I went over to a mechanic/friend's house on Saturday and worked on installing the OME suspension. We had difficulty with the rear coils, since neither of our spring compressors would work, his was too big, and the one I rented, the grabbers were too short to reach across and center on the coils. When we would compress it, it would just spin down. We ended up taking off the rear upper bump stop (bolts sheared - no upper bump stops in rear now), the sway bar, and the cross member bar (I don't know what else to call it). Then we used a small jack situated between the axle and where the upper bump stop normally is, to push the axle down as low as we could. We were able to fit in the new OME spring as well as a 2" spacer on the bottom, designed for a Toyota Sequoia, but it fits perfect (purchased from Fat Bob's Garage for around $60). The rear shocks weren't too bad, except all of my bolts were very difficult to remove (this was a Chicago truck).

Next we tackled the front shocks. The passenger side went on without a hitch. The driver's side was ugly! The bottom bolt was rusted to the shock sleave. We smacked it with a large hammer and it would not budge. I ended up cutting the shaft of the shock off with my sawzall. We then used a dremel with a cutting wheel to get out the rusted sleave/bolt (We didn't have access to a torch). It took forever!

Lastly we tackled the torsion bars. Other than the bolt on top of the rear of the torsion bar being difficult to work on, they came off quite easily. Their is an index mark on each end of the splines and the spline receivers. However, the new OME bars (they are thicker than stock) did not have any index marks. I guess it didn't really matter. Make sure to put the end painted green toward the front of the truck. We installed the rear at the same angle as stock. We then tightened it up as far as it would go. Before we put the front wheels back on, I used my sawzall to cut off the upper bump stops on each side. I only left enough so that the axle will not hit the bump stop mounting bolts.

By this time, it was 10:30 p.m. and we were exhausted. The rear is 3" higher than before the installation. The front was a little over an inch higher, definately not level!

So Sunday, I crawled back under the truck and removed the rear of the torsion bar. I reindexed it down 1 notch. I had to used a jack to push it up high enough to get the nut started on the thread. I then proceeded to tighten the torsion bar back up to the same position - BIG MISTAKE. When I took it for a little drive to settle the suspension, the front end was bouncing it was so tight!!! I got back under and loosened it about an inch. Took another drive, and it was still bouncing. I did this a couple of more times until I only had about 3/8" of thread left above the second nut. I was kicking myself for tightening it so much after re-indexing. It took forever and my hands are hurting!!! I only have a little space between my axle and the upper bump stops, but haven't noticed any issues driving it in to work this morning. I won't take it off-road until this Friday (Crested Butte).

Now for feedback. I find the new suspension is softer and a little more initial body roll than the stock adjustable system on Medium or Hard. It seems to ride most similar to the Soft setting. I took it easy this morning and haven't pushed it around corners yet.

Overall I am very pleased so far! The truck sits 3" higher and there is a LOT of room above the stock tires. I am measuring 37.5" (give or take a couple of eighths from wheel to wheel) from the pavement to the top of the fender opening with worn 265/70/15 tires. It will easily accommodate 33's, probably even 35's. My 33x10.5x15 new tires should be in today or tomorrow. I will take some pics afterward.

So far I don't notice any issues with the alignment. After I install the new tires, I will take more measurements and see if I need to tweak the torsion bars to level it more. After that is done I will drive it for a while, then get an alignment done.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but hopefully this is helpful to someone in the shoes I was in a few weeks ago.