Riding High!

News!  So I got the lift and the tires.  In all I got...

• Lift
• Teraflex 2.5" coil lift, no shocks
• Rancho RS9000XL shocks
• Rancho Control Arm Correction Bracket
• Tires/Wheels
• BFG All Terrain TA KO2 35" tires
  Fuel JM2 wheels
• Spare carrier
  • Teraflex Hinged Carrier
  • Teraflex Adjustable Spare Tire Mounting Kit

The result:

 

My thoughts:

Lift-  I got the lift before the tires, so I can talk about JUST the lift.  The ride improved GREATLY.  We felt like we were on a carnival ride at times with the stock suspension.  The lift provided a lot of ride stability over, for instance, speed bumps.  We'd rock back and forth on stock, after the lift it felt more like, well, a normal car.  haha

Tires-  The tires came later.  The ride stiffened up.  The shop that installed them inflated them to the max PSI, so that might have something to do with it.  Speed bumps aren't rocky like they used to be, but they're harsher than with just the lift.  The tires could be deflated a bit, and the shocks themselves can actually be (easily) adjusted to make the ride softer.  I just haven't played with it yet because its really not that big a deal to me.

Tire carrier-  The tire carrier is burning my biscuits.  I decided to install it myself because it would save me $550.  The general consensus was it should take 1 hour.  It took me about 4 hours.  I'm completely inept.  Once it was finished I was ready to be done with it.  Then I realized, after I had installed it, that I needed to prime some bare metal left under the old factory hinges, now under my new Teraflex hinges.  My own fault.  I took the thing off, primed it with Rustoleum, and let it sit to dry for 24 hours.

Then I put it all back together - this time in an hour!  haha

But, the darn thing squeaks!  I think I just need to adjust it to hold the tire closer, but it's already pretty dang close (touching quite a bit).  I'll still have to fiddle with it, but I'm getting pretty sick of it.  I have to take off the spare, loosen some bolts, re-adjust it, tighten the bolts, remount the spare, drive around, rinse and repeat (about 3 times so far).  Maybe it's my ineptitude.

But it LOOKS good.  I even got a custom printed spare cover for ol' Colonel Mustard.  :)

Next time... the bad news.