This is awesome Duc! Thank's for throwing these up. It makes the wait at home a little more bearable. Can't wait to head back down their this afternoon and see it all in person!


Oh believe me, I know. Duc and his boys at High-Tech have definitely earned a customer for life out of me. It makes a world of difference when you can walk back and see how the work is going, personally meet and talk to the mechanic who is doing all the work, and have the shop manager check with you to make sure every little thing is right - and even explain it to make sure you know what's going on.

I know it has been said on here a thousand times, but if anyone needs any work done and is within reasonable driving distance to High Tech (reasonable meaning nothing over a 5 day drive ), High Tech is the place to be.

Oh and MeBe4running, if you mean Christmas list as in paying him to install all the new parts I get around christmas...then yes...he definitely will be!

Good looking build you got going $$$

Jangosonfire!!!

In Antman style....here she is!


I will let Jango do all of the final pics of everything. I feel that it's his baby so he should be the one to put all the 'good' pics up.

Jango-you'll be getting a call here soon. We're in the middle of the alignment now. Sometime that process alone is a couple of hours.

I gotta say....I'm a little jealous of all the hardware. Can't wait til we go camping this weekend.

Speaking of alignments, here is what your lower control arm eccentrics 'should' look like to get as much caster as possible. This is not always going to be the case. If you do not have adjustable upper control arms, these next 2 photos will vary. But this is generally where you would like them to be.
These pics are from the front of the vehicle.

Passenger side


Driver's side

I shouldn't have pushed that switch that said "prizes"!!!

Sorry guys, I'm not gonna have much to bring this weekend.



See you soon, Tom.

I am jealous of those rear links. Yup they are on my list.

Now all the rear needs is some adjustable sway bar links.

Oh and throw the stock wheels and tires back on and send me those sexy new ones.

Pics


Guess he's to busy cruising around in his "new" ride

Ill get more info up tomorrow, but I was jammed for time tonight. Didn't get home from the shop until about 9 (freakin DC traffic), and them had to immediately unload the old wheels and parts, re-pack up and then roadtrip it back up to school.

It rides like a dream though. Took a little adjustment getting used to the different feel - but now it's just awesome.

PICTURES and first impressions...

Grabbing dinner at Red Robin right next to Duc's shop after picking it up (notice I am parked allllllll the way at the end).




Made it back to school safely and just got the lug nuts re-tourqued this afternoon. A local shop in Lancaster (K&W Tire - nicest tire shop i have ever been in) did it for free while I watched. Here's some other iPhone shots. I don't have my nice camera with me at school so I will have to wait a bit for the nice pictures.

Hope these hold you guys over...





Rear (hard to take a picture of everything here, but at least you can see the rear shocks and lower trailing arm. Once I get the good camera I'll take a picture from behind and then you can see the new springs, upper trailing arms, and tracking bar):



Front (self-explanatory):


Better pictures will come later!


As for the ride, it's amazing....

ON ROAD:
It took some getting used to because I had never driven a lifted truck. You don't "smack" into harsh bumps anymore like you did with the old suspension and 20" wheels. You just glide smoothly over top of them. There is a bit of lean when cornering that the XREAS didn't have, but I attribute this more to the larger tires than the new suspension. Also, the tire noise from the Duratracs is barley noticeable. I turn my radio up to normal listening volume and cruise in perfect comfort. Last night driving home on I-95 I was cruising at 75+ MPH and it felt just like stock. On a straight stretch I even took my hands off the wheel just to see what would happen and got zero wandering and zero vibration. VERY pleased with that. The steering feels a tad heavy, but almost more sensitive and responsive at the same time. More driving will help me nail down exactly what's going on there. You definitely feel "higher" than before when driving, not necessarily top heavy, just a little less planted than before, but I adjusted quickly and now feel just as comfortable driving as before (although I see full skids in my future to lower the center of gravity again...).

The truck is nowhere near as underpowered as I though it was going to be. It has slightly less acceleration power which is understandable, but nothing that's going to cause an issue everyday. As far as MPG's go, I reset my car computer on the way down to the shop and got 19.6. After the lift, I reset the computer for the drive back, and got 17.4. I feel that this is slightly skewed though as on the drive down I left at 5:30 AM and hit no traffic, but on the drive back I was sitting in traffic for a considerable amount of time around the DC area.

I will hopefully get to test this off road a bit this weekend! Looking forward to it!

This is definitely my favorite mod to date, and again a big thanks to Duc and the guys at High Tech!

Dude, that looks so sick!



In other news, you are now an official Storm Trooper.

Not yet but he will be soon.

Truck looks really great. After the covert you will have will have the inside track for T4ROTM. I will be here to guide you through the process

So when is the Shrockworks front bumper being ordered? I must say the SR5/Limited bumper and skirts makes the truck look like a crossover and lower to the ground.

Truck does look good though.

Thanks! We are now the Stage 6 buddies


Haha Philly knows what's happening, the convert should come by December I am hoping, just need to get those front and rear bumpers ordered and painted. As for T4ROTM...I don't know if I would got THAT far yet...but we'll see!



I'm not going to go the front bumper route for the time being, I like the Shrockworks but I am not THRILLED by it...that may change in the future though.

Regarding the side skirts I agree and arrived at the same conclusion months ago. That's why 95% of the TE conversions parts are sitting in my garage as we speak. Once those go on the truck will be a true storm trooper and have a much better look.

Friggin awesome!!

Lean? Really?? I didn't think so but then again I didn't put many miles on before going to Icon