New Comanche owner, Lift tips?

[OldSch88L]

I just finished my 4.5" lift on my truck, and let me tell you, the "cheap" part pretty much ends at a 3" lift. With a 3" lift, you can get away with front lift coils, 16.25" tubular lower control arms, a Chevy drop shackle for the rear, and slightly longer shocks. With a 4.5" lift, you'll need and adjustable track bar, longer brake lines, longer driveshafts, pinion angle shims for the rear, and for the front, your axle will sit way back with stock control arms. So, either get control arm drop brackets and keep your stock arms but lose some ground clearance, or use adjustable length upper and lower control arms. I first tried the longer 16.25" tubular lower control arms with stock uppers, and caster shims maxed out, and still the axle was set back in the front fenders, and couldn't get the truck properly aligned. I went the adjustable route up front. For the rear, I didn't want to waste time trying many combinations of mix and match spring leafs, so I went with Rusty's 4" leafs. There's a lot of flak about those leafs, but they date many years ago, and Rusty changed contractors to build them lately. Honestly, I am really happy with the ride and quality, and the only downsides thus far is that brand new, they are way more than a 4" lift. It has not been a year yet so I don't know if the will settle. Second, with the crazy amount of arch to give the lift, they are a bit fiddly to bolt on the rear shackles. But with the right front suspension geometry, Rubicon Express 4.5" front coils and Rusty's leafs, I really love the ride. However I ended up spending more than I intended, even tough I spent over a year shopping, waiting for black friday sales and such to find the best deals. So all that being said, I think the best in your case would be a 3" lift.

[Backpacker]

1 hour ago, OldSch88L said:

I just finished my 4.5" lift on my truck, and let me tell you, the "cheap" part pretty much ends at a 3" lift. With a 3" lift, you can get away with front lift coils, 16.25" tubular lower control arms, a Chevy drop shackle for the rear, and slightly longer shocks. With a 4.5" lift, you'll need and adjustable track bar, longer brake lines, longer driveshafts, pinion angle shims for the rear, and for the front, your axle will sit way back with stock control arms. So, either get control arm drop brackets and keep your stock arms but lose some ground clearance, or use adjustable length upper and lower control arms. I first tried the longer 16.25" tubular lower control arms with stock uppers, and caster shims maxed out, and still the axle was set back in the front fenders, and couldn't get the truck properly aligned. I went the adjustable route up front. For the rear, I didn't want to waste time trying many combinations of mix and match spring leafs, so I went with Rusty's 4" leafs. There's a lot of flak about those leafs, but they date many years ago, and Rusty changed contractors to build them lately. Honestly, I am really happy with the ride and quality, and the only downsides thus far is that brand new, they are way more than a 4" lift. It has not been a year yet so I don't know if the will settle. Second, with the crazy amount of arch to give the lift, they are a bit fiddly to bolt on the rear shackles. But with the right front suspension geometry, Rubicon Express 4.5" front coils and Rusty's leafs, I really love the ride. However I ended up spending more than I intended, even tough I spent over a year shopping, waiting for black friday sales and such to find the best deals. So all that being said, I think the best in your case would be a 3" lift.

Is there any chance you could send a picture of what your truck looks like at 4.5 inches? I am trying to see how it sits and if it looks tall enough to be on the top half of a moose rather than the bottom half. Also curious if you know of a set of leaf packs at 3", I have not been able to find anything but add a leafs at that height and I would like to just replace the whole packs rather than do drop shackles. 

[OldSch88L]

12 minutes ago, Backpacker said:

Is there any chance you could send a picture of what your truck looks like at 4.5 inches? I am trying to see how it sits and if it looks tall enough to be on the top half of a moose rather than the bottom half. Also curious if you know of a set of leaf packs at 3", I have not been able to find anything but add a leafs at that height and I would like to just replace the whole packs rather than do drop shackles. 

For 3" of lift for the rear, you can experiment making a "bastard pack", or like I said, get some Chevy 1500 drop shackles. Chevy's use their shackles inverted, so a longer shackle will lower them, while it will give our trucks a lift. They can be found cheap and often have two set of holes. My previous setup was 3" coils up front, metric ton rear leafs with Chevy drop shackles on the lower lift setting on 31s, as seen on the pics with the black wheels. The other pics are as of lately with 4.5" coils/4" Rusty's leafs (with stock shackles) still on 31's. Keep in mind my truck is a 4 cylinder, and the lift coils are often engineered for the 4.0 Litre, so being lighter, I might be getting more lift up front. Also, in my latest pics, I still didn't have my adjustable front control arms, so you can see what I mean about the front axle being set back...

[Backpacker]

38 minutes ago, OldSch88L said:

For 3" of lift for the rear, you can experiment making a "bastard pack", or like I said, get some Chevy 1500 drop shackles. Chevy's use their shackles inverted, so a longer shackle will lower them, while it will give our trucks a lift. They can be found cheap and often have two set of holes. My previous setup was 3" coils up front, metric ton rear leafs with Chevy drop shackles on the lower lift setting on 31s, as seen on the pics with the black wheels. The other pics are as of lately with 4.5" coils/4" Rusty's leafs (with stock shackles) still on 31's. Keep in mind my truck is a 4 cylinder, and the lift coils are often engineered for the 4.0 Litre, so being lighter, I might be getting more lift up front. Also, in my latest pics, I still didn't have my adjustable front control arms, so you can see what I mean about the front axle being set back...

That all makes sense. I am fairly sure my rear springs are sagging so I do want to do new packs rather than just shackles. I guess the "metric ton" rear leafs are stock height, with the Chevy shackles gets you 3", but where are the metric ton leaf packs from?

[fiatslug87]

General Springs PNs here.

 

[Backpacker]

6 minutes ago, fiatslug87 said:

General Springs PNs here.

 

Thank you!

[OldSch88L]

1 hour ago, fiatslug87 said:

General Springs PNs here.

 

I messaged General Springs about the military wrap springs, and even gave them the GSC-571 part number, and they had no idea what I was talking about, saying that they never offered that product...

[fiatslug87]

That person does not know what they are talking about. Try emailing joe@generalspringkc.com 

 

This was 11/27/2019

[coheed]

8 hours ago, OldSch88L said:

I messaged General Springs about the military wrap springs, and even gave them the GSC-571 part number, and they had no idea what I was talking about, saying that they never offered that product...

I had the same thing and even called and spoke to 2 people earlier this year. If you have any luck emailing let us know. Or maybe we could convince them to do another group buy on them.