I'm not sure on Don's bar, but if you let him know how tall you're going I'm sure he'll make sure it is long enough.

The Bilsteins will be a great improvement over stock. With 5" of lift, if you don't already have adjustable arms you should really go to a long arm setup, or ditch the control arms all together for a set of radius arms. When I spoke to Don today, he said his radius arms are going to be about 52" long. The stock lower control arm is only around 20" long!

 

My shocks now are tough country 9000 and they are terrible. What is so much better about radius arms?

 

The stock control arms are really short, and even on a stock truck they aren't parallel with the ground, rather they angle down, pointing at the ground out in front of the truck. As the axle moves it swings in an arc. But because of its starting position, it actually has to move forward as it moves up. So you have 7000lbs of truck trying to move the axle forward and the bump in the road trying to push it back. This causes lots of deflection in the soft rubber bushings in the factory arms, leading to changes in the alignment of everything up front as the suspension cycles. Don and I were talking about this today, and he said you can get several degrees change in castor as the suspension moves through its range of motion. Thats more than enough to alter your coarse, causing the truck to wander. Don's new arms will have superior poluyurethane bushings at the axle, a huge spherical (or something similar) joint at the frame connection, and a much longer radius of travel. So now you have almost zero deflection and the axle won't have to travel forward. This will make for a better handling, better riding truck.

 

Thanks a bunch Pauly. That helps me understand this stuff much better.

 

If you decide to go long arm, spring for the radius arm set-up. A long lower and short upper will create HUGE amounts of bind if you plan on twisting up your truck. Heres my custom radius arm set-up on my TJ.

 

I went under my truck and gave everything realted to the steering/front end a tug and nothing seem to move except miniscule play in the pitman arm/steering box, is this normal?

Also my steering wheel is slightly off center to the left when driving straight down the road. What is the best way to correct this. Does this mean worn or bad parts?? Truck has 4000 miles on it.

 

The drag link adjuster will correct this. Drag link is the rod that attaches to the right knuckle and goes to the pitman arm. You can adjust steering wheel center without messing up any other alignment angles.

 

Hey guys in inspecting my front end i saw the where the track bar connects on the drivers side looks differnt from the passengers side. see pictures, does this look bad?

 

What about the little play in the steering box/pitman arm, this is normal correct?

 

Yeah, a little play there is normal.

The picture above is blurry and I can't tell what I'm looking at.

 

I agree with you on the "should" thing, but unfortunately a Dodge with caster anywhere from 3-7deg can still get DW fairly easy with the right conditions and tight parts..

 

Ive never ran any tire BUT the BFG A/T KM 285x75x16's.
Never had DW yet...

In my old 1500 360v8 Ram, I used to get it ALOT but it was lifted about 8" suspension wise.

My .02 is ball joints, wheel bearings, trac-bar and Alignment.

 

Thats exactly what I'm talking about, max that caster out on a stock truck with tight parts and you will never have a problem. Dodge has such a loose tolerance on their alignments, I'm suprised they drive at all once they roll off the line...

 

I believe it is where the trac bar connects on the driver side. if yall still cant tell i will take a better picture when i get home.

 

Thats the left side sway bar link, looks normal to me, just a little twisted, but its a ball and socket design, so it's allowed to twist.