Shock & Awe
Now that the lift was complete, it was time to put on the new idler arms, pitman arms, control arms, and tie rods. According to Greg, “This is a very easy one. Look at the picture showing the GM stock tie rods next to the rods from Rare Parts, Inc. I'm surprised that GM produced a heavy-duty truck with such weak parts, especially with the weight of the diesel motor above and the power it produces. I feel much better with the upgraded parts.”
Indeed, the stock parts are known to fail prematurely, according to Rare Parts, so beefing them up was the order of the day. The bits we got from Rare are “a real nice setup, a lot beefier than stock,” says Ryan.
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Once those were installed and ready to go, the final piece of the puzzle was the shocks themselves. Shocks are relatively easy to put on, especially compared to what they’d just done; just take out two bolts, slide the old ones out, slide the new ones in, put the bolts back.
Finishing up the underside of our rig are steps from N-Fab. Greg says, “There are so many steps out there to choose from, but, I thought the look of the N-Fab steps would fit well with the overall theme of this project. They were easy to install and are built to last. I'm a bit sawed off so having the third step to reach things in the bed is a convenience for me.”
The steps themselves posed little trouble to put on. All they needed to do was drill a couple extra holes and bolt them on.