Im looking to crank my t bars on my 2000 xlt 4x4. It already rides pretty crappy and obviously its a truck its not going to be perfect. Question is can I buy new t bars and will it improve my ride and which ones do I buy? any other suggestions on how to improve ride would be nice as well

 

Stiffer bars will resist sagging. #1 bars are the stiffest

You can buy tbars from Rock Auto

 

no newer bars especially stiffer ones aren't going to make ur ride any BETTER, thats usually for people like stated above that are sagging and want to get the lift back in the front end. really the only thing thatts going to improve ur ride quality is shocks and tires. obviously tires are a big thing, depedning on what u have, if they are balanced and wear smoothly play a big role. ur biggest bang for the buck as far as ride quality I would say wuld be new shocks. id recommend bilsteins 5100's i think is the number or somethin close to that. now they are pretty expensive being usually somewhere around $75 a shock give or take alil but ive heard nothing but great things about them and for the most part ive heard everyone say they are the best shock you can buy for stock replacements. hope this helps, Zach

 

^^what he said

 

also what would the difference be between cranking the t bars i have now vs. buying new keys for it

 

DO NOT buy keys. its a waste of money to buy those when you already have the t bar front suspension. They are only going to do exactly what your truck already has so just crank your stock torsion bars, go get an alignment and be good to go man. Where most people run into problems is thinking that they can crank their t bars for an inch or 2, and then buy the keys for another inch or 2 for a total of 3 or 4 inches of lift and this is not true. I think the torsion bars cant even possibly go over 3 inches and I think even at that your talking about some serious damage your doing. Dont ever expect more than 2 inches from a tbar lift and like stated before your front end still will compress to the same spot no matter how much you crank them which is why so many run into rubbing issues on tires because they think how the truck sits on level ground is a good sign of how big a tire they can run, but when doing offroad or flexing the tires ends up getting into parts, bumper, fender, things like that. So if you go the money, crank your torsion bars til level or right under level with the rear, get an alignment, and go buy some bilstein shocks and ride on my friend.

 

x2 on cranking the t-bars and grabbing the shocks
- [to add] Over cranking your T-bars will also (in most cases) lead to a shorter life out of your CV shafts. i would say go for 2" on down and not on the over 2" side, but that's just me.

 

just a crazy question along the lines of this topic, would uncranking the t-bars, say 1/2", make the ride a bit softer?? give the t-bars more room to twist?

 

idk.. but for future reference, everyone should send SnowWheeler a PM asking him all your t-bar cranking questions!! cause he knows a ton of facts about tbars and stuff..

 

x2 plus he is the guy to talk to when you need to jack your truck up

 

Hahaha, that poor kid.

 

yes it will prolly help some, idk how much of a difference you will actually notice when driving, alot of it depends on what type of roads you will be on and bumps and things of that nature. when cranking them, it limits the travel which over bumps will be a harsher ride so I guess in theory, uncranking them slightly will help your ride..... I havent decided if im going to uncrank mine about a 1/2 inch or not. mine are almost maxed out being level with the rear so I might put in my shackle in the rear that I have laying around and leave it like that, or might keep the rear stock and unkcrank the front alil, so many decisions??? hmmm