2004 Chevy Silverado Rear Air Suspension Installation - Makin' It Lay Part 1

In the '90s, you could rock a set of 15-inch Boyds on your truck all day long and you were the coolest guy on the block. As time went on, wheels got bigger, tires gotsmaller, and trucks got lower-a lot lower. Laying frame is now the standard measure of a cool ride, and laying body is that much cooler. We get a lot of questions about how to do things here at Sport Truck, and one of the more popular ones is "How do I make my truck lay frame on X-inch wheels?" With this in mind, we decided to show you how to lay out one of the most popular trucks on the planet, the Chevrolet Silverado, on 22-inch rollers.

There are a few things to note before tearing into this article. Although the '99-'05 fullsize trucks are very similar, a few changes are made from year to year. In 2001, GM added a transmission crossmember to the frame that hangs down about 2 inches below the 'rails. If you don't do something about it, you won't ever lay the frame flat on the ground and won't be as low as the truck in this article. Don't worry, we tackled it on this truck, which happens to be an '04, so follow along and we'll show you how to eliminate that pesky obstruction beneath the tranny.

You also have a lot of options for how to get your truck off the ground once it has laid it on the frame. In this case, we chose an airbag suspension using high-quality components. As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. That couldn't be truer than when purchasing airbag components. All of our fittings are DOT-approved, as well as most of the air tubing we used. Your setup may vary from what we installed, but remember not to skimp on the important items, such as the valves, the fittings, or the compressors. We used a few brand-new items in this install that made our lives a lot easier. For example, we installed a new bridge-notch kit from KP Components to provide clearance in the framerails directly above the axle. It's bent to match the kink in the factory frame, which made installing it a breeze. We also installed new Digital Stealth Valves from Slam Specialties. These valves have two different speed settings, which allow you to go fast up and down, or slow up and down, depending on your mood. That's amazingly convenient to those who don't want to smash their truck on the ground just to lay it out.

Follow along with Part 1 of this article as we do whatever it takes to lay down this '04 Chevy Silverado on some 22-inch Bonspeed rollers. Also, stay tuned next month as we wrap up the whole deal in Part 2. To find the parts seen in this article, don't forget to check out the source box.