Lowering pickup on HWY, raising for off road/snow?

[MkVer]

+1 to oil pan 4's post.

I've only seen OEM electric sway bar disconnects on Jeeps and Toyotas. I'm sure there are more out there but they're primarily used for really gnarly terrain. The kind of stuff that a full sized truck probably shouldn't be getting into in the first place. There are two types of manual disconnects that are out there. Some are just addressing faults in the auto systems by removing solenoids and replacing with a manual feature. The others replace your sway bar end links with quick disconnect versions. Similar to what oil pan 4 mentioned, I've worked on my suspension and getting the sway bar off is fairly easy, getting it back on is a bit trickier. Even with a quick disconnect, reconnecting might be a pain out in the wilds.

[adam728]

I think the first thing you need to do is decide what truck you want to start with. That will drive a lot of the other decision making. For example, 7" of lift on an S-10 chassis requires major surgery to keep driveline and steering angles in a happy range. 7" of lift on a TTB Ford is easy. But having adjustable ride height on that TTB suspension will be nearly impossible due to major camber changes throughout the travel.

Swaybar disconnects are not a necessity when adjusting ride height. But man can they make the ride off road better, and typically increase vehicle capability by allowing much more flex.


In the end, I do not see the feasibility of this. 14" of adjust ability is massive. And 3 different sets of tires? Where's the economy in any of this?

I am a fan of picking a tire size, then keeping the vehicle as low as possible to fit them. If you put 35" tires under a truck, your axle/differential clearance is now set. Raise or lower to your hearts content, it won't change that dimension. Now, lifting will increase approach/departure/breakover angle clearance.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by adam728

But having adjustable ride height on that TTB suspension will be nearly impossible due to major camber changes throughout the travel.

Yeah, Fords are not known for having the best bump steer.

Originally Posted by adam728

In the end, I do not see the feasibility of this. 14" of adjust ability is massive. And 3 different sets of tires? Where's the economy in any of this?

I wonder that my self.
With the tires at least, I know off road people that have a set of daily tires and a set of oversized or OE sized weekend mud tires. This beats wearing out and replacing a set of expensive soft rubber muds once or twice a year.

Maybe you might need 3 sets if you live on the frozen tundra of MN need a set of studded snow tires?
I know most places its illegal to have studded snow tires on certain times of the year.
So if you are going to have studded snow tires, then chances are you are required by law to take them off at some point.

My vote is replace any mud tire application with tire chains over your daily tires.
I worked with a jeep guy that got tired of buying muds every 9 to 12 months, so last time the muds wore out he put over sized highway tires on and bought a gnarly set of snow chains.
He claimed the chains on highway tires were like having a fresh set of mud tires every time he went off roading and that the chains worked as well as the best of the stupid expensive mud tires.
Also the chains protected the side wall.

[Miller88]

The electronic swaybar disconnect on the Power Wagon and Wrangler Rubicon are a strange setup. It's not the endlink that comes off. The swaybar is two piece unit and there's a device in the center that makes it 1.

If you go UP , you could run into problems of putting your driveshaft into an exhaust manifold, pinion yoke smacking the oil pan, etc. Plus it will throw the steering geometry off.

Assuming a solid front axle, the tie rod is going to have to go knuckle to knuckle. If you have a Y setup (Jeep XJ,YJ, TJ), the toe is going to change with ride height.

The steering wheel can only be set to be "correct" at one position, too.

Going up or down, you will probably have some strange driveline angles.

[Tulok]

How much mpg do you have to gain from lowering it?

That's the question! I would get some heavy duty ratchet straps, lower it to the bump stops and do some a-b-a testing to get some baseline MPG figures. You could always run shackles with multiple holes if you wanted to raise it up a few inches for part of the year. I'd expect something more like 2 up and 2" down more realistically.

[oil pan 4]

Well I am going to devise a way to raise and lower my suburban.
I will likely cut a coil or 2 off the front spring, insert a firestone #4100 air helper spring up front and/or put air shocks up front, then take 1 leaf off the leaf springs and install rear air bags.

That way I can level the suburban with a load (my 18'1''x99'' platform deck over all terrain 10k trailer), raise up my suburban maybe 2 or 3 inchs up front no load for snow.
The front end is going to have a bumper, intercooler and air dam setup that is going to end up sitting too low for much snow or any off road.

And no its not going to be cheap.
The front in spring air bags are going to cost up to $110.
I don't know and have not found front air shocks.
The rear air bags, anywhere up to $400.
And it is highly recommended to have an air compressor ($200 starting price for them), but I already have that installed.
You can go cheap and hand fill the air bags, but that appears to be the best way to ruin them by running them out of air, which is the number one reason they fail. Yes they still require at least some air pressure even when you don't need any lift or load leveling.