Hi my name is Eric. Ironically I have been a member for 8 years, but this is my first post. I am an engineer, and I design pharmaceutical facilities for a living. I used to own an automotive shop, and I have a good bit of experience in building turbo engines and fabrication. I have been wanting a nice truck for a while now. Ever since I had to part with my Syclone, I have been wanting something similar, but a little larger, and with an LS power plant. I was lucky and came across a 2000 3500HD with a service bed for dirt cheap. Unfortunately it was just too far gone to really do anything with. Not to mention it didn't have an LS, and it was longer than i really wanted. Didn't fit in the garage very well. I drove it for a little less than a year, before I was finally able to make a move on getting something newer. I also have a fully built Subaru Forester Turbo, that works great to haul the kids and girl friend around, but it sucks for hauling stuff, or buying materials at Lowes. After looking for quite sometime, I realized that I didn't really care for the 2014/15 trucks because of how boxy they were and the square wheel wells. 2013 seemed to be the newest I could get, and still have the body style that I liked. I also wanted a single cab short bed, and that's where I kinda got stuck. I found it incredibly hard to find to find a RCSB GMC that had a V8, and all the options I wanted..... I was finally able to find a couple once I was willing to get a Chevy rather than a GMC. I also found it easier to find 4wd models with options. Most 2wd's were WT and bare bones. After some thinking I decided it would be better to go with a 4wd model anyway, since I plan on making some extra power down the road..... and power without traction really isn't much fun. Also, after owning a Syclone and 3 Typhoons I really liked the idea of eventually converting my 4WD to full time AWD. I finally found one that I really liked about 3.5 hours away in VA, just NW of VA beach. (I live in Cary NC) The girl friend wanted to see VA beach anyway so we drove up the day before and stayed the night in VA beach, then went to the dealership the following morning. Don't laugh at the picture of me at the dealership, I know I was cheezing, but in all fairness I have mostly only owned used cars with wear and tear. This truck was still used, but I was super excited to get something that still smelled new, without paying new truck prices.

This post will hopefully track my progress with the truck. I didn't even own it 24 hours before I purchased shackles for the rear lol

 

That's a nice truck , can't wait to see the build start.

 

Looks good dude, good place to start. I know your tenacity and skills for machinery so I'm sub'ing for the build !

 

So I went online and entered my data into the belltech website and ordered a rear shackle kit that says 2-3" drop (depending on weather you remove the lift blocks). I used amazon cause they had a decent price, I had a credit, and free 2 day shipping. I also grabbed a set of 2 deg shims in case the shackles changed the angle that the driveshaft attaches the rear end.



next i broke out my angle finder so that I could measure the angle of the rear end when it was sitting flat on the ground.



I pulled the truck in and picked it up so I could get started.



This is where things started going south...... I knew that the longer the shackle the more the drop, and also the more the angle of the rear end changes. Much to my dismay i quickly realized that my 2" drop shackles were shorter than the stock shackles, and if I installed them I would be lifting the truck rather than lowering it.



I quickly ran to the computer to try to figure out how I ordered the wrong part. What I found is that the application guide is wrong. I then decided to punt and at least remove the lift blocks only to find in the instructions that if i remove them I need additional parts not included in the kit...... thats when I made this face. I was literally thinking **** belltech.

 

after some careful measuring I decided the spacers recommended are not actually required, because there are enough threads to tighten down the rear end without the lift blocks. I moved forward with the 1" drop.



I resisted the urge to totally remove the U bolts worried that the rear end might try to eject on the lift. Better safe than sorry.



after consideration I was unable to figure out why the factory used these. I guess they go on the Z71 trucks to give them a little more lift for towing heavy ****? The lift blocks are surprisingly heavy.



Finished the install..... or technically I guess its a delete rather than an install.



While I was under the truck I was pleasantly surprised to see coilovers rather than torsion bars. Next I have to decide how to lower the front. I was hoping to drop it 1" by adjusting the torsion bars..... obviously thats not happening. Time to do a little more research into the aftermarket.

 

One of my friends also had a truck like that and what he did to lower the front was to change that the coilover would be under the control arm and the bolts would bolt up from top to bottom, but that lowered it more then 1".

 

I have some coil spring relocators just sitting on my tool box that I won't be using anymore. Not sure if that is route you want to take or not but I'd sell them for alot less than they are new. You'll have to research them if you don't know exaclty what they are, or you can install drop struts that some vendors sell.