Hey there fellow members. I am new to this forum but not to hands on work. I just purchased a 2019 Titan with 43k miles.
I installed my 3" rough Country Lift today. Great package of goodies but the instructions stink.
So here goes - yes follow the instructions but I will add the much needed highlights.
I installed my 3" rough Country Lift today. Great package of goodies but the instructions stink.
So here goes - yes follow the instructions but I will add the much needed highlights.
- The studs that mount in the spacer are not installed and they do not tell you how to seat them
- They include 2 extra nuts
- One for a spacer and one to use to tighten the bolts into the spacer - these nuts are different than the other 6 in the package - I guess you were just supposed to figure out how to use the extra two nuts since the instructions said nothing about them
- They include 2 extra nuts
- The upper forged aluminum control arms are not marked Right or Left
- I had to call to ask which one goes where
- The 90 degree angle goes towards the front of the truck and the gradual bend side goes towards the back
- I had to call to ask which one goes where
- I did not have to remove the front wheel well insert on the passenger side
- I did have to remove the plastic on the drivers side
- Let me prepare you - you will need a breaker bar on a wrench to break loose the upper control arm bolts in both front driver and passenger sides
- I also had to remove the brake line 10mm bolts near the upper control arms to get a wrench in on the passenger and the drivers side I had to remove both brake lines to get the upper control arm bolt out
- Buy six washers in advance for the mounting of the struts after you bolt them on the shock
- The reason you need these is because the bolts RC supplies for the upper control arms are slotted like bolts on your wheels. Once you seat these bolts the slotted grooves extend a little past the thickness of the metal hat that the shocks mount to. I am sure you can just bolt down what RC provides and the shocks will stay in place but they will bounce around and make noises that will driver you crazy because of the tiny gap you will have if you do not use washers to fill the space where the grooves stick up past the hat
- You will need spring compressors ($35 at Harbor Freight) - the shock externders will turn the shock a few degrees to offset the bolts for the shocks and the spacers to mount together. When you go to mount the strut to the bottom of the shock it will not line up with the hole at all. If you use spring compressors and a vise you can spray the seats where the springs are on both ends with wd40 and get a breaker bar and slowly turn the bottom of the shock to line up with the new bolt patter from the spacer. I just used a marker on where the original bolts were and then turned the shock to line up the spacer bolts to the positions where the original shock bolts lined up to
- The rear was much easier
- The drivers side rear - you have to remove the little middle plastic filler to get to the shock nut (super easy) if you are going to replace the rear shocks like I did
- The passenger side - you have to remove the front section of the tire plastic liner - super easy
- The instructions were pretty spot on here
- The break line sensors should be pulled out of their mounts so you do not break them - this is a must to get the spacer in
- In preperation grease the metal sleeves of the sway bar links and use a vise to push them into the links themselves - the grease helps a lot
- The U bolts - just like everyone said are obnoxiously long. I cut them twice on both sides. That was 8 cuts with a grinder cutting blade. You can get the nuts up so far then have to cut the bolts shorter. I did this a second time because after I had torqued the bolts I still felt like the threads were sticking down too far and would catch on something
- Once I got one spacer on and went to the other side I actually called RC and asked if they sent me the correct spacer because I could not align the bolts from the leaf springs to the axle and while I was on the phone sounding like a complete idiot I realized the axle shifted. I then got a tie strap and just pulled the passenger side back forward towards the front of the truck and then it was perfect
- SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE - not one person happened to mention this anywhere from what I could find
- Once you do this the front tires will hit the sway bar ends on the inside of the rims
- Now that I know this I ordered 2" wheel extenders
- This can of course be solved by rims with offsets or using spacers with the factory wheels
- I sure wish I read and found this out somewhere before I started. I wanted to be sure and share this with you all so that depending on what your rims/tire solution will be you are prepared
- This can of course be solved by rims with offsets or using spacers with the factory wheels
- Now that I know this I ordered 2" wheel extenders
- Once you do this the front tires will hit the sway bar ends on the inside of the rims
- The install took me 9 hours so I am a little embarrassed - I messed up and put the sway bar link bolts on the wrong side of the sway bar itself and really scratched the inside of my rims - but at least no one can see it
