03 AWD how much adjustment in the torsions?

[Hank]

Well it's been a while but I finally got around to doing this.

You guys were right, it doesn't take a lot to raise up the front. I blindly gave each side 7 turns, dropped it down and the nose was way up in the air. Cranked it down 3 turns and it is about 1/4" up in the front.

Going to drive it a few days, measure and adjust as needed. I have an alignment appointment on Saturday.

BTW, yes I'm looking at adding the overland shackles to handle the rear age sag.

[Corsemoto]

Hey Hank, not to start another ridiculous discussion, but you may be better off with add-a-leafs at this point if you are trying to restore rear ride height due to spring sag, though the one benefit of the shackles is adjustability to fine tune ride height.

[Hank]

I'm pondering that as well.

At the moment, I have the van set almost level, about 1/2 lower in the front and I like the look and how it feels sitting in the seat. I almost regret getting rid of my lift as I never kicked up the torsions when I had it on and had to have the rear shackles in the middle hole. Could have had a lot more height out of the thing.

It was actually close to 2" sagged in the front so I'm quite happy on how much adjustment I had left.

The real kicker is going to be when I hook up my travel trailer. Even with the load leveling hitch I get some sag in the rear although I can minimize it some by cranking the springs down on the hitch.

I may put bags in the rear to solve this. Found a set for 249, complete bolt in firestone kit. Would just manually inflate it as needed for camping trips.

[mervchapman]

I have an 01 AWD I installed overlands extra-lift torsion keys as I had passenger side sag that could not be taken out with the stock keys. the overland keys have worked great. I also installed 1" subframe spacers in the front to maintain suspension travel with a bit of lift.

I also installed firestone ride-rites in the rear. a word of caution on that. The air bags replace the bumb-stop but also bottom out earlier and more aggressively than the bump stops when not inflated. So, I hear you suggest, keep them inflated, right? well kinda. When they are inflated they naturally lift the rear. and also increase the spring rate, affecting rear-seat ride quality. In fact this is what prompted me to embark on lifting the front. The nose-down attitude was irritating.

Anyway, I then got the overland shackles to give some more wheel travel before bottoming out on the air bags on harsh bumps. This introduced a driveline vibration at around 15-25 mph as the shackles change the angles on the driveshaft joints. If you go for the shackles, get the pinion shims while you are at it. 4 degrees worked great for me using the maximum lift setting on the shackles.

Also I recommend Rancho RS900+ shocks as you can adjust them to your preference. Crank em up for towing, back em off for touring....

[mervchapman]

Here's the setup. I used the firestone auto-ride height valves on each side and an on/ off switch for the compressor up-front.

[mervchapman]

You can see here that even with the shackles on max lift setting, there's not a whole lot of wheel travel up (5" perhaps) before the air bag is in full compression when deflated. inflating it is really only comfortable when towing or heavily loaded up.

[mervchapman]

Didn't mean to get off-topic but you;d mentioned you were considering lifting the rear...

Back to the topic -enthusiastic lift via keys up-front comes at the expense of wheel-down travel, especially if your hitch load is un-weighting the front substantially. Subframe spacers are a much better route if you're looking at lifting the front while maintaining (+/-) the factory suspension travel & angles.

[Hank]

I had the overland lift a while back and really liked it but no, I changed my mind and am keeping it stock height for towing.

[cowboydan]

You can see here that even with the shackles on max lift setting, there's not a whole lot of wheel travel up (5" perhaps) before the air bag is in full compression when deflated. inflating it is really only comfortable when towing or heavily loaded up.

i have heard of that. if you increase spring rate or raise your vehicle you must also increase your shock abourber respectively. you can get adjustable ones for towing, just don't ask a mechanic on this. ask the offroad community. raising with stock shocks, even 2" puts your stock shock out of it's useability range. you get good downward deflection but little to no rebound dampening. that's why it rides like it does. super lift makes a nice budget shock. but really, all you need to do is buy what ever, by measurements, from anywhere. same thing will apply to the add-a-leaf application. i payed 60 bucks each for 26" travel shocks. they are not more money. i payed 85 each for stock monroe overloads.

[Corsemoto]

Yes, either that or relocate lower rear shocks mounts higher. With longer shocks or relocated mounts, you also have to be concerned with compressed length and that travel won't exceed the max compressed length of the shock or bottoming damaging to shock can occur. I spent quite a bit of time measuring extended and compressed length, calculating shock angles and travel when I did my lift.

[cowboydan]

so what shock did you settle on? were you able to order something specific?

[Hank]

Still running the gabriel Gas-Matics. A little mushy towing but a nice ride around town.

[Hank]

Correction, Monroe Gas-Matics.... whoops..