Anyone doing this? I'm never one to leave my vehicles be, so since I have my 97 C2500 I am thinking I might as well drop it. Never owned a lowered truck before. I'd still want to be able to tow a car trailer to get my trail rig to the trail. I see plenty of slammed out duallys and such but how practical are they really? By the way I'm think 2/4 drop using spindles in the front and brackets and strengthened shackles in the rear(so stock springs at all 4 corners would remain).
Whats up sled dog, see you wandered from the mother site. I don't know much about lowered trucks but obviously, I would think sagging could be a problem from the lack of travel either with the springs, tires rubbing the fenders, or even the body panels rubbing the ground? The best way I know of reducing and pretty much eliminating sag is with air bags. You could do the lowering plan, and air bag it so it won't sag. I don't think the air spring helper kits are all that much money. I don't see why it wouldn't work, I see a lot of lowered duallys too, mostly street queens that probably have never seen a trailer but I do see a few pulling car trailers or what not.
When I lived in Seattle, a friend of mine had one. Seems it was a late 80s loaded out C3500. Lowered quite a bit, but not slammed. He also had air bags on the rear. Anyway, he was a boat mechanic and was frequently hauling around some of the rather large boats common to the area. I don't recall him having any troubles or complaints and I know he loved his truck. That's about all I know semi-first hand about lowered tow rigs. Beyond that it's just the obvious stuff like the clearance issues getting to a trail head or camp ground. I've bottomed/drug my 4x4 2500HD and I've drug my trailer into places I'm quite sure a lowered truck would not have gone.
I would think that with Air-Bags and A 6in rise hitch :doah: you will be fine (I use a 6in Drop rotfl )
Ditto on the air bags to keep from sagging. I have had friends who in the past have had one ton duallies that had 4/6 drops and used the helper springs in the rear to adjust for sag and prevent bottoming out.
I tow all the time with my 3500 dually and no major issues really but you'll need to be aware of a few things. You'll need helper bags in the back if you dont do a complete air bag suspension to help with sag/level the truck with the extra weight. You'll need some fairly stiff shocks to keep the truck from hitting the bump stops on rough roads unless you only do a mild drop. Be aware of the height of the trailer tounge with raised hitches since they wont allow the tail gate to be lowered without bashing it into the hitch/tongue (ask me how I know ). If you drop the front a fair amount it ruines the factory scrub radius and front tires will wear fairly quickly if you do a lot of in town driving/sharp turns. Be prepared to regularly have random knuckle heads walk up and ask "why did you lower a dually!?!?!?" (if they have to ask they wont understand anyways so its a waste of time to explain it to them).
i had a c2500 droped 2/3 and it was with spindles and shackles and 1 leafs out in back. road o.k. but much harder in the front. didnt care for it. but back with 1 leaf still out and wow much better. and dont forget load range tires are a bit harder to find in the funny sizes for these. dont drop it just good set of rims and front air dam on bumper if you dont have one. it will look much better.
I'd love to hear why people lower duallys. I'm one of the lowered dually critics. A dually is a dually because it's supposed to help stabilize loades while in tow better than a single rear wheel. Obviously, people that tow all the time with heavy or unstable trailers are perfect candidates for duallys. Lowering a dually is like an oxy moron in my book, counteracts all of it's benifets. Don't get me wrong, tons of people buy duallys, slam them, and will never see more of a load than a 2nd or 3rd passenger in the truck. Thats fine, this is america and everyone has a right to what ever they want and I don't have any problem with that. This isn't a bashing post. So I am interested in why lowering duallys is somewhat popular with that type of crowd?
Actually, to me, it's *lifting* them that makes no sense at all. Lowering, as long as you add bags to keep from bottoming the rear, and over-all do it right so the steering and suspension characteristics still work, would result in a *more* stable truck with lower CoG. Easier to load the bed, easier in/out, and so on. In this case it's also a win in looks if you like the lowered look. Ususally, going for "looks" means sacrificing function, but not here, at least for 2WD dually trucks...
Ditto that Bobby waytogo BadDog... I dont get why they spend all of that money on a lift and tires and wheels and then it never sees anymore dirt than a Hayabusa street bike. The worst is that alot of time they are only 2wd????? its useless!!!!!
No problem explaining to someone thats just curious as to why rather than the normal rubber head that just wants an excuse to tell you how stupid it is to lower a dually (or any truck for that matter). While I personally cant stand the frame dragging/hopping type stuff some guys are doing with their trucks Im still a car guy and most any car looks better hunkered down a little to get the right stance and executed correctly a truck can be made to look "just right" as well. I like that "just right" look on my vehicles hence most of them get lowered to some degree. Since I actually use my truck as it was intended to be used it doesnt affect the practicality of it at all other than being a little more aware of things that I may encounter while driving that a stock ride height vehicle could care less about (stuff like REALLY high curbs, orphan semi truck recap treads in the road, etc which isnt a huge issue since I would try to avoid stuff like that no matter what I was driving anyways. The trucks scheme as it sits right now matches the other truck that I drag race so IMO looks kinda cool IMO rolling down the road towing a matching trailer with the matching race vehicle on it. The last reason is primarily individualism... The rural area I live in has TONS of lifted trucks from mini truck imports to crew cab duallys and for the first six months or so I had the only lowered dually so it was nice to have something no one else local to me had seen in person before. Unfortunately there are prolly 5 or 6 lowered duallys around now so its not as big of a crowd pleaser as it was originally but I still like it and it makes me happy. So, to sum it up the reasoning (at least for me) is I like the looks as long as the truck still functions as I want it to and it can be returned to stock in a day or so for resale purposes, you dont see lowered duallys around every corner so its nice to stand out a little in the sea of lifted trucks and hondas with picnic table wings around here, the vehicle is still just as practical to me as it was when it rolled off the dealer lot, and finally my 5'3" wife can get in and out of it fairly easily unlike my 4wd truck that I have to help her get into (thats another thread though ).
There isn't much to understand. They do it purely for a more agressive look, they have no intention of taking if off road, or any interest in offroading for that matter. They just want a certain type of look.
Well, you have to step back and throw out the 4wheeler mentality that anything that is 4wd and doesn't get wheeled is junk. It's just a different angle of going with what someone wants out of a truck. To them it's all go because it's achieved the look they wanted, which was the ONLY goal. Just flip it around, and think of it their way. They see an all tubed up 4wheeler and say the same thing, "all show but no go." It can show off driving over a rock but it's worthless outside of that, no actual go. Can't daily drive it, can't even weekend drive it, nothing but driving over a rock...how lame. Everyone has an opinion about everything they don't know much about and/or have no interest in.
Yeah I guess its just the Off-roader in me coming out:doah: Different strokes for different folks I guessopcorn:
