New suspension components

[insangsong78]

@taquitos. What a coincidence.

Question on this. I want to run the front top hat and on the rear run eibach springs with eyelets.
Would that work? Planning to set up my spare set with this and get my old ones rebuilt.

 

[TomDirt]

The rear on 37 trucks might be able to clear 39s comfortably. Front would require trimming because of turning though. No way out of that.
View attachment 474666

"Sawzall Fixes All"

 

[taquitos]

@taquitos. What a coincidence.

Question on this. I want to run the front top hat and on the rear run eibach springs with eyelets.
Would that work? Planning to set up my spare set with this and get my old ones rebuilt.

That would work just fine. Would get you a little more load carrying capacity. Kind of one of the secret menu set ups.

 

[insangsong78]

Sweet Ordered. I love the idea of shock staying in the same stock position as much as possible.

 

[insangsong78]

BTW, what's different about your tophat vs SDI? It would to good to know your design and your thoughts behind the design choices.

 

[taquitos]

BTW, what's different about your tophat vs SDI? It would to good to know your design and your thoughts behind the design choices.

That is a good question to be asking. The most obvious difference when looking at a truck with each side by side is that our top hat lifts the front 0.5" less. Both do a similar thing in that the lift is one part spacer and one part preload. Our top hat is approximately half the preload and, I would guess, similar in terms of spacer. I don't have CAD for the SDI top hats so I can't comment on what their dimensions are exactly of course. I just felt like being a little more conservative with CV angle since I drive my truck every day. Also occasionally carry a snowmobile in the bed and don't want to look too nose up with that in there.

In terms of construction, our top hat uses the same bushings as the stock top hats. Not sure what bushings exactly the SDI ones use. I actually really like the stock bushings because they have a metal puck in the middle that makes it physically impossible for the shock shaft to come out of the top hat even if the rubber fails. I like good fail safes like that. What our top hat has that's different than stock is a much beefier retaining ring holding the bushing in since the retaining ring on the stock top hats is what I've seen actually be the root of problems. It would take about three times the weight of the truck to rip one of the retaining rings out of our top hat. Our top hat is also the only aftermarket top hat I'm aware of that actually uses pressed knurled studs. I wouldn't say that's a big deal, but I think it's kind of nice because they are bomb proof. Going back to bushings, made the choice to use bushings as opposed to uniballs for two reasons. First is uniballs just don't last in Washington. Too much water and grime especially driving mountain passes in the winter. Second is uniballs just aren't intended to be loaded axially. It can work, but you aren't guaranteed smooth motion under high load.

 

[insangsong78]

Sweet. Thanks for the explanation. I love the choice of durability long term vs short gains. My truck is my daily driver and company truck. and also some times a material hauler.
one of main reasons I didn't get SDI is too much front lift. Most here seem to like leveling, but I like the rake.

 

[GU3R086]

Sweet Ordered. I love the idea of shock staying in the same stock position as much as possible.

Would love to hear of your experience on this kit, both install and use once you have it!