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