When I lowered my truck a few weeks ago, I accidentally but the front bump stops too short, and they weren't contacting the lower control arms. Although the truck rode nice and handled great from the lowering and the Toyos, it was a little wishy washy up front.

I ordered new factory bump stops from GMpartsDirect, pn 15161761 that I found either here or SilveradoSS.com, can't remember (where I found the pn that is). They're rubber as opposed to the hard material that my original Z71 suspension came with. I trimmed them down so that they're just touching the control arms with the vehicle at rest, with maybe a little weight on them.

Well what a difference in the ride, I can't believe it. The wishy-washiness is gone, and the cornering is much improved...it's like I put a new set of sway bars in there. So now I feel like the lowering is finally complete...time to move on to debadging and building the LQ9. Oh yea, I removed the front tow hooks while I was under there to add to the smoother, sleeker look...looks much better IMO

 

Hey, I'm back so I'm just catching up, but did you get the alignment sorted out too? I'd like to see it sometime soon.

And you mentioned new sway bars........

 

Welcome back Tom! Hope you had a good time!

I took care of the alignment last Saturday...went to Toyota of Hackensack where my buddy Louie is the foreman. We ordered and mounted my winter meats (Toyo Open Country AT's, 275/70R 16) on my factory aluminum wheels, and bolted them on for the alignment so I wouldn't have to worry about scratchin the Gibbs. I was just able to get the alignment where I wanted it...I have -.5* camber on the left, -.6* camber on the right, 3.9 caster on the left, and 4.0 caster on the right. Total toe is about .05 if I remember correctly. Thrust angle (the direction the rear axle is facing) is right at -.02 which is almost perfect (0.0 being perfect). It went smooth as butter aside from me whacking my head and re-opening a cut that I acquired the week before while installing the rear shackles

Yea, you gotta check it out now, it's like a totally different truck. The ride is real nice too, except for real bumpy or washboard roads, and certain big dips/potholes...when I hit those it wants to jump and change lanes. Reminds me exactly of the way my old Monte SS used to ride.

I'd definitely like to eventually do some sway bars...it corners so well now, I can only imagine what it would be like with some nice Hotchkis or Hellwigs front and rear...body work and LQ9 comes first though

Oh yea, and my old 285's are already gone too. My friend who lives in Mass was around last weekend and we went to the Dover race with a bunch of dudes. He mentioned how he wants to upsize the tires on his 03 or 04 HD, and the 285/75R-16's are just what he's looking for. I told him I'd just give him mine, but he wanted to give me something in return, so he's giving me the Peter Max Dale Earnhardt 1:24 die-cast car that he has 2 of (he bought one for himself w/o telling his wife, and she got him the same one for Christmas...it's the car with all of the different colors on it, and alot of yellow...kinda looks like a paint pallette). I've wanted that car for a long time, but everywhere I see it, it's priced way out of the range of what I want to spend on another die cast car. So I guess I'm gonna keep my die-cast collection now that I have a new addition. I started going through them the other night to get them ready for ebay, and I just couldn't do it

Welcome home!