Hey guys, im wanting to lower my 2005 dodge ram 2500. The truck is a street queen because i have other toys for off road (rzr-s) so i was looking to do maybe a 1-2 inch drop in the front and maybe 3-4 inch drop in the back, something for a more agressive stance and to tuck some 22"s and some toyo proxy's. What would be the best way to go about this?, or better yet is it possible with the 4-wheel drive? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think it's a terrible idea, but it's probably doable. I don't think anything would be off the shelf. I think you'd have to shorten the track bar and find shorter shocks/springs up front, and probably dearch the leaves in the rear combined with drop shackles in the rear. If I were so inclined I'd start with just the drop shackles and see how it looked.

 

I've been looking myself. From what I found the rear is easy. There are 3 blocks under the rear leafs. You can remove those with a 2" drop shackle & you'll get about 3.5" drop. As for the front, that's the challenging part. I've read guys that cut the front coils & re-install them. There are guys who have been putting 1500 4x4 front coils in its place. No one has been able to give me a good way or acceptable of doing it. Alot of the racers have been running 1500 4x4 front coils with good luck. But that's racing not on the street. I'm sure that you would need to have some different bump stops, but I"m not sure on how well they'll hold up and possibly sage over time.

I'm hear of companies that can make springs, but have not found any on the forums that has used them for lowering, only raising or off-road racing.

Good luck and keep us informed.

 

KORE will do this system for you. The ride with ALL KORE systems is phenomenal and the price will surprise you for what you get. Check them out!!

 

I wouldn't use a 1500 spring. The lb's/inch rating is much to low for the weight of a Cummins.

Cutting a coil out of the front spring is a time honored hor rod tradition. I remember doing that way back in the 70's; yes, I'm that old You cut it about 1/4 coil at a time, until you get where you want to be. Be carefull about heat. Too much heat will destroy the "springiness" of the metal, and it just becomes a wire. Use a cut off wheel, cut a little at a time and let it cool, and wrap the spring with a wet towel to keep it cool.

DO NOT simply heat the coil and let it sag. It's impossible to get the exact right ride height on both sides. And it will destroy the spring, and it will eventaully fail.

The rear springs on my truck only have one block, and it would probably only drop the rear by 1/2 - 3/4". To get any lower, I would need re-arched springs.

 

Lowering the front is a bad idea because it has limited travel already before hitting the stops. Cutting the stops will result in a harsher stop or the axle hitting the pan. Ride quality will definately suffer!

The rear can be lowered about 1 1/2 inches by removing the axle spacer blocks. This is pretty easy and takes about an hour or so. I did it to mine about 150,000 miles ago. But the load capacity suffers because the axle hits the stops much easier and the overloads do almost nothing. With the rear spacers gone the truck sits more level, is lower and is easier to get into. Looks good.

 

i plan to do this to mine soon. but i've got a leveling kit so i'll be pulling that off and then pulling the rear blocks out to do a reverse level. i'll see how she sits after that if i go ahead and get the drop shackles out back. the front end is weighted down on my because of a ranch hand style bumper.

 

I looked at multiple options including a full air-bag suspension, finally decided on a plan which included flipping the rear blocks and install smaller diameter tires. Nothing else is going to work properly. Just havent' executed the plan yet.