well if your going to complain about ride just get ground effects and call it a day. Do the sway's, drop spindle, shackle and hanger and your done. It's kinda like the guy that wants a fast truck but want's to get 50mpg also.

 

I had the Hotch TVS on my 99. Im complaining about how it rode. Sue me.

 

Only myself and the kids on the block like it everbody else has something to say come to think of it everybody else is much older...........oh yeah wifey hates it she's pregnant. I bet my kid loves it....lol

 

tdrumm has the hotchkis tvs kit in his truck and I think it rides great. I've been a passenger in it a few times while driving over the wonderfully paved NJ roads ("your highway tax dollars at work"...my ***), and I thought it handled the potholes and washboard roads very well. Compared to my truck which is a torsion system with lowering keys and shackles, his truck rides like a caddy IMO. (my truck is great on a flat road, but hit a pot hole or washboard and you get slammed all over the place...I still have the factory length shocks though)

I haven't ridden in other trucks with different systems to compare to though, just his (rcsb 2wd Hotchkis tvs...I think he has the proper shocks also), mine (Z71 4x4 Belltech keys and shackles, factory height Bilstein shocks), and many different stock configurations (rcsb Z71, rcsb Z71 w/ Bilstein shocks and 33's, ecsb Z71, 3500 dually, 2500 ccsb, and a few others)

 

Thanks budhayes3, I don't know if Caddy is the word I would use to describe the way my truck rides, but it is very firm and smooth on good roads, and for what it is, handles rough roads pretty well. At least as good as my 95 with Belltech spindles and hangers did. Perfect for my tastes. I'm running Bilstein shocks, the part numbers I can't remember, but it was what Hotchkis recommended. It does bottom out every now and then, and the back likes to get squirrely sometimes over things like bridge expansion joints, or deep manholes, but it was worse when it was stock. There won't be any lean because you are replacing every spring.

It does take some getting used to, and I do know exactly where every manhole cover is on my daily commute. Sometimes people must think I'm drunk the way I swerve to miss them.

 

damn are you serious??? I have always heard nothing but good stuff about them.. hhhmmmm

 

Well I think ima order the tvs system, should be ordering it within the next few weeks, how hard is it to install everything?

 

In general, a lowered vehicle has less suspension travel, and the suspension now must dissapate the impact energy sooner to prevent bottoming.

Although, this makes heavier springs mandatory, the harshness usually comes from a shock that only has one level of damping control. A better shock will have high speed (to handle the sudden hits) and low speed circuits (to handle the dips and banking). The best ones have travel sensitive (rod position) damping also.

I have substantially heavier springs on my dirt bike, but the shocks and forks have been updated with high and low speed circuits and revalved. The difference is amazing.

Buy a set of good shocks from a company who knows what they're doing (i.e.: Koni, Bilstein, etc.) and select the ones from their performance listings, not the one's sold at Advance or Auto Zone. This is one area where you can easily feel your suspension dollars at work. You won't be sorry.