Got The Titan Machine Arms And Leveling Kit On

[Ditch Baby]

In the mist of trying to chase the extremely sloppy steering in this truck and a mysterious clunk while turning or going over any uneven terrain i decided to drop the coin on new control arms and a 3rd gen tracbar. Also figured while i was at it, might as well do a leveling kit.

I found Titan Machine aka Dieseldork on here through searching on which arms to purchase. Sent Mitchell several PMs and ended up buying the control arms, 3rd gen tracbar and bracket, and sway bar links from him. I went with a BD steering brace, Carli coils, and Bilstein shocks.

I will have to say that Mitchell has by far the best customer service out of anybody i have ever bought from before. Kept me constantly updated on the build progress of the arms, explained the best way to install everything so you can still get to the grease fittings, and i was able to call him anytime with any questions. Customer service is a high priority with me when buying parts.


on to the pics!

Start height

Bushings look good huh?? had water and mud come out of them when we removed them

end height

not a good pic for comparison, but this is it before the coils

time for bigger tires

Didnt have any problems with the install. Took us about 6 hours to do it being slightly hungover and wore out from lastnight. Had to remove most of the exhaust hangers and unbolt the down pipe, not enough room to get the passenger top control arm bolt out around the 5" pipe.

I had Mitchell make the lower bars 3/4" longer then stock to push the axle back foreward, and obviously had them powder coated black.

Truck rides and steers MUCH better now. Need to get an alignment done. Unfortunaly it did not solve the clunking noise and thump on the floor board but its not as bad as it was. Im going to have to investigate some more, start looking at possibly a drivetrain or body mount.

 

[Hammer]

Probably only needed the arms 1/2" longer with the D25's.That is what most everyone used when they went to the leveled suspension.Make sure you have enough clearance for the trac bar around the axle and center section with going as long as you went.Most times this will not show unless you really work the front end or place the axle in a twist on a trail.

I have not yet done his conversion on the sway bar ends as with mine only 1/2" longer they are not really out of line too bad at all.I also searched long and hard before buying from mitchell and have been happy everyday since I did them.I am constantly amazed at how much they freed up the front and have allowed the truck become a more drivable piece.I would have done the trac bar deal with him also but I had purchased the Solid Steel unit many moons ago and it has been there for a few years.I wondered whose parts he was having done in black,congrats..........Andy

 

[Lucky Jeff]

Sounds like you didn't get your shocks tight enough on the bottom.. That is what always caused the thump on my floorboard. Looks like some good arms!

 

[DevilDogDiesel]

I have the same clunking noise on my floor board. I always thought it was my control arms, but after reading this it doesnt sound like it.

 

[Ditch Baby]

Sounds like you didn't get your shocks tight enough on the bottom.. That is what always caused the thump on my floorboard. Looks like some good arms!

Shocks are tight.

I cant recall when it started doing this. I did take the step bars off the truck several months ago. They bolted to the body mount bolts. Wondering if im missing a spacer in there.

 

[Ditch Baby]

attempted to put my boggers on the dodge from my one-tonned bronco... no go.... tires and wheels too wide, rubs extremely bad.

 

[Dustin_Bentz]

A couple questions for you...
1. Are those "off the shelf" Bilsteins you're running?
2. How much better does your truck ride with these improvements?

My '01 rides like chit and I've been thinking of going with a Carli Performer 2.0 kit, but don't want to dump that kind of money. After reading your thread, I think this may be the way to go.

 

[Hammer]

Dustin...
I run the Bilstein 5100's also on mine and they are for a 3-5 over suspension.After I leveled the front I did not like the way mine sat so on a later trip out to EEP for some work we had the rear srpings redone by their spring shop.They added an extra leaf like they do for all their street pullers and it raised the rear of my truck about 3 inches and gave my truck the slight forward rake again.

I then went to Mitchell for his control arms as I wanted to ensure my 315's would clear without hitting the left front inner fender like they had been.I did alot of research here and on the TDR about the leveling kits and found that once a owner leveled his truck he should lengthen the front arms by 1/2" to recenter the front axle for cleance.That is what he did when he made the arms for me and it made a world of difference in the way it drives.

I had been using Solid Steel's Lower Control arms and the factory uppers with Energy Suspension Poly Bushings before we did the install on my truck.The truck never drove very comfortably and always skittered around on the highway's bumps and bridge seams were a PIA.Once we changed out the arms I seen what the issue was and am convinced now after driving mine for a while even the factory control arms bushings bind the front end.See once you place the arms in the frame and torque down on them the bushing are placed into a bind on the frame mounts.Without the proper length steel centers to ride on instead of clamping on the rubber or poly bushing they will not articulate and allow the arms freedom of movement.

Mitchell's use of the Ballistic Joints allows the arms freedom of movement as when you torque down on them you torque on the joints center section and not the out part of the bushing creating a bind.I also double shocked my front end at the time and can say that form then until now I have learned that our trucks are severely under valved when it comes to shocks.The firmness and steadiness of the drive I have is amazing and it allows you to relax behind the wheel.Instead of skittering ovr road hazards and bumps it drives straight through them and over top of them with ease and no jumping around.Roads that are grooved due to heavy traffic volume which used to be an issue are not and the truck will go straight through them with only one hand on the wheel.

My only single complaint with the Bilsteins is how bad they look after one season of driving them as the finish is all but gone.I should have had them clear coated or used the 3M protection shield on them when I installed them since I knew I would be showing the truck some.

I will put a photo of mine in here and link the thread to the install when I did it way back for you.If you want a better photo of the arms on mine drop me a PM with your email and I wills end a couple out to you......Andy

P.S-The photo is one from the NADM show at Numidia this year.I also did not like the extravagant cost of the others and I could not get ahold of DT Pro-Fab at all when I wanted to do this.I am very glad no one answered as going to Mitchell's(DieselDork) parts was one of the best things I have done.

Titan Machine Control Arms... - Competition Diesel.Com - Bringing The BEST Together

 

[Joush]

Check your steering shaft. I have seen the same problem with my ranger, the boss's chevy duallie and his wifes pontiac.

 

[Ditch Baby]

A couple questions for you...
1. Are those "off the shelf" Bilsteins you're running?
2. How much better does your truck ride with these improvements?

My '01 rides like chit and I've been thinking of going with a Carli Performer 2.0 kit, but don't want to dump that kind of money. After reading your thread, I think this may be the way to go.

They were the ones purchased from here http://www.8lugtruckgear.com/Shocks-c23/

I cant explain how much better this thing rides now! I knew my front shocks were toast, every stop light the truck bobbed up and down.

Mitchell is sending me out a new bushing (The ones he had been using previously) for the trackbar, the one he tried using on this set is too soft and allows the track bar to move back and forth. To praise him again, called him up and there was zero hesitation on getting me a new bushing.


Took it out this afternoon to the dirt roads by the groves to see how well it handled these lovely florida wash-boarded roads. I was able to hold 70-75 mphs and it just sailed along.


I debated too on whether or not to get the starter kit. money was the big issue. I was upgrading mainly to get a better ride and replace the worn out bushings. I do see having to do something with the rear leafs, they are still stiff as hell and the 4-3/4 inch block in the back is half-ass.

I know its a one-ton truck, but if the newer superduties (only new one-ton truck ive had personal amounts of time in) can ride good and still be able to handle some weight, there has to be a way to set these up.

Check your steering shaft. I have seen the same problem with my ranger, the boss's chevy duallie and his wifes pontiac.

What and how do i check it?


After the dirt road run, the popping has gotten much worse.

Wonder if it could be the sway bar bushings on the frame?

I got a pretty good pop and bang on the floorboard turning around in my buddies field tonight.

 

[Dustin_Bentz]

Thanks for the replies...I've got the 5100 series bilsteins that are 3-5 over as well, and leveling kit from the local 4x4 shop. I use this truck every day for work, and driving 200+ miles a day in it, seriously wears you out right now. I plan on keeping the truck for a while, and want it to ride decent.

I'm glad I'm not the only one here who thinks the steering/suspension in these trucks are crap. I love the rest of the truck, but can't get over how badly this thing rides and steers. My truck too has about 4" of slop before the wheels move.

Again, thanks guys!

 

[Ditch Baby]

Picked up a set of new rubbers. 315/75-16 General Grabber AT2s. Not exactly the tire i was looking for, but for $450 brand new with the stickers still on them, i couldnt pass them up.

 

[Joush]

What and how do i check it?


After the dirt road run, the popping has gotten much worse.

Wonder if it could be the sway bar bushings on the frame?

I got a pretty good pop and bang on the floorboard turning around in my buddies field tonight.

Sorry for the late reply.
The only way we found out is we replaced the sway bar bushings and still had the noise. Another thing could be the front ujoints binding

 

[dieseldork]

Picked up a set of new rubbers. 315/75-16 General Grabber AT2s. Not exactly the tire i was looking for, but for $450 brand new with the stickers still on them, i couldnt pass them up.

Nice looking truck there ditch baby

 

[thlad11]

Looks good man. I want a set of those arms

 

[Ditch Baby]

Sorry for the late reply.
The only way we found out is we replaced the sway bar bushings and still had the noise. Another thing could be the front ujoints binding

Clunk turned out to be a body mount... go figure

 

[dieseldork]

Looks good man. I want a set of those arms

Just send me a pm if you are interested

 

[thlad11]

I

Just send me a pm if you are interested

Well I tried but I can't until I have 10 posts...weird rule

 

[Ditch Baby]

Well I tried but I can't until I have 10 posts...weird rule

you only need 6 more posts, go ***** it up in other threads, tell people their truck looks good or something.

 

[cummins724]

I've been kicking around the idea of building my own bars "when I get time" for too long now. I spoke to Mitchell and I've decided to get a set of these Titan control arms for my truck. I appreciate the writeup you have done Ditch Baby. It looks like I've made a good choice. Gonna pay the man tomorrow.