The only non-bolt-on modification...
The only non-bolt-on modification that has to happen is a 9/16-inch hole must be drilled to mount the dog bones to. The instructions provided with the kit will tell you exactly where to drill this sucker.
Once the hole was ready, our...
Once the hole was ready, our technician, Corey, installed the new dog bones. Dog bones are basically the endlinks for the rear bar.
The rear bar has two holes...
The rear bar has two holes in it. if you want a softer rear bar for more body roll, put the bolts in the front holes. if you are like us and want it stiff as you can get, then use the rear set of holes.
The rear sway bar brackets...
The rear sway bar brackets bolt to the shock tabs that are on the rear end. Once the bar was in position, the dog bone bolts were tightened.
Now the rear shocks were installed...
Now the rear shocks were installed using the factory hardware.
With everything complete,...
With everything complete, Corey broke out the trusty tape measure and noted our results. The truck came down an inch in the front and 4 inches in the rear-a conservative drop, to say the least.
What is nice about going to...
What is nice about going to the new Hotchkis install facility, besides having the people who build the parts installing the parts, is the four corner alignment rack. Corey got us back to spec with a few cranks on the tie rod ends.
The Final Word
The truck sits nice and level, without that stink bug look it used to have. To get the Hotchkis stuff to really shine, we had to get out on the street. The truck's suspension outperforms the factory rolling stock so bad we thought we were going to roll a bead off. So we stopped thrashing on it, until we can get some better tires on this thing. This is not just a handling system. Rolling down the freeway, we also noticed the buckboard bouncing from the rear was virtually gone and made driving this thing much more enjoyable.