The correct way to lift your truck! 38's on a Squarebody Suburban!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 พ.ย. 2022
- the age old question of what size lift and tires! I will answer that question and discuss the basics of suspension lift kits and what you should look for and what you should avoid!
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On my ‘91 Suburban I just finished installing an ORD 5” custom spring and tension shackle lift. Running 37” BFG KM3s. Ride is brilliant. With a built 350 the Bilsteins work great.
Was previously on a 6” Rough Country lift that was way too stiff. Not only was the ride unpleasant but it made the handling erratic and the truck constantly wandered. Completely resolved the handling just replacing the suspension. Amazing the difference quality makes.
Yea bad springs are unpredictable, stiff and an uncomfortable ride
Sick AF dude! Do a vid of it?
@@MonkeyMikeOutdoors Appreciated! Been thinking about a video . . . particularly to share some learnings.
Truck is in winter storage right now, but perhaps in the spring when the interior is finished, too.
Man Here i am sitting in Germany and cant find the time to finally restomod my 88 k5 to bring it back on the road... Been subscribed for a long time now and hope you never stop!
Thanks for the Great information. Saving up for my project and this definitely helps.
Glad it was helpful!
My 79 suburban got a 24" lift with 6" bodies lift and 54" military tires 2.5 ton axles I drive it everyday. It has a Detroit diesel with 4 speed
Love that burb! Thanks for the info and it does tie into a comment I suggested a few videos back. Love to see a "basic DIY build series on a blazer or JImmy where you put together a good balanced rig with that 4 inch "ish lift set up for Moderate 4 wheeling, family fun on weekends, hunting/camping trips etc. That's the type of GMC Jimmy I want to build and I don't want to get too crazy with it when I can get the funds together to start the project. I know.....not as cool as the K30 burb on 38's but its what more people have the funds and time to do in their driveway as a DIY project. Enjoying your videos! Have a great weekend.
That is a great idea. Kinda what I am doing with my CUCV. But….my oldest son wants a blazer so I see a mellow build in the near future
@@MerricksGarage that would be perfect. Ironically....the GMC jimmy build im talking about is for my 25 year old son as well. The truck has sat for about 14 years and I gifted it to him. Hope to bring her back to life as a reliable 4x4
Really nice videography under the truck brother! Some nice work there.
Excellent, excellent video buddy!! Super informative!! 😁👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks! 👍
I'm currently installing on my 82' K30, a full ORD kit. 5" Custom springs, Bilstein 5125's, shackle flip and u-bolt flip rear, FUSH, Crossover and highsteer with a PSC box. Planning to run 40's and beadlocks. I'm hoping it'll be the dream set up, we'll see!
Can’t go wrong with the ORD springs.
Im building an 88 long bed mainly for street and shows. I would love to build a 4 link kit but springs are so much more affordable. I know you say don't focus on the size but I want the bottom of the body to be almost level with the 40" tires. I would like a manageable ride. ORD for the win or is it hopeless? 10" or 12"?
@@MerricksGarage how much did all the parts on your suspension cost? If installed at a shop how much would it cost?
How did it turn out? How much cutting was needed for the 40s? Looking at something similar for my short bed stepside.
Very cool! I have a 85 C30 suburban tow rig I'm putting back together. I has twin 3582's and twin gt45s (4 turbos) also just finishing up an 81 Scottsdale K20 with a turbocharged 468 I'm just getting on the road.
Very cool!
I appreciate this!
Love the ride, so fn sick! 🤘
I'm running 6" front springs on my 87 v3500 crew and it clears 37's no issue.
I had the v30 with a 44s and 14 inch lift 😆 was a real monster
I have a 1974 surberbon but it all 1990 5.3 4l60 its only 2 wheel drive all the bell and whistles any way good video as always
I heard something about some years being built with galvanized metal. I got a low miles 98 about 5 years ago and it has been in the state of Maine its whole life and it doesn't have one rust hole anywhere.I don't think it's even rust proofed. It has the regular peeling top coat and paint, and some little rock chip surface rust spots. That is unheard of here.
i have a 1994 ram 2500 4wd gas burner. its stock 31" tires. don't want any lift but really like the look of the long arm can a person go to long arm and retain original ride height figured it will ride better with long arm than short arm. it is a coil spring on the front leaf spring on rear. i am in alabama and don't do any off roading like yall do we don't have the rocks and hills here
I think it would be rad to see Dirt Head Dave stop by the shop and have him give input on bags for off road trucks
I agree! @dirtheadshed
On my old k30 it was 6” suspension plus 3” body to run 36” military Goodyear tires. On my crewcab 3+3 k35 it’s 6” suspension plus 3” lift to run 37” military radial Goodyear tires. Nobody really likes a body lift, including myself. But it rides better and leaves steering and u-joint angles better while still clearing tires with ease.
Why so much lift to clear 37s? No trimming I assume. That is a lot of body lift. That’s one thing I didn’t mention, I am running a 1” body lift
1” body lift 4” tuff contry ez ride front 1” ez for axle relocation, 6” shackles flip on back.. 1980 GMC jimmy
Much of your tire clearance comes with tire width. Seen lots of post that 35s are nax with 4 inch lift. I have same lift and running 37/12.5/17 with no problems.
Love the burb, awesome rig. I find my truck doing the same as you described as your burb was doing for you. My 06 Silverado crew cab with a sas Dana 44. I got a lot of info from Duke when he was finished with his. Totally inspired me to get mine done. But I agree my next investment is a set of custom springs and shocks. I think ADS has some good stuff. Did you have to give them weights of your burb? Like the front and rear axle weight as well as the total?
yea, I gave them the weight. They had a good idea already as the tuner has a Dodge 2500 12v. Good suspension makes a huge difference!
Nice Natas!
SMA for life!
Your Suburban looks good ,have an 1988 Suburban 6.2 TD myself with 4" Trailmaster lift with blocks back and it has dual shocks front "Rancho" ,315/75-16 tire on 10x16 wheels I feel I need to change shocks and want to change shock mount same as you have because when driving I get a feeling from back not feeling good and I use it mostly on regular road and high way , so what do you think ?
The rear tension shackle must be new from ORD, that's a big upgrade over the stock unit.. Hadn't seen it on the site in the past and I didn't want the ORD shackle flip on my K20 (I run 6" Skyjacker springs, no blocks). I've seen a handful of times guys with squares hauling a load of firewood in the back of there 8' bed and have the rear tension shackle fail.
if you add some rebound dampening it will take that bouncing/lift out of the rear of the truck
I have a 1 inch lift in the front with ORD add a leaf blocks and very happy with them on my 82 K30. it's on my channel if you want to check it out.
Please post a video of you shredding with that Natas deck!
It’s a reissue so the deck isn’t that durable. Trust me I rode it and thrashed it until I realized it was mostly decorative.
Had a Natas when I was a kid.
@@MerricksGarage That's awesome! I have a Lance Mountain re-issue and only been skated once.
🤣My 91 Suburban has a matching paint job!!
I was in it for the info, then you said the axle/motor weight was riding on the suspension. Axle weight is not a factor in shock weight/rebound. Sweet Suburban though
I hate those guys that point out the obvious.... being said, did you notice the air gap between the axle perch & the spring pack? Looks as if part of a spring is missing or angled shim. I have had cracked springs before but luckily never lost the ends so my U bolts held things intact till I could get it into the shop. Love the 3in wide springs! Most cheap aftermarket are 2.5in & allow the axles to shift.
I’m hoping to do the same air lift bags and brackets for my 88 burb with 6in lift. Any guidance? How much of that was custom vs purchasable?
My square body 1 ton crew cab has 10" lift with 38" tires. That lift definitely had many cans of worms, but I have most of them fixed. I am down to one can of worms left. I need to rotate the dana 60 axle C's, in order to get the amount of positive caster I need.
No room in driveshaft angle to run axle shims?
you can't run shims with Dana 60 as the leaf pack is built into the center section housing
@@MerricksGarage I have a set of 4-degree shims that makes the front drive shaft pinion angle perfect. The only problem is that it leaves my caster with only 4-degrees of positive caster. I need to cut the weld on my dana-60 "C's" and rotate them 1/4", Then reweld them which should give me about 9 to 10 degrees caster. The 38" tires like a little more positive caster than the stock 7-1/2 to 8 degrees.
What shocks would you recommend for a 350sbc K10. 6in lift. 3/4ton rear leaf springs, blocks in the rear
I know the ORD leafs are the best of the best but are there any other leaf springs you would recommend?
Deaver makes really good springs too
Those Bilsteins work pretty well on my K20 with 37 in tires.Its nowhere near the weight of the big burb.
Yea they are amazing shocks. Just not enough for the burb!
Where did u get the visor
I don't buy store bought lifts unless it's shocks and coils. I build most of my stuff and I can go where ever store bought lifts can go and do what they can do with junk yard parts and home built flexing and all. My leafs are bastard packs I build them to flex and still hold a lot of weight like a f150 lol. Most of my leafs packs I build comes from trucks for my jeeps and other 4x4s I'm building them for. Bottom line , you don't need the high price fantasy lifts you just need to know what you're doing and experiment with things and you'll have a beast of a 4x4. I know that from first hand when I'm the one pulling all these big k5 and broncos and dodge trucks out of mud hole and then I go through the same hole with no problems lol. I'm doing a 94 suburban 2500 now doing leaf springs in the front I did some of my jeeps the same way and I love the leafs in the front. Just have to try things and see what works and don't or spend money for the fantasy stuff. Lol not me I rather build it and not buy it.
Well, I completely understand the information he’s trying to give out, I don’t really think it’s that people don’t know that this type of lift is better, people don’t have the money to put into a lift like this, and still get their trucks up in the air. They put it on blocks because it’s cheap and it’s something they can afford.clearly if people had unlimited funds or even enough to do this, they would go all the way with it. But people are broke lol.
Ive used the "banana" shackles similar to the ones you have on the rear springs on jeeps and had them flip back and bend the spring and trash them at full droop. is there anything stopping that from ORDs kit? Also, I run 52 inch springs on my 99 SAS and I love the ride. Im thinking of going the same route with my current project, an 88 K5. Im only running 35-37 inch tires to keep it realistically useable as 60% on road and 40% and still handle Montana highways in winter. Can I expect similar performance to my 99 extended cab SAS from the K5 with similar setup?
I run a limit strap in the rear but I don’t think my shocks would let the spring invert either. The thing with the 52” springs is they wear out pretty quickly. They drop and flex like crazy but then they can get noodly pretty quickly!
Have you thought about doing a link front end, or is the Cummins too heavy for that?
No you just heavier springs. Front links would be killer but I wanted the simplicity for the burb.
Can’t wait to ask you this: I own (since 1995) a fully stock unmodified 1988 K5 blazer and way back I replaced the original wheels (bummer) with some (now old school) 10” wide aftermarket wheels so, the standard 31x10.5 BF Goodrich all terrain tire I always used, exposed the side of the tire too much, ending with punctured side tires most of the time I ended up off road. Well. I decided to try slightly wider K02 32x11.5 All terrains and they fit the wheels perfectly but now they rub my fenders so,I want to try lifting the truck, but no more than 2” and need advice of what could be a great lift kit without breaking my bank account. May you please provide some advice? Thanks in advance!
A two inch lift would be a great compromise. Look into an easy inch up front and maybe a shackle flip in the rear and you can stick with stock springs and suspension.
Understand. How do I accomplish that?
I don’t understand why ORD didn’t offer me the option of the tension shackle in the rear when I ordered my lift from them? Kind of disappointed they sold me the shackle flip. That was a few years ago….unless maybe they didn’t offer the tension shackle back then? I don’t recall seeing it. Could I switch to a tension shackle and use the same custom ORD springs I have or does the tension shackle require a different height spring?
So I did some reading on tension shackles versus shackle flips and I found a great post on CK5 from Stephen Watson himself. This explains why he uses the shackle flip with their 52” custom springs when the lift is greater than 4 inches. The short version is that anything more than 4 inches and the springs become too hard to bolt in because of the arch. That must be why Stephen used a shackle flip for my 6” lift to fit 37s.
Stephen Watson on CK5:
Here's the deal:
The tension shackle works great with lower lift springs and especially with higher end springs like our custom stuff. The reason why is that when the spring goes to full droop the shackle pulls forward and lays down roughly horizontal so the tail of the spring is dropping 4-6" depending on the actual shackle length. This is 2-3" of "free" droop travel. With a compression shackle at full compression the rear spring elevation is basically the same as it is at full droop so you don't get that extra droop travel. But there are some buts...
With our custom springs, we can only get to about 4" of lift in a 52" rear spring with the tension shackle before the arch gets high enough that it's hard to even get the spring to bolt in. We can hit 6" of lift or a little more in a 64" spring. At this point we use a longer shackle which gives you more of the droop effect and requires even more arch in the spring so it's a balancing act.
In the regular "lift kit" spring world, we've seen good results with springs up to 4" of lift with the tension shackle but when the arch gets deeper the springs are generally so much stiffer that you're better off with a shorter arch spring and a shackle flip.
This all depends on having urethane bushings in the spring eyes so that everything can rotate freely. As soon as you have a rubber bushing or a binding urethane bushing this all goes out the window.
In a lower lift world the shackle flip shines for economy and reasonable performance. Given lifted spring prices, the $200-ish for a shackle flip is attractive if you have a decent stock spring to start with. Once you get over about 4" of lift the shackle flip/lifted spring combo rules since spring arches stay reasonable and realistically you can't even get a rear spring over 8" of lift so if you want more than that without a block you have to run the flip.
The tension shackle has some desirable effects on spring rate as the suspension cycles that are possible to approximate with a compression shackle but it requires a bit more finesse. Basically it's hard to screw up a tension shackle system but easy to screw up a compression shackle system. In the real world as long as you stay away from extreme angles with a compression shackle this last point is not really that important.
I also think there are some handling details that go back and forth. A deeper arch spring is going to have more roll steer but a compression shackle system is usually set up around at least one factory mount and it can mess with handling through axle steer also. These are the really fine details that don't really make a difference to 99% of the world.
clear as mud?
Are those billet body lift spacers? Any reason over typical plastic ones? Thanks
Yea the plastic can deform and will eventually degrade.
Can you ballpark your shock costs? I'm also running a burb, though just a iron 350...
roughly about $500 a shock
Are you running a 52" or 56" spring on the rear?
they are probably closer to 63" but are custom from Off Road Design.
I'm curious why you decided to have the front axle moved so far forward and also the rear moved as far back as you did?
Well the front axle will swing up and back some moving it forward gave me some clearance in the wheel well. The rear is centered
@@MerricksGarage I guess the camera can play tricks on the eye..
I have a square body k20 6 inch lift wood a cross over steering be good for daly driving
💯 yes
Way better for bumpsteer
Thanks
I see you are a Californian. What did you go through to change title to diesel or was it diesel already? I'm asking cause I moved back to California and brought my 80 K30 suburban with me. I can't do a title transfer cause it has the factory 400 small block no emissions with twin turbos. Fun tow rig. But now I have a 12 valve and a 24 valve Cummins and don't know if I'm wasting time. CHP has told me to just claim it as track use only
Email me.
I love your channel but I am definitely not with you on the use of that airbag. It is not designed to work like that. Why not properly install (secured top and bottom) a tapered sleeve (F9000) in there that will have a progressive roll to it. It will be much better than using that airspring as essentially a bump stop. An airspring is not supposed to be unsecured like that.
Whats the biggest tire i could fit on my stock 86 1500 suburban
33"
@@MerricksGarage ok cool thx
Hi there, I have a 1991 Crew Cab Chevy with a 6”. I want to put 37”x13.50R20x12 maybe 38”, would they clear?
I will not be doing any serious off-roading/flexing.
They will clear. Mostly.
What year is the truck?
This one is a 89 body
SAY YOU'RE SPONSORED WITHOUT SAYING XD
real men dont lift a truck for looks