Hi guys, I just sold my trusty old '98.5 that I sank WAY too much money into. Among a ton of other mods I ran 4.10 gears and 35" tall tires, well, 315-75R16 but you get the picture and a leveling kit.

I'm now kicking around the idea of a 2011 Mega Cab and love the look of lifted trucks but am curious to hear from you guys with lifted 4th gens are there any drawbacks?

Can you correct the speedo on these trucks? (I had to buy a Superlift Tru-speed for the last one)

Does it mess with shift points in the auto trans?

Basically I want to lift the truck and run 35's-37's but don't want to sacrifice any of the driveablity or towing capabilities.

I'd like it to look like the attached picture...any idea of how much lift is on this truck or tire size???

Your suggestions and opinions are apreciated,

Thanks,
Jeff

 

Would have a hard time with a goose neck.

That looks like 37s on 22s with a 6 inch lift.

 

If your planning on putting on bigger tires go with 4.10 gears

 

I RARELY tow a goose, usually just a single Jeep. I was thinking the same on your wheel, tire and lift numbers

 

On my 98.5 when I went to 4.10's I was running 2000 RPM at 70 MPH (on the 35's. Any faster an mileage dropped off.

Is the gearing in the new auto's any better?

 

From personal experience, you will wear out ball joints, tie rods etc much faster. I had a tough time keeping my front end aligned. For me, I would not have a lifted daily driver again, a strict toy/off roader... absolutely.

 

One of the things Ryno is doing to my truck is a 2" lift to make room for the wheelchair lift.

As I understand it - mind you I have not seem my truck yet - all the suspension, steering and such is unchanged since it all hangs off the frame, not the body. U Joints would not be loaded any differently unless you changed tire size.

The one change would be a very slight lengthening of the steering shaft - given the angle involved, I'd guess about 1". Not enough to cause a problem since I think there is a sliding sleeve arrangement on the shaft.

I worry more about increased strain on electrical connectors and cables as they are stretched. With the new body mounts the engineers may have added a little extra length to accommodate the movement. Just speculation on my part.

 

It is not that lift that strains those parts, its the large tires, usually larger tires weight more and have a large contact patch and the balljoints/tierods endup taking the stress.

 

I know a guy that tows a GN with his 05 on 35's with a 4.5 inch lift. It is built for the lift though. He even takes it off road a little hauling his ATV's on it but it looks close to hitting.


I think the truck in your link is cool, but really its not the perfect work truck, that's why I kept mine at 2/1 inches. With that truck forget hauling stuff in the bed, I have a hard enough time loading and unloading mine.

 

What kind of lift is in the truck? Looking at the truck, I would guess your going to work the brake abit more than stock. The bed height is higher, for me thats the killer.

The fronted will wear out faster and u-joints don't last as long.

Probably have lots of finger prints/drool on it from everyone one wanting to take a look at it. Wow nice truck

 

I will not be working out of the truck, just driving it to the office and towing the Jeep. I am currently in negotiations with the dealer on a brand new one. I'll be honest though, reading too much on this website will scare you away from Dodge. The mileage stinks unless you spend an extra 1400 on deletes, some 2010's are rusting, the auto's shift too soon and are wiping out their own 5th &. 6th gear... Tell me agin why I shouldn't just buy a Duramax??? The Mega Cab is nice but is a Dodge worth this??

 

Remember that on a list like this you only hear from a very, very small percentage of end users - and normally those who are pushing the truck to it's limits. For a daily driver a 20-40 hp increase will never be felt - 100hp is a different thing - but how many daily drivers need a 100hp increase just to drive to work or home? (I love hp as much as the next guy, but, really think about how much this matters)

The ones who post problems here are people seeking advice from the very knowledgeable group we have here, not the guys working their turck everyday with no problems.

I imagine that if you find a Duramax group like this one, you will see the same sort of posts. ALL truck and car makers have a certain percentage of duds rolling off the assembly line - they know it and buyers should too. They test for everything under the sun, but the end user is the person who really finds the bugs. They cannot be expected to find a problem that requires 12,000 miles to show up in 50 trucks out of 50,000 (a total guess - no idea really) that they make.

How they deal with these things is the real difference.

If honda built a truck that met my needs, I'd buy a Honda, but they don't - Dodge does and only dodge. So I bought a Dodge. Our local dealer sucks big time, so I'll go to a dealer in the next town for service, no big issue.

If I decide that I need to delete the thing, I'll do it, but I know one thing, I don't want to deal with DEF so I'm buying now. When and if I delete, I will be driving a truck that will breath the way a diesel is suppose to.

All just my opinion, of course and YMMV.

Happy Trails,
Larry

 

All good points Larry

 

My opinion is that when lifting a truck you will lose a lot in driveability and towing. At least this has been my experience. I have a very nice looking truck, but it just is not practical for the towing I do, and the driveability, especially towing, sucks. Hence I am in the market for a new truck.

 

That rust issue you mention is a good one. Where it starts is between the panel seams where one panel touches another. Japanese do the bes here as they seal those seams both sides - what is wrong with the domestics? why can't they do that? In the spring I am getting that Ziebart aluminized wax treatment throughout the entire truck underneath, inside the doors, under the hood area and everywhere in the box. When this truck is worn out that is it - no more!