Installing 6" lift, any advice?
 

I'm about to order either a 6" RCD long arm lift or a 5" tuff country with new coils and shocks. Installation shouldnt be a problem, but what types of problems are typical, or might I run into when removing all the stock components?
Ive done a few lifts in the past, but ive noticed that each vehicle has its own trouble spots that prove to be a huge PAIN and slow down progress.

I just want to see if there are many when doing a lift on these.

The vaccum hoses to the front axle actuator may pull tight/out, so keep an eye on that. I had it happen on a Jeep and I had to remove some of the ties/clamps to get some slack in the hoses. Simple stuff but easily overlooked.

cool thanks, I'll keep an eye out for that. What are the vacuum hoses for? and if they rip to where I need to replace the lines, will it be driveable?

The hoses are for engaging the front axle. Mine did not rip, they just unplugged from the hose fitting. I simply traced them back and removed a couple of tie downs (plastic) and managed to get enough slack to be able to reconnect. It does not affect your ability to drive the truck, you just lose 4x4 until everything is hooked back up. You may even have enough slack already.

Brian

I would spray all the bolts you'll be taking off with pb blaster or wd40 or something like that and let it soak in for a while before you start.

Mystery, got two questions/requests for you:

Are you looking at the Tuff Country/RCD lifts from TopGunCustomz?

And if you are please let me know which kit you went with and how well you like it.

I've been looking at the TopGun/Tuff Country 5" lift for a few months now...

mopar, thats exactly what im looking at

i'm leaning towards the RCD cause its a long arm and not much more than the tuff country and i place more trust in the RCD

I have the tires (37x12.50 MTRs) and now i have the cash for the lift, its just a matter of deciding which one to get. I will let you know which I end up getting and i'll keep you updated on the install.

as for soaking the bolts, I started today. I got all the bolts pretty good and i'm gonna do it daily until the lift goes on so there wont be a problem with many of them. The only ones i saw that were bad were for the front shocks..

I was looking at the RCD long arm kit for a while as well, from the same place I'd highly advise it over the Tuff country, Many people on here have reported taht lift kit will fall apart as your driving down the road, many scary stories, just wanted to let you know, but if u do order the RCD post what kind of problems (if any) you ran into, i'm thinking about doing it myself, mostly because I can't see paying someone 600 bucks for smoething I could probably do in an afternoon, minus welding, (don't have a welder)

what you could do with your vacuum actuator is if I remember correctly, the vacuum fitting on it is L shaped and points down. just pull it off and flip it over so the hoses point up, then pull the vacuum hoses off the L thing and reverse them so they aren't backwards.

also you can save a lot of money by piecing together a lift kit and would probably work better too.
Dick cepek long arms
DT or thuren track bar
your choice of 6 or 7 inch coils. most people get the skyjacker 7s
drop pitman arm
leaf springs of your choice for the rear
a set of shocks
etc

Lance,

I thought about piecing together a lift but to be honest, I couldnt find the parts for less than the RCD. Maybe i just dont know where to look but could you point me in the right direction? I atleast want to keep my options open and if i can save a couple hundred bucks thats always a plus. The RCD is just over 1100 i believe...

The only thing I had problems with on my old truck was the control arms, I had a 5" superlift and the new bushings on my control arms were THICK and it took me awhile to get them in the stock brackets and bolted in.......other than that it was pretty easy!


~Nick

I'd go with what lance has put together. I'm looking at doing the same thing soon.

Lance, if you didn't have your body lift how big of a tire could you run on just the DC long arm?

its simple to piece together a lift for these trucks,
just have to know where to look at.

Thuren fabrication for the track bar
skyjacker/BDS for the coils.
Dick cepek for the Long arms.
shocks from BDS.
Relocation brackets for pitman and sway bar from tuff or rough country.
Rear extended brakeline from frame to axle (maybe, depending on lift)
BDS Shackle Flip kit for rear leafs.
Maybe a block or a set of leafs from altas sping company.

There is many routes, piece by piece is the only way to get all of the best parts on your truck. pavementsucks.com is a very good site for lifting any 94-02 Ram.

Cheap lift springs for the rear can be had from truckinsuspensions.com. IIRC my 4" (actually came out to about 5-6") springs were $150-160 to my door. They aren't the softest but get the job done.

I would NOT use any product from truckinsuspension or AIM.
(Not to bag on anyone that does, I did, but I never will again.)
They have un-knowledgeable sales people, horrible products, and nothing for a warranty. I had +4 leafs from them on my old ram 1500, one of them sagged out really bad after a short time. I sent pics to them and everything. They insisted it was my fault, and all I did was mall crawl with it. I was extremely ******.

Ended up having to order the pro-comp +4's from summitracing.com
They were very cheap to buy also, but they held up great.

just my honest 'like always' opinion.