Well i just placed an order last night for new shocks. Need em bad.Truck rides like crap andits possible that the right rear one is dead cuz the truck has a slight lean though that could be the leaf. Either way got me a set of Superlift Dual Tube Superide Shocks. Pretty decently priced and from what i hear they ride really nice. Best of all they allow for 0-3 inches lift rear and 0-2 inches lift front so they are perfect.Should have em by Thursday. Had to get em with thestandard yellow shock boot cuz summit was out of the red ones and black ones (but they have a ton of green ones, ya know that would be kind cool though, yellow and green, Green Bay Packers and all, lol), ah well, ill live with it. Anyways pictures will follow when i get them

 

Sounds cool! I replaced my shocks with Monroe Reflex up front and Monroe SensaTrack w/ Load Assist on the back. Makes the truck ride a bit more rough, but it doesn't feel like a boat anymore!

 

Well got the shocks in on thurday and installed them yesterday. Had a neat supprise when i went to install em too. My dad for some reason really wanted to help me install these at his house and didnt really say why. Personally i figured, eh what the hay, another set of hands cant hurt. So i pull the truck in the garage to find out that he made me a set of rear shackles and was just finishing welding them up. He knew i was wanting a set and i knew that he was more than capable of making them (hes a metal fabricator/project manager by trade and he used to build race cars with my uncle when he was much younger) and just on a whim he decided to make me a set. They came out really nice and whats really cool is they are adjustable (more than one set of mounting holes)so i can make the truck sit lower or higher if i need to. Currently with how i have them set i got 2 inches or so of lift and it really helped balance out the ride height of the truck. It has just a slight rake to the front which is perfect.Those plus the new shocks makes it ride really nice and took away the feeling that i wasnt in control of it when going down the freeway. There is a minor issue though, the sway bar is nearly maxed when i hit really good bumps and coming home last night one of the bolts to the rear sway bar broke so i took the other one out and im running with out them. Seems fine at 75 though and doesnt float without them connected so i may just take it all the way off. Well there is body roll on corners but nothing that im too overly scared of nor is it any real danger of being a roll over hazard (does allow for really good flex of the rear axle though). I'll post some pictures tonight when i get out of work (i know, working on a sunday [:@])


EDIT: .......or i can be sick as a dog and not have much energy to post or take pictures, lol. Think i might have strep throat. Anyway here are the pictures i promised.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...20-07_1018.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...20-07_1019.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...20-07_1020.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...20-07_1021.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...20-07_1022.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...20-07_1024.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...20-07_1025.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...20-07_1026.jpg

 

Just an update, finally got the front shocks from summit (they were backordered a bit). When i get the camera again I'll post some pics. Gotta say though those shocks are freaking sweet. Its nice to go down the road smoothly without the shocks "jackhammering" and actually having control of the truck. Not to mention it brought the front end of Dale up almost a half inch which is nice (taller is better).

However in somewhat unrelated news i got a different upgrade on my blazer now. Taking a page from drperry i got the led's for my dash to change it to blue. Really simple install and it came out slick. I took a picture of it last night with my phone going down the interstate so i appoligize for the blurryness.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v55/rcars2/dash.jpg

 

Looks good. How hard was it to install the rear shackles and front t-bar crank? I know you have 31x10.5, do they rub any before or after you did the shackles lift? Good to see the front end looks repaired after the accident. Looks good, now go have some fun.

Oh and Packers colors would be sweet

-Lenny
Fellow Wisconsinite

 

Well actually Dale goes in for repair next week on wednesday. Hes mostly together though and looks halfway alright minus the duct tape holding the headlight in (itswrapped around the headlight and thebrush guard so it points the right way ).

As for the T-bar crank and shackles it wasnt too bad. Only took me 10 minutes with a socket wrench to turn the t-bar bolts5 turns. As for the shackles thats as simple as unbolting the old shackleand rebolting in the new using existing hardware. Basically a set of jackstands and a floor jack are the only major things needed. I will reccommend getting some long travel shocks though as the factory ones did restrict the travel.(ones i got for the rear are superlift superride 85120 and thefronts are superride 85040)Putting in the shockscan take a little more time as ya gotta undo the sway bars and i really recommend having the rear leaf spring bolts out so you can get more room to work (in other words do the shackles and shocks at the same time). If you do the front shocks too those are really easy and they just unbolt with the truck in the air.

As for rubbing it doesnt rub under normal driving and over most speed bumps its alright but if you are really tearing into it off road it does catch on the lip of the fender and a little bit and of course it will bottom out in the fender well (it has travel all the way back to stock in this config). I think if you eliminate the lip some or completely roll it up under that should help or just get crazy with a body saw and cut it away and get some universal fender flare material to hide the oopses.

Dude Green and Gold FTW!!!!!!! I actually seriously thought about doing it half and half (green one side, gold the other).......ya know i just might get a second cluster for Dale and put green and gold led's in it just for tailgating. Hooray EBAY!! Of course too that would match my Green Bayplates on the front (*points to sig*).If you do that for your blazer i would soooo make a trip up to buy ya a beer. Just ebay for 194 led bulbs, they are cheap as heck.

-Rob
Fellow Wisconsinite

 

So all you have to do for the T-bar crank is get a socket on the tbar nut and crank them like 5 times? Sounds really easy, I thought from what I was reading you had to relieve pressure and remove them and then turn a screw and reinstall them, just cranking on a nut sounds a lot easier. I think i am going to do that and buy some shackles this fall, I need new tires anyways and shocks so then I would be higher for cheap and be able to fit larger tires, I think I am going to go with the 30x9.5 cause they are cheaper and I wont have rubbing problems then. How far off is your speedometer now and did you recalibrate it?

-Lenny

 

Yeah its super easy to crank the tbars. I did mine on a sunday morning right before heading out to work. Didnt have to put the truck in the air or anything.

The speedometer isnt really that far off. Technically im going about 4-5mph faster than what the needle says but im used to it already. They only way to fix itis with either a re-programmer or with one of those true speed unit deals. BTW for your truck it figures out to only be 2mph difference if you go to 30's (which i dontblame you price wise, mine were $750 installed.......i dont even want to think about what my 33's will cost)so it really may not be worth the effort to do much about it.

 

Thanks for the help. Yeah I got a price of 550 installed for 30's BFG All Terrian K/O's. Oh did you need an alignment or can you not tell after having the accident anyhow?

-Lenny

 

Looking good!

I like the dash! lol
Is it the camera that does it, or is there really such a light/dim issue on your tach?