Trail Gear Classic 5" rear lift. Not happy!!!

[live4yotas]

Well the springs and everything look nice. But The springs were installed as per trail gears instructions. The instructions suck!!! My rear hangers arent far enough back and the front hangers need to be moved farther forward. The axle sits to far back and with 5" of lift a 33" tire would hit the rear fenderwell by the mud flap. The shocks are to big and wont allow but about 4" of up travel before the shaft bottoms out on the cylinder. The shackels on the leaf springs will hit the frame after about 5 to 6" of up travel. All around I believe it was a waste of money and my time.

[rockcrawlintoy]

Arent the springs 56 inches long. If so HAVE to move the hanger forward and the shackle back
as far as the shocks how do you have them mounted. im pretty sure they are not a bolt in item.


Drew

[Shibby24]

Same thing rockcrawlintoy said,

make sure the spring hangers and shackle mounts are located correctly, sounds like they are not, and how did you mount the shocks?

[Sean]

Rock crawling suspensions are designed for mininum uptravel and maximum droop. You should have bumpstops limiting your compression to 4-5 inches.

[rockcrawlintoy]

i only have like 3 inches of up travel in the rear and like 4 in the front.

Drew

[speedy]

Sorry to hear you aren't happy with the setup. Did you pre-assemble it when it was tacked, and put weight in the bed to simulate the springs wearing in? An important step so you could have corrected alot of those issues before the final weld. I just finished the final welds on my Marlin 4" long travel kit. When I tested it out it looked great, perfect shackle angle and everything. I used Trail Gear's instructions. Front hanger was moved 6 inches eye to eye, rear shackle mount was moved 2 inches back. I am using the cheapo Rancho 5000's I have for the rear for now until I get some 14" 5150's, I am planning to put the rear shocks thru my bed if I have to so I can have the travel from the longer shocks.

[live4yotas]

Speedy I did the exact same on my measurements 6" foreward on front hangers and 2" back on rears. The axle looks to sit to far back though. You can tell it looking at the side of the truck. I did it by trail gears derections. No I did not tack it and try it. I put them where trail gear said and welded them. From what you say the shocks must be about right. I was also not told or it doesnt say that I cant but the shocks back in stock location. I welded lower mounts but reused top mounts. Do you have a pick of yours speedy?

[live4yotas]

How high did your Trail Gear kit lift , lift Speedy? Mine lifted 7". Because it sits about 2" higher in the rear than the front and I have 5" stock length All Pro springs up front.

[speedy]

Mine is currently sitting 4 inches higher than before. Here's the deal though... I had factory rear springs that I had taken an add a leaf and a one of the support leaf's off. I had 3 inch blocks on it just to get it close to the front 4 inch TG long travel suspension I had put on. The rear springs were so worn they allowed the pinion to move close to 10 degrees with the emergency brake on. They had a nice S-curve on them. With the 4 inch front setup and now these Marlin 4 inch long travel springs on the back, the truck is slightly high in the back I am saying it is due to the rear springs not yet settling in because my front springs dropped probably 2 inches after flexing them out. My flatbed is probably heavier than a regular truck bed so I am thinking that it might end up either level or a little low on the back. I still need to make a new taillight assembly before I can drive it around, but I am VERY happy with the current stance, it is the first time since I bought the truck 1 1/2 years ago that the back is higher than the front even though I know it will level out. As soon as Kodak finishes their web site update, I will post as many pics as you can stand! For now I head to the garage to grind down a nasty weld I did when I forgot to turn on the stinkin gas on the welder!

[bowshtr]

I was not too happy with the TG springs either. My front springs settled soo far they are almost flat. But...this is not a bad thing either since my rig sat soo tall it dropped down a bit. As far as my rear springs they have not settled one bit. I followed the TG installation and didnt have any problems. You need to make sure that you followed the installation for your year truck. When i was reading through the install i tacked everything in for the 89 and before models. The 89-95 have a different location in the rear. Here's what my junk looked like the day of final welding when my sister drove it to her graduation.






Flex shot

[speedy]

Here's some pics...

[live4yotas]

Bowshtr looking at your pics. My rearend is the same as yours you can see it isn't lined up in the rear fender. I just thought something was wrong with that and I might still put All Pro Offroad axle relocator plates on it to move it an inch forward. Bowshtr was size tires and rims are you running? I plan to run 5" sus. and 3" body.

[bowshtr]

I run the military 36's on beadlocks for the road when i drove it on the street due to the wheel bs. But now shes sittin on some 38.5 swampers black rockcrawler 5 spoke. I am also runnin full width 8 lug axles. Right now there is no bed on the truck and is sittin until i can find some new dana 44 axle shafts and spindles. After these next few jobs I hope to get some more thing finished with it like motor swap, lengthen frame up front to move axle forward and hopefully dual cases and exo.

[live4yotas]

Bowshtr how much lift do you have? Including body.