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By, TXJEEPER

Find out more about Rough Country.

Rockcrawler.com
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When my Friend, Barry, was looking to lift up his Dodge Ram Charger he found that he had very few choices in manufacturers. He decided to go with the 4" suspension lift from Rough Country. Rough Country offers it's kit with rear springs or an add-a-leaf option. Barry's truck had been used extensively for towing animal trailers, so his springs needed to be replaced all around.

The kit Barry went with runs $549 USD direct from Rough Country ($360 with add-a-leaf in the rear) and includes Heckethorn shock absorbers and fits Dodge Ram pickups and Ram Chargers from '70-'92. The kit does not include a dropped pitman arm, but really should. Barry plans on adding this soon to his Dodge.

There's no rear trick to installing this kit. One caveat, however, is that the kit did not come with any shims for the rear. After installing it Barry had major vibration problems due to a bad pinion angle in the rear. On the Dodge Rams the rear axle is a spring-over design from the factory, so a typical shim will not work, due to the incorrect curve on the shims. We called Rough Country and they overnighted a set of 2 1/2 degree shims. The shims, however, were not enough to correct the problem. We ordered a set of 6 degree shims from Superlift and ground the curve to a flat wedge. This cured the vibration problems.

There was another problem we found. Barry wanted to run 33x12.50 BFG Mud Terrains. He was told that the kit would work, but it turns out that the front wheel opening is not wide enough and will require us to cut his fenders so he can turn all the way. We wouldn't recommend using anything over a 32" tire on this kit. Maybe even a 31" for off-road use.

On to the Install!




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