but really sucks for you. Seems really short sighted with how many 22 inch wheel trucks are out there. Also the guys with the 22s seem more likely to lower their trucks.

Could you have the spindles machined out to a larger bore? That may be a cheaper solution than replacing the hub assemblies. I would think that any machine shop would be able to handle that.

What is your backup plan for the front now?

That makes sense. But, I don’t want to modify them at all. I’m sure if I did, they would no longer have any kind of warranty.

 

[Clv22p]

That makes sense. But, I don’t want to modify them at all. I’m sure if I did, they would no longer have any kind of warranty.

What’s your plan for the front now?

 

[Rock Crawler]

What’s your plan for the front now?

I don’t know right now. I’m just so freakin frustrated. I want to talk to one of their engineers, but I’m sure that won’t be possible. It’s pretty close. I can’t imagine boring the hole out that amount would hurt anything. And, these things are super heavy duty. They weigh a ton more than the factory ones. I’m sure it will take a really long time for them to R&D a product for the 22” wheel, or they may not even entertain the idea. Hell, it took years for them just to come out with anything for these trucks. Who knows. One of the most frustrating things is they automatically recommend that I spend hundreds of dollars to experiment with another set of hubs or go buy a drop kit from Maxtrac.

 

[Clv22p]

Mine arrived today. Box is beat also. I feel a bit lucky that there are even 2 spindles in there...

 

[Rock Crawler]

Mine arrived today. Box is beat also. I feel a bit lucky that there are even 2 spindles in there... View attachment 134991

Yours might be a little worse than mine was.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Update us when you hear from Belltech

So I asked if they were going to produce spindles for the 22” hubs and their response was:

“As of right now I cannot confirm until we start showing more data on customer interest unfortunately”

So, I’m going to take that as a no, unless there becomes a large demand for them. Especially when they can just suggest that you go spend an additional $400 on 20” hubs.