Stock ride height

[SierraIndiaTango]

Greetings,

I am new to this forum and very new to these trucks, I had a Ranger previously that the rear end locked up in going down the road with no warning other than a clunk followed by tires screeching, not fun at all

SO now I have a new truck, 96 K1500 "Cheyenne" RCSB 5.0 5SPD, needs a little TLC, very clean underneath with no rust (Florida) and surprisingly appears to have never been in the mud, or at least cleaned thoroughly afterwords

my only real puzzling question, at least to me anyhow, is the stance, factory suspension no lift or anything, slightly larger than OEM tires but factory wheels, however it does seem to sit higher in the rear than the front, I am not sure if this is normal since I have never owned one of these trucks (or one similar) a friend told me to turn the torsion bars up in the front until it levels out, I was hoping to lower the rear rather than raise the front, I crawled under the rear ready to take a look at the coil springs and deice how much to cut them!.. you know what happened next

so, is there a way to drop the rear about an inch(I assume) or is the torsion bar suggestion the best idea, and is so.. will it adversely effect the trucks ride or handling?

 

[dagen_1]

these trucks came stock with a 2 inch rake... some raise the front, others use 2 inch drop shackles in the rear...

 

[SierraIndiaTango]

these trucks came stock with a 2 inch rake... some raise the front, others use 2 inch drop shackles in the rear...

drop shackles, I have not heard of such a thing, though I am sort of a victim of the modern age, I thought shackles were for raising the rear of a muscle car

thanks for the quick response, I believe this will be the best direction, even though torsion bars seem to be the cheapest way, free is pretty cheap, BUT I would rather lower the rear all said and done

 

[eric.s.t]

can i ask why you want to lower a 4x4? seems like cranking the bars would be nicer stance for a 4x..

 

[SierraIndiaTango]

just personal preference I suppose, I should get a picture of it tomorrow, if I can remember too, I think it sits plenty high in the front since the tires clear effortlessly

I have never been a fan of wheelwell gaps that could accommodate larger tires than currently equipped, not to mention I have heard that using the torsion bars to raise the front makes the truck rider rougher, no idea if this is true or not

 

[SierraIndiaTango]

I forgot to post a picture, sorry for the double post

http://i.imgur.com/IVy2b.jpg

the ground is not level though.. so its not a completely accurate representation, but I guess you all know what the rake looks like on a stock truck

I may turn the torsion bars up today, just to see if it effects the ride too much, I can always turn them back down right? I will post an "after" picture too sometime

 

[Hydengr]

SierraIndiaTango,

Raising your front ~1" usually doe not adversely impact your ride, nor does it cause excess wear issues resulting in the change to your front end geometry. Once you've adjusted the T-bars to a height that you like, a trip to an alignment shop is in order.

BTW, looks like a nice clean truck.

Mark