[Armada06]

I see alot of images online of lowered Titans. I am wondering about the driving quality, how is it? do you guys use lowering spindles in the front end? or cut springs? My mother's knees are not doing well, I would like to avoid selling the Armada. I would appreciate any advice you guys can give here....

thanks....

 

[Precever]

It's not very comfortable, I've tried. Better standard.

 

[TX8STEP]

I have not dropped my Titan, but I did drop my '97 Silverado and '08 Tundra. The Silverado was done with spindles (front) & shackles/hangers (rear). I went with Belltech nitro shocks. For the Tundra, belltech adjustable struts and springs (front) & flip kit (rear). I went with Belltech street performance shocks. The springs were not nessecary, but the rep sold them to me along with the struts and my Tundra was in the dirt, but I raised it up some. For the rear, only shackles are available and will only give you approximately 1 1/4". I have never seen adjustable struts for the Titan. I added the Hellwig spring helpers (2 piece-before and after axle). I hauled 5-6k lbs of Decra roofing from DFW to Omaha with no problems. There are belltech springs available for the Titan.

I would combine the ride quality of the two. Spindles in the front and flip kit on the rear. The street performance shocks were way soft. The nitros were awesome. I would try to find billstein short shocks. I believe I've read on here that some used xterra shocks. (Bilstien 5125's)
McGaughys is also a well known drop kit.

I hope this helps! Good luck with your search and Merry Christmas!!

 

[Kingpin]

I used the McGaughy's 2"/3" kit. It is springs only (includes new hardware) front and rear. I then sourced all the other parts wherever they could be found (PRG and others). I used a slightly shorter Bilstein strut in the front and stock lengths in the rear. I also replaced all the rubber bushings everywhere in the font end with Delrin or urethane pieces. Replaced all four ball joints with Moog Problem Solvers, Moog tie rod ends, PRG end links and more. The only thing in the entire front end that didn't get replaced was the steering rack although it did get urethane rack bushings.

Now, as far as the way the truck drives, it's very, very good! It handles very solid and doesn't wander at all and no longer changes ones when I hit a big bump! I run a 305/15/20 tire. The ride quality os bit of a different story. On a good quality highway, the ride os fine. You'll feel any imperfections in the road through the steering wheel but the ride is fine. On a bumpy road however, it'll turn you teeth into Chiclets! I still want the rear slightly lower which I'll likely accomplish with new shackles and Roadmaster Active Suspension setup will complete my upgraded suspension rebuild.

Overall, it's a blast to drive it and I'm not sorry I lowered it one bit despite the ride quality on bad roads. It's not my daily driver which may actually be part of the problem which I'll explain. Ride quality would be improved by using rubber bushings. They are much softer and more forgiving than urethane or especially the Delrin materials. My daily is a Mercedes-Benz S500 which is obviously an extremely smooth riding car so jumping in the truck after driving the Benz for a week or two may cause the ride issues to seem more extreme than they actually are.

Belltech has a couple of pretty comprehensive kits available for 2"/4" drop. They do a flip kit while the McGaughy's kit does not. You can but the kits with or without shocks. I have heard the shocks are poor quality so if you went that way my advice would buy the kit without the shocks and find a good quality shock like Bilstein or KYB.

 

[Armada06]

I used the McGaughy's 2"/3" kit. It is springs only (includes new hardware) front and rear. I then sourced all the other parts wherever they could be found (PRG and others). I used a slightly shorter Bilstein strut in the front and stock lengths in the rear. I also replaced all the rubber bushings everywhere in the font end with Delrin or urethane pieces. Replaced all four ball joints with Moog Problem Solvers, Moog tie rod ends, PRG end links and more. The only thing in the entire front end that didn't get replaced was the steering rack although it did get urethane rack bushings.

Now, as far as the way the truck drives, it's very, very good! It handles very solid and doesn't wander at all and no longer changes ones when I hit a big bump! I run a 305/15/20 tire. The ride quality os bit of a different story. On a good quality highway, the ride os fine. You'll feel any imperfections in the road through the steering wheel but the ride is fine. On a bumpy road however, it'll turn you teeth into Chiclets! I still want the rear slightly lower which I'll likely accomplish with new shackles and Roadmaster Active Suspension setup will complete my upgraded suspension rebuild.

Overall, it's a blast to drive it and I'm not sorry I lowered it one bit despite the ride quality on bad roads. It's not my daily driver which may actually be part of the problem which I'll explain. Ride quality would be improved by using rubber bushings. They are much softer and more forgiving than urethane or especially the Delrin materials. My daily is a Mercedes-Benz S500 which is obviously an extremely smooth riding car so jumping in the truck after driving the Benz for a week or two may cause the ride issues to seem more extreme than they actually are.

Belltech has a couple of pretty comprehensive kits available for 2"/4" drop. They do a flip kit while the McGaughy's kit does not. You can but the kits with or without shocks. I have heard the shocks are poor quality so if you went that way my advice would buy the kit without the shocks and find a good quality shock like Bilstein or KYB.

Many thanks for sharing Guys.....I didn't know about McGaughy's kit. I have an Armada, now I need to figure out how to lower the rear or trick my leveling rear air ride to lower the rear. KingPin, Which bilsteins did you use for the front? was the Xterra bilsteins as discribed by TX8STEP in the earlier post? KingPin you've reminded me that i really need to go after my bushings in the front end. I think I need the Moog problem solver.

thanks again.....I really like the economy drop...I'm not looking for a big, 2" is just perfect. Any alignment difficulties?

 

[TX8STEP]

There is a camber/cast bolt kit that you can use for alignment. PRG is another brand to check out. They have an alignment kit, and I've seen posts on a flip kit. You can add spring helper air bags in the rear to prevent sagging. I used the cheap Hellwig bolt on's, but these are a better option. I don't know about any rubbing issues. Usually when using spindles, there are less issues. I prefer not to elaborate on the xterra shocks due to not having any first hand experience, and I don't want to post inaccurate information. Keep researching and maybe someone will pipe in... Moog worked very well on my Tundra.

 

[REDRUM]

Max @ BioKustomz modifies stock knuckles and can lower them up to 3.5". You always wanna go this route before springs or arms- more of a stock quality ride, none of the lowrider bounce, and no additional requirements or changes- with the exception of wheel size.. He did 2" on my knucks for my 07 fronty. I removed the rear helper springs and added rear air shocks, making a 2/3 drop. Bio Kustoms

 

[Kingpin]

Many thanks for sharing Guys.....I didn't know about McGaughy's kit. I have an Armada, now I need to figure out how to lower the rear or trick my leveling rear air ride to lower the rear. KingPin, Which bilsteins did you use for the front? was the Xterra bilsteins as discribed by TX8STEP in the earlier post? KingPin you've reminded me that i really need to go after my bushings in the front end. I think I need the Moog problem solver.

thanks again.....I really like the economy drop...I'm not looking for a big, 2" is just perfect. Any alignment difficulties?

I used Bilstein 4600 struts that I bought from Summit Racing (Summit Racing part number BSN-24-197656). I have no idea if it's the one for the Xterra or not. I bought this truck new and I think it handles better now at 166k than it ever has before. If you have over 100k on the truck those ball joints will likely make a big difference. Somebody mentioned the camber/cast bolt kit for alignment. That may be needed if you go much lower than 2". Probably a good idea to install it regardless but I only dropped 2" and it wasn't required to get me back into spec. It's on there in case it's needed in the future though.

 

[Joseph_titan]

I used Bilstein 4600 struts that I bought from Summit Racing (Summit Racing part number BSN-24-197656). I have no idea if it's the one for the Xterra or not. I bought this truck new and I think it handles better now at 166k than it ever has before. If you have over 100k on the truck those ball joints will likely make a big difference. Somebody mentioned the camber/cast bolt kit for alignment. That may be needed if you go much lower than 2". Probably a good idea to install it regardless but I only dropped 2" and it wasn't required to get me back into spec. It's on there in case it's needed in the future though.

Hi Kingpin,
Just trying to confirm. You say you don't need a camber kit if you use lowering springs to drop the front and will align okay to specs? I plan on using street edge lowering springs. They say it will drop it 2".

 

[Kingpin]

I'm don't want to say you don't need it in any and every situation. Just that a two inch drop is subtle enough that it usually wouldn't require it. I do think it's a good idea to have the added adjustment. Vehicle alignment is in my opinion about 50% and 50% art. The cam bolt would give the shop more flexibility when aligning the truck. The cam bolt kit is only about $75 and I believe is money well spent.

 

[Joseph_titan]

Hi,
I just lower my truck about 1 week ago. I went with street edge flip kit, belltech adjustable in the front; and bilstein in the back.

Here is the low down on the ride quality.
It f***** sucks! Bouncy AF. I believe it is due to the quality of the product. The guy from street edge told me the pair (flip kit and belltech) would drive like a luxury car. It was BS sales tacktic. The ride feels like I cut one coil of the spring.
I have had lowered cars before and always went with top quality products and never had a problem. This time, I went with low quality and sorry I did it. IF I were to do it over again, I would have gone spindles in the front, use bilsteins, and used a shackle flip kit in the rear. 2nd option if I were to do it again, quality flip kit, bilstiens.

Once the belltech shocks up front give out then I will change to bilsteins short shock.

As far as the height...dam I am low low low. I used to look down on cars. Now I look straight at them.
Drop height is 4" in the rear and 3" in front (spring 2" + 1" beltech"). I will post pix on another post.