I’ve had quite a few questions about the lift, combination of suspension components, and wheels and tires since I set my truck up. Figured I’d post a short thread on the parts used and my experience.
I never thought I’d sell my 2012, she treated me perfect for 9 years. Deleted it right away, and it never saw a shop or dealer since the day I took it off the lot. By 2017 we had upgraded to a 42.5ft toy hauler and it was then I started thinking of a dually. Power wise I was fine, but I longed for more stability. I couldn’t bring myself to trade it in though. Fast forward to 2021 and desperate dealers offering ridiculous $$$ for trade ins, I got an offer I couldn’t refuse. It was time to order my dream truck, exactly how I wanted it.
The day before thanksgiving I said goodbye my 12 and took delivery of the new 22.
I was really excited for upgrades such as the long bed, 50g tank, auto leveling air, and so on..
I had one demand from the wife when she gave me the ok for the dually…I had to lift it with new wheels/tires right away. She hates the look of DRW’s stock.
What a horrible demand, right? Of course I agreed.
6 months of waiting for my truck to arrive gave me plenty of time to research and buy everything I needed. Here’s what I ended up going with…
Lift:
Carli 3 to 3 & 1/4” front coil springs.
Carli radius arm, bump stop, and sway bar drop brackets.
Carli Back Country Fox remote reservoir shocks
Ready Lift rear 2” leaf spring blocks PN: 66-1202. Comes with new U bolts.
Ready Lift 2” factory air bags spacers PN: 66-1302
Revel Performance adjustable arms for air bag sensors
Steering:
Thuren adjustable track bar
Thuren fox steering stabilizer
Wheels/Tires:
TIS Off-road 544BM’s.
Front: Normal fronts, 20x9r20 +18 offset wrapped in 35x12.5 Nitto Ridge Grapplers.
Rears: 20x8.5r20. Inner wheel is +115 offset and outers are -198. Same tires except I went 11.5 wide in the back.
Within a couple hours of getting her home from the dealer…
Spent the next day (Thanksgiving) with the fam so she sat like this until Friday, then I got back to work.
First step was to install the Radius Arm drops. Really, these were the only part of the lift that was a pain in the ass. And it was only the passenger side.
The air tank has to be removed to drill the 3/4” hole for the upper/aft mount bolt. It’s just 3 mount bolts and the air line, drops right out. The 3/4” hole on the outboard side and 1/2” hole on the inboard side of the frame were fun to drill. A center punch with a 1/2” diameter body is a necessity here. After drilling a pilot, a step bit all the way to 3/4” worked great. You then slide in a provided 3/4” OD, 1/2” ID bushing and put your punch through to center punch the other side. There’s no room even with a 90 degree drill to drill the 1/2” hole from the inboard side, you have to drill it from the outboard side all the way through.
The driver side is much easier.
Time to lower the front axle for new springs, bump stop drop brackets, and shocks. Unbolting the front driveshaft is required. Hold it up with a cargo strap or bungee.
Everything is pretty straight forward and simple from here on out. Didn’t really get pics. Bump stop drops require more drilling, can’t remember the bit size but it tells you in the instructions. This pic shows the dually adapter removed.
Got everything buttoned up on the front and got it back on the ground with the new wheels/tires.
Stabilizer and track bar installed once on the ground, as well as torquing the radius arm bolts.
I didn’t get any pics doing the rear end, there really isn’t much to it. Lower the axle and install the blocks under the leafs, and air bag spacers under the bags.
Bolt the new shocks up…I’ll get some pics of everything installed and post em up. Keep a jack under the rear drive shaft to prevent the axle from rolling forward. It would have been nice to have an extra set of hands for the rear end.
End result:
I’m extremely happy how it turned out. The revel links gives me the flexibility to keep the air bags deflated with no load for the best ride possible.
I wanted it to end up as level as possible and it’s pretty damn close.
Remember if you plan to run normal wheels in the front of a DRW, once you take the adapter off the bolt pattern changes to 8x165.1.
I went this route simply because I didn’t want to spend 7-10k for Carli’s factory air lift. The components I used are the same as Carli’s lift kit for the non air ride leaf spring trucks. They say it’s not compatible with air ride but clearly it is. I spoke to CJC off-road and they confirmed what I was thinking, basically these shocks aren’t specifically tuned for the air ride trucks. However, they will work perfectly fine. I’m not off roading in my dually. The toys I’m towing are for that. I just wanted a more plush ride on the road and over dirt/gravel/washboard roads to get where I’m camping.
I dropped her off over a week ago to get PPF on the front end, hood, and rockers. Along with ceramic coat. I’m pretty annoyed it isn’t ready yet, as I was looking forward to hooking it up to my toy hauler and experimenting with the air bags this weekend. As soon as I can do that, I’ll post up some pics and findings.
I never thought I’d sell my 2012, she treated me perfect for 9 years. Deleted it right away, and it never saw a shop or dealer since the day I took it off the lot. By 2017 we had upgraded to a 42.5ft toy hauler and it was then I started thinking of a dually. Power wise I was fine, but I longed for more stability. I couldn’t bring myself to trade it in though. Fast forward to 2021 and desperate dealers offering ridiculous $$$ for trade ins, I got an offer I couldn’t refuse. It was time to order my dream truck, exactly how I wanted it.
The day before thanksgiving I said goodbye my 12 and took delivery of the new 22.
I was really excited for upgrades such as the long bed, 50g tank, auto leveling air, and so on..
I had one demand from the wife when she gave me the ok for the dually…I had to lift it with new wheels/tires right away. She hates the look of DRW’s stock.
What a horrible demand, right? Of course I agreed.
6 months of waiting for my truck to arrive gave me plenty of time to research and buy everything I needed. Here’s what I ended up going with…
Lift:
Carli 3 to 3 & 1/4” front coil springs.
Carli radius arm, bump stop, and sway bar drop brackets.
Carli Back Country Fox remote reservoir shocks
Ready Lift rear 2” leaf spring blocks PN: 66-1202. Comes with new U bolts.
Ready Lift 2” factory air bags spacers PN: 66-1302
Revel Performance adjustable arms for air bag sensors
Steering:
Thuren adjustable track bar
Thuren fox steering stabilizer
Wheels/Tires:
TIS Off-road 544BM’s.
Front: Normal fronts, 20x9r20 +18 offset wrapped in 35x12.5 Nitto Ridge Grapplers.
Rears: 20x8.5r20. Inner wheel is +115 offset and outers are -198. Same tires except I went 11.5 wide in the back.
Within a couple hours of getting her home from the dealer…
Spent the next day (Thanksgiving) with the fam so she sat like this until Friday, then I got back to work.
First step was to install the Radius Arm drops. Really, these were the only part of the lift that was a pain in the ass. And it was only the passenger side.
The air tank has to be removed to drill the 3/4” hole for the upper/aft mount bolt. It’s just 3 mount bolts and the air line, drops right out. The 3/4” hole on the outboard side and 1/2” hole on the inboard side of the frame were fun to drill. A center punch with a 1/2” diameter body is a necessity here. After drilling a pilot, a step bit all the way to 3/4” worked great. You then slide in a provided 3/4” OD, 1/2” ID bushing and put your punch through to center punch the other side. There’s no room even with a 90 degree drill to drill the 1/2” hole from the inboard side, you have to drill it from the outboard side all the way through.
The driver side is much easier.
Time to lower the front axle for new springs, bump stop drop brackets, and shocks. Unbolting the front driveshaft is required. Hold it up with a cargo strap or bungee.
Everything is pretty straight forward and simple from here on out. Didn’t really get pics. Bump stop drops require more drilling, can’t remember the bit size but it tells you in the instructions. This pic shows the dually adapter removed.
Got everything buttoned up on the front and got it back on the ground with the new wheels/tires.
Stabilizer and track bar installed once on the ground, as well as torquing the radius arm bolts.
I didn’t get any pics doing the rear end, there really isn’t much to it. Lower the axle and install the blocks under the leafs, and air bag spacers under the bags.
Bolt the new shocks up…I’ll get some pics of everything installed and post em up. Keep a jack under the rear drive shaft to prevent the axle from rolling forward. It would have been nice to have an extra set of hands for the rear end.
End result:
I’m extremely happy how it turned out. The revel links gives me the flexibility to keep the air bags deflated with no load for the best ride possible.
I wanted it to end up as level as possible and it’s pretty damn close.
Remember if you plan to run normal wheels in the front of a DRW, once you take the adapter off the bolt pattern changes to 8x165.1.
I went this route simply because I didn’t want to spend 7-10k for Carli’s factory air lift. The components I used are the same as Carli’s lift kit for the non air ride leaf spring trucks. They say it’s not compatible with air ride but clearly it is. I spoke to CJC off-road and they confirmed what I was thinking, basically these shocks aren’t specifically tuned for the air ride trucks. However, they will work perfectly fine. I’m not off roading in my dually. The toys I’m towing are for that. I just wanted a more plush ride on the road and over dirt/gravel/washboard roads to get where I’m camping.
I dropped her off over a week ago to get PPF on the front end, hood, and rockers. Along with ceramic coat. I’m pretty annoyed it isn’t ready yet, as I was looking forward to hooking it up to my toy hauler and experimenting with the air bags this weekend. As soon as I can do that, I’ll post up some pics and findings.
Tell you one thing though, I won’t be going 60 down the dirt/gravel entrance road to the sand dunes anymore.
