Cjaiceman

I have a 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel that I was wondering how I could adjust the ride height or lower slightly. I know this is an odd request. I want to get it into my new garage, but its about 1" too tall. I can't get smaller tires as with the 30" tires the truck has the "Dodge Death Wobble", but the 33" tires cleared that right up. Back to the height thing, I would not be opposed to dropping the truck that 1" permanently. What would you suggest?

winkle

Cjaiceman

What kind of garage door do you have, I just installed one of the overhead type of garage doors and I probably gained a good 6" over the old style garage door I had. Just a thought.

Cjaiceman

Its a standard over head garage door, and I've already got it pulled up as far as it can go on the tracks.

winkle

2 wheel drive or 4wd?

Cjaiceman

4wd ex-cab, shortbed

winkle

Do you have any spacer you could remove or you could remove a leaf or two in the rear and replace your front coils but then I don't know if your tires would hit.

Cjaiceman

I haven't added any spacers. The suspension is still what it was from the factory. I did look and there is a large spacer between the leaf springs and the axel that might be shortend

The truck came with the HD package and the camper special, but the truck has not seen a camper in its life, nor do I plan to put one on.

I'm not opposed to a lowering kit, I just can't find one that would fit my truck, all the ones I have found are for 2wd, 7500GVW or lower.

I got more details, the truck is 78 3/4 inches tall. I can move the XM antenna bringing it to 78". The Garage is 76", I have 285/75R16 tires on, if I go to 265/75R16 tires do you think that would be enough to make it fit? Be aware that the truck did not come with 245/75R16's as it has 4.10 gears, so even 265/75R16's are a bit low ranged for size. The 285's are great on the highway, but lets be honest, I drive the truck around town 1 or 2 days a week. I do get on the highway every now and then though.

I do love the feel of 265/75R16's on it with the 4.10's, it makes it feel "torquey" (sp?), but I hate the cost of fuel recently

frmll300

You might look at Kelderman Air Ride suspension for some ideas. You might get away with removing a leaf from your rear suspension and adding either Firestone or Airride air bag kits .With any of those systems with their control system you could deflate the bags and drive in the garage then when your out of the garage reinflate.

Cjaiceman

how much would something like that cost? Could be very expensive. I'm looking for the most cost effective means, but I would like to have airbags on the truck

frmll300

Depends on which system . The kelderman system is quite spendy. The firestone I think with the compressor and controls would be under $1000. Just the airbag kit from Firestone can be bought in the $300. range.

dieselman2300

Just lower the back of the truck with different blocks and ubolts. The truck comes stock with 4 3/4" blocks. I just bought 2 1/2" blocks (havent installed them yet, maybe today).

I measured from tire to wheelwell to figure out the difference. A 2 1/2" block will still give me a 1/2" higher in the back.

Here is a good thread.
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...=lowering+rear

I bought my blocks from here.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-5-R...9807QQtcZphoto

Cjaiceman

Ok, well that takes care of the back, but if I lower the back, I also need to lower the front. I found some springs, but they are for 7500GVW and less, mine is an 8800GVW.

Also, this is to prevent "saggy butt"

Sea:\>Drive

Cut the front springs?

upnover

The front springs are squared off on both ends and cutting them would leave one end open.With it open I don't think they will sit right.

Wayne

Cjaiceman

Ok, so I removed the XM antenna off the top of the truck and its only about 1.5 inches too tall. I got the truck under the door frame, no problem. Its the support brackets on the backside of the door that are preventing it from getting in, so my question is this: Would it be cheaper to do a lowering kit and new tires, or, hire a garage door company to come and raise the tracks the door is on?

(Its the support metal bar on the backside of the door the runs accross the door. I would remove it and made a different one, but there are warnings on it that its under spring load and not to remove it.)

I measured the spacers in the rear, and they are currently 4 3/4". If I put in the 2 1/2" spacers then the truck might be level, but will it be enough to get the truck in? Over the rear axel I would loose 2 1/4", but over the back part of the cab, right above the third brakelight would I loose more than 1 1/2"? As you can see I am a little stressed about this because its SSOOO CLOSE!!

I want to avoid parking on the street as the truck has too much sentimental value to me, and I only drive it once or twice a week.