"Montie Roland" <montie@montie.com> wrote:
: Question for everyone....
: I am thinking about doing a mild lift (3-5 inches) on my truck and was
: wondering if anyone had any suggestions of which lift kit to buy?
: I want to end up with:
: - vehicle that sits a little higher for mild off-roading and mainly just to
: look meaner
: - 33 inch tires max (right now I'm running 31's with the stock 3.55 (or 3.5)
: limited-slip rearend (came with the sport package)
: - still needs to stay a daily driver and be reasonably adept at towing the
: occassional boat or jeep trailer (to haul my trail rig if I ever get it
: built)
: The truck is a:
: 99 Dak, extended cab sport
: 5.2L with automatic tranny and 4wd
: limited slip rearend
: I wasn't going to lift it but it looks like I need to replace the ball
: joints and shocks and I'm thinking it might not be that much more expensive
: to go upward a few inches.
: Thanks for your input!
I don't have any firsthand experience with lifting a Dakota, but
hanging around the DML and at the annual BBQ, you can't help but pick
up a few things. :-) Unfortunately, there aren't really any "good"
lift kits out there for the Dakota. What I mean by that is that the
suspension lifts all tend to leave little bits hanging down which are
either easy to break, or ruin your ground clearance, which is kind've
the whole reason for getting a lift to begin with! :-) In all
honesty, you would probably be better off doing a body lift, because
all you really want to do is provide clearance for bigger tires, which
is the only thing that will increase your ground clearance. A 3" body
lift should allow you to clear 33s, which will gain you an additional
1" of ground clearance, and result in 4" of total lift. The main reason
why I say you'd be better off with a body lift is because its CHEAP. You
could easily spend $1500 on a suspension lift which isn't going to net you
any additional capability over a $100 body lift. Plus, a body
lift does not change any of your suspension geometry, shocks, stiffness,
etc. which will keep the towing capabilities, and daily driver-ness
the same as they are now.
There are a couple of drawbacks to a body lift though, mainly being
that you may need to relocate your radiator shroud a tad, and tweak the
transfer case and/or gearshift lever where they come through the floor.
There is also an unsightly gap that is created between the body and the
frame (which can be covered with sheet metal or rubber), and you might
also want to either fill in the space above your front and rear bumpers
or move the bumpers up to match the body. (Or use the excuse to build
new bumpers from scratch.) :-)
Anyway, that's my $.02, worth what you paid for it :-) but if it were
my truck and my money, as far as the Dakota is concerned, I'd go with a
body lift every time. IMHO, the existing suspension lifts just don't
represent a very good value for the money.
--
-Jon-
.-- Jon Steiger --- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com --.
| '70 Barracuda, '90 Dakota Convertible, '92 Ram 4x4, '96 Dakota |
| '96 Intruder, '96 Kolb FireFly, '99 Cherokee, '01 Ram 3500 |
`----------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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