A lift and some protection
Been awhile since I last updated, some pretty big changes have taken place.
Before Black Friday I ordered the Shrockworks Bolt On Sliders w/ Dimpled Tread Plates. 11 weeks later I had beautiful black Sliders on my doorstep. While my favorite Sliders are Stubbs with a kick-out, they don't offer bolt on. I wanted bolt on for many reasons and decided that overall look was not as important as other things on the list. If only I could get bolt on Stubbs with tread plates, guess I need to buy a welder and learn how to do it myself!
I really hated drilling holes in my perfect frame but I much prefer a primed and painted hole than an area that has been exposed to welding and thus compromised corrosion protection.
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During Black Friday I ordered the Sonoran Steel 1.2 Current kit with extended 2.5 Radflos. Took about 8 weeks to get the Radflo fronts, less for the SS parts, thanks Steve! Super excited and then notice that they installed 650lb springs, I ordered 600lb. Couple emails back and forth with Radflo and Sonoran and new shocks are one their way with the correct spring rate.
My initial drooling and excitement was quickly gone once they were installed and I backed it out of the garage, more about that later.
While the whole install was easy from a technical side, it did take longer than expected. So much so that I had to do it over two days, rear first then the front. Two major issues I ran into, 1) the “extended” stainless rear brake line I bought and installed two years ago turned out to not be as “extended” as it needed to be. Had to replace that with the Sonoran supplied line and re-bleed, ugghh. Wife was not too happy to be pressing the brake pedal at 10:30pm on a weeknight. 2) Those extended 2.5 Radflos at full droop can have contact between the Spring and the Spindle at the UBJ. While a bad situation out on the trail it also makes adjusting the Spring Perch position a PITA! I had to disconnect the LBJ each time so I could pivot the entire Spinge/UCA up to clear the Spring. Lame.
The Radflo’s arrived with a ton of preload, initial install had my front end level with the rear, when I should be shooting for a 2.5” rake. Oh well, I needed to drive it the next day so I left it. Upon taking it for a quick shake down I knew right away something was not right. Backing out of my driveway, when the front wheels hit the curbing I got a loud clank/thunk from both sides. Ok, shit, pull it back in the garage. Go over everything, didn’t miss a torque etc. Back out again, thunk thunk. Too late to care and I need to drive to work the next day. Get an email into Sonoran and Radflo the next day and the prevailing thought was that they were topping out because of the excessive preload. Didn’t seem to be the problem to me… Wrench, wrench, wrench and I get them level. Back out again, thunk thunk. Over every little bump or expansion joint, thunk. No odd noises when turning or flexing, just thunks with quick shock movements.
Talk to Steve at Sonoran, Glenn at Radflo- maybe the shocks are missing a piece of hardware in the top hat? Maybe the spherical bearings are not installed right? Wrench, wrench, wrench, take the shocks off, rip apart the top hats and look into everything. Everything was tight and there were no missing pieces or signs of loose tolerances. Put them back on, and you guessed it thunk, thunk, thunk down the road. Couldn’t imagine driving the truck offroad for any distance, sounded like something was not going to survive long. Sigh.
Lots of emails, lots of questions and not a lot of answers from Radflo. Their position was that my expectations of the product were not aligned with the products offering. For them, it came down to the spherical bearings and my expectations of ride quality. I expected NVH to increase, I expected a more jarring ride on sharp edge hits, I have experienced spherical bearings in place of bushings before. What I experienced was none of those things, it was straight up bad and something wasn’t right.
More discussion with Sonoran and Radflo and we come to an agreement to return the Radflos and go with 5100s instead. The Radflo’s went back to them, they were torn down and found to have nothing wrong with them…
It was a long road to get this lift on and riding well. Steve at Sonoran was awesome to deal with and ensured I was happy and satisfied throughout the entire ordeal. Radflo left me a bit unsatisfied, their communication was very lacking and not at all interested in trying to determine root cause for my issues…send them back and we will look into it was the answer. Ultimately they made everything right and I really appreciate that from them. I wanted to experience a higher end product and give it a fair trial. I don’t feel I received a proper set of shocks and unfortunately my experience with their company left a certain taste in my mouth. I know who I will and won’t recommend in the future.
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Knowing that my CV Boots would at least puke grease everywhere or crack, I already had on hand new OEM CV Boots. So many paper towels and cans of brake cleaner later and I had two freshly booted CVs. I attempted the stretch boot mod using a portion of the old boot but it just didn’t seem to produce a good seal so I ditched the idea and installed them in their original locations. I’m getting contact/rubbing on the inside flutes/ribs but its not terrible. Will monitor and then maybe stretch them a bit and use zip ties in place of the band clamps.
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Got her aligned and I am just on the edge of Caster spec at 1.7deg. Camber is at 0.1deg and 0.6deg. Doesn’t appear that I need aftermarket UPA but I will see how the tires wear and go from there. The Runner is riding great and looks soooo good. Now if
Plastics guy would make us those shorty SR5 mudflap he promised…
