Done!
Well, we did it and it it wicked good. My brother-in-law and I installed McGaughy's 3''/5'' kit yesterday and it was a breeze. It did take us a little under 8 hrs but that is because neither of us had done it before and we were working with pretty basic tools and off jack stands instead of a lift. After we did the first front spindle and torsion key it went pretty quick. We got it all figured out on the first wheel so I could tear down the second while he put the first one back together. All in all it was a piece of cake just time consuming. The rear was not hard but kind of a pain in the ass, the kit did not come with instructions for the rear and it was unclear which hardware to use. They just gave us a bag of hardware, two springs, control arm relocators, and sway bar linkage...... we figured it out though.
All in all I think it was an easy install. The ball joints in the front gave us the biggest problems but if you have a ball joint press to get them out it would be a breeze, we were working with a tiny little ball joint separator and it was a REAL pain to get the lower ball joint out. My brother in law is a race car mechanic so he was able to troubleshoot some of the issues that arose but there was nothing too crazy just your run of the mill taking a 5yr old truck apart kind of stuff.
I would seriously say if you are moderately knowledgeable about ball joins and shocks and you have a descent set of tools and some jack stands you can do this install yourself or a buddy would make it a lot easier but save the $200-$400 the shops want to charge for this job it's just not that hard. I called four shops here in Phx and was quoted $200-$400 some including and some not including alignment. I do have to go get me alignment done on Monday but it is handling fine and not pulling at all and it will cost me like $50.
I do suggest investing in a $40 7 ton gear puller to do the torsion keys and not the $100 torsion key unloader. The puller grips the frame on two sides and seems to be much more stable to me than the glorified c-clap that is the torsion key unloader.
So what's my point? The shops I called built this job up to be hard and it was not. It just takes some paying attention, moderate mechanical knowledge, descent tools, and the better part of a Saturday afternoon......
I'll try and get some pics up soon.........
