Right now, to be honest, my truck looks like a street truck with a toolbox
and that is in desparate need of being lowered with the 255/65-15 street
tires. Well I've got a nice pile of parts waiting for installation. 2"
body lift, 31" Dueler A/T Revos (decided to keep them), Edelbrock IAS
shocks, EGR brand fender flares, and I'm waiting on the viper fan and clear
turn/corner lenses to get here.
The flares I found on eBay. They are made by EGR, and are produced in
Austrailia of all places. I decided to roll the dice. They look pretty
darn good...and then remembering what I paid they look great. Installation
looks like it will be a breeze (no drilling..or there shouldn't be), and
where the flare meets the body there is rubber gasket. Looks like there
will be about the same coverage as stock flares, maybe a tad more, but they
aren't textured and are completely smooth, exactly what I was after.
The shocks will be interesting. Apparently Edelbrock has discontinued their
twin tube line of shocks and Summit has them on clearance. I went to
Rancho's website and used there resources to find shock specs and dimensions
and crossed with applications to find close matches. What I found was for
the front, '86-95 Toyota pickup with 3" of lift has the same mouting end
types and is just a little longer than the '87-96 Dakota-specific shocks
(about 1"). This seems like it will be okay..every 4x4 Dak I've seen has
had rust on the end of the shock rod where the body never travels over
anyway. For the rear, Durango shocks were close, once again about an inch
longer but the end types are close. The best overall combination of length
and end types are '99-up GM 2wd trucks, and I almost had a set of the
Mono-tubes but lost the auction. These applications aren't available in the
twin tubes from Summit, might just be no inventory left. Considering Rancho
uses the same shock on the Toy pickup and fullsize trucks alike going by
their numerical interchange I don't think valving will be a major issue, if
at all. Only time will tell for sure though, and I will report my findings.
Body lift...bread and butter 2" Performance Accessoires kit. Nothing here
but a box of 14 blocks, bolts and a piece of 3/8" rod to extend the shift
linkage.
Tires look great. I took the truck to Sam's club where they'll mount and
balance a tire for $3 and change (new valve stem as well). Yeah, less than
$4! Dirt cheap and they seem to do a pretty good job, just as good as
anywhere else charging 4-5 times as much. I had one mounted on the front to
check for clearance. It cleared everything lock to lock, but just barely
(this is with '97-up 15x8 wheels). Too close for comfort. I had them put
the old tire back on and they will wait for the lift to go on first.
Dangit! The plus side is those tires look wicked...I'm used to these weenie
28" tall tires. They'll look just right with the lift.
Clear lenses are for ricers, or that's what I thought. I did some work with
photoshop and I think I will like the way they look. Thought I would get
them down the line, but the brush guard has to come off to get to the grille
mounting bolts, and I'll just do it when I'm putting on the body lift when
all that has to come off anyway. Part of that is because of laziness, part
of it is an excuse to do it now, lol.
I'm anxious to get the viper fan in as well. I want to see what this thing
can do! It got so hot this weekend I decided to do some running around with
the AC on. Stock fan had a hard time keeping up in town in sub-35 MPH
conditions.
That's all for now, will keep everyone postes, interested or not..
Travis
'92 Dak 5.2 4x4
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