Yeah I'm done lifting trucks , ride quality and parts just don't last . I'm going to be like an old man from now on and leave it alone lol.

 

Wait... your wife drove it for most them miles.. right????

 

All but maybe 1000 of them. The only time I drive that thing is when we go out of town or to eat or something and we take that truck. And all she does with it is drive back and forth to work. The thing hasn't seen anything worse than dusty pavement since I put the parts on. It's not like I took the thing rock crawling lol. Hell, even my driveway is asphalt..

Well there was that one time I turned around in the grass in the front yard... Think that did it?

The tires showed up yesterday after being ordered the day prior, I can't say enough about Discount Tire Direct. Basically free overnight shipping on 4 40lb tires?! Awesome. Got road hazard and the warranty with them and it was still less than every tire shop locally. Mount/balance will cost me another $80 and alignment another $70 but I consider an alignment normal maintenance, so that's not a big deal. By the time they're on the truck I'll have less than $750 in them and that's with a 65,000 mile warranty. I don't think that's bad at all.

I used to chuckle at guys who shopped for tires because of a tread wear number, I have now become one of them haha. I guess I am getting tired of buying tires in my old age, not to mention I've got other stuff to spend money on these days like... Um... A kid, so yeah

 

If anyone's curious or about to have to do the same... By the time I am done with this little overhaul I'll be in it for roughly $1300... That's tires, all the front end parts, shackles and an alignment. That's with me doing the labor of course.

 

if you have a gmt900 with over 40k miles. you need ball joints. when i was working at a chev dealer, every single on that came in with over 40k on it needed them. tie rod ends weren't so much of an issue though

 

Although i havent done the loaded control arm test yet ( which i will next oil change ) mine seems fine. The rotors are vibrating pretty bad now though, Im right at 40k miles.

 

Mines got 781.6, think I'm ok?

 

FWIW, leveling kits have a pretty solid reputation for creating excessive wear on stock front end components. I've got one on my truck, and I like it, but I check the front end more often because of it.

 

I'll never lift another truck as long as I own trucks...

It'll either stay stock or get a very small drop. My 2000 was dropped 4" in the front for about 6-7 years, had 120K dropped miles on it and way more than that total on it and never had any slack. The more I mess with this GMT900 the more they appear to be "throw away trucks" hopefully (but very doubtful) the next gen will be better. I miss my 800's

 

Lifting the ol' solid front axle trucks isn't as much of an issue, but unless you go for an older kingpin style, you are still gonna have to deal with balljoints...it's just that they aren't subjected to the brutal forces like that of a constantly moving IFS.

I much prefer the on-road control of IFS, but will probably always have or want a solid axle 4x4 just for having fun in.