Lowering a Z71

[wrath]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Red03SilSS &#064; Aug 18 2006, 04&#58;27 PM) [snapback]61613[/snapback]</div>

First of all, I didnt mean for you to get mad about my comment. It was an Honest Opinion. And a Z71 is not worthless for off roading anyway, I have owned 2 of them and Live on a farm and have taken them through some pretty nasty stuff. Back to the alignment questions. Ill ask my tech on monday and get back with you, he is gone for the day. I do know what once you mess with the tortion bars it makes it near impossible to get a perfect alignment, just depending on how much you tortion it up or down.
[/b]

I&#39;m not mad at all. A Z71 is a joke for a wheeling rig as far as I&#39;m concerned. They&#39;re fine and dandy for going down a wet grassy two-track to your favorite hunting blind but the first 16" log you get to you&#39;re done. 1/2 ton IFS can&#39;t even hold up to 33s in the mud and I&#39;ve watched 1 ton IFS break with 35s. This rig, locked front and rear on 33" TSLs was a meek wheeler and a Z71 couldn&#39;t even get to the trailhead where I went with that thing. This thing had 39.5x15-15 TSLs on it locked front and rear with 4 wheel disc brakes and 120" of leaf spring with 180" total length. It rode like a Cadillac but it was still too girly. 4 wheel steer with 1.5" 35 spline 300m shafts is where it&#39;s at now.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tim Z &#064; Aug 18 2006, 04&#58;44 PM) [snapback]61616[/snapback]</div>

First Thank you for the comp Red03SilSS &#33;&#33; 2nd, A chevy truck looks great anyway you can imagine most of the time, But IMO its a Sin to lower a 4x4, at least where i live cause we buy them to go hunting/camping with and also have fun and great traction on the street. I think they sit low stock&#33; But if i wanted a Low truck i would have got an SS and and slammed it with 20&#39;s. But you gotta do what you like , there&#39;s NO wrong way . BTw the Z71 package is NOT worthless, Of course it is weaker than a straight axle but it does every thing well, and if your going to beat it and rock crawl its not ment for that. It does ride a LOT better than a straigh axle, ivwe owned plenty of both.Whats worthless about a factory locker, gas shocks and skid plates? better than what ford offers, no locker in their off Road package
[/b]

Well, I can pull the Z71 stickers off and paint the 4wd buttons black if that&#39;ll make you feel better. I have two other vehicles I use for hunting/camping... both far more capable than this one could ever be. You need 4wd here because we get a lot of snow. On average, 300" of snow a season. It starts snowing at the end of September and doesn&#39;t stop until the end of April.

I do agree they sit kind of low stock but I don&#39;t care. For me, it&#39;s a truck to get me to the auto parts store and to trailer my junk around. It&#39;s not like you&#39;re going to wheel something with a 144" wheelbase anyway. I&#39;d like to lower it some more to hopefully improve fuel economy, make it look better (always rolling downhill look is retarded), and make it handle better.

My truck didn&#39;t come with a grenadelock and it&#39;s a Z71. It&#39;s got a lunchbox locker now. It&#39;s got the blingin&#39; plastic skidplates (good for keeping the crickets out of your belts and that&#39;s about it), the 3.73 cogs, the red Bilsteins, and the fancy stickers. I mean, it&#39;s so great it came with TWO slipyokes.

[Z71sierra7787]

Sounds like you shoulda bought that new honda truck to me and done us all a favor so we wouldnt have to cringe at the sound of dropping a Z

[DBYRD]

first of all im gonna say i understand y no one likes them dropped, but if u debadge it, it turns essentially into a weaker ss, with uprgrades it could be similar to an ss but i wouldnt say its a sin to do that to a 4x4 truck, its what they did with the ss so i dont get y its any different. i like/love TimZ&#39;s truck more than any Z ive ever seen that was a Z71, but i think it wouldnt be as bad as eveyone makes it out to be, do ur thing man&#33;

[Red03SilSS]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Z71sierra7787 &#064; Aug 18 2006, 11&#58;56 PM) [snapback]61674[/snapback]</div>

Sounds like you shoulda bought that new honda truck to me and done us all a favor so we wouldnt have to cringe at the sound of dropping a Z
[/b]

[2k5Squirrel]

looks like he has a more than capable 4by to me. lower you Z and go take out a few SSS

[KySilverado]

I&#39;ve thought about lowering mine several times. The rear already is just to level it. Would be a looks thing.

[SCIV]

It&#39;s yours, drop it. I finally have a lowered truck after many jacked ones. Ridin&#39; on 44&#39;s got old after awhile. Then 35&#39;s got old. Even dropped I&#39;m still on factory 31&#39;s&#33;&#33;

[DBYRD]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(2k5Squirrel &#064; Aug 19 2006, 10&#58;17 AM) [snapback]61707[/snapback]</div>

looks like he has a more than capable 4by to me. lower you Z and go take out a few SSS
[/b]

i agree, u still wouldnt have the z60 suspension, or the 6.0 lq9, or all the cosmetics, gears, and all time AWD but itd be nice to be able to run in 4hi.

[wrath]

Don&#39;t need a Honda, the only thing ever made that was unibody that I liked were the F-bodies and the Y-bodies. Those Honda pickups wrinkle the rear pillar if you run them up a RTI ramp. It&#39;s worse than Ford&#39;s 05up F150&#39;s flopping boxsides when the tailgate is down.

I always thought the great part of the SS was the fact it came with a rear swaybar and it got a 6.0L in a 1/2 ton. You could get 4.10 cogs in a half ton. From what I understand (which is quite possibly wrong), the SS shocks aren&#39;t even as good as the 46mm Bilsteins on the Z71s.

So, if I get rid of the rear block (likely just going to replace it with a 1" block), throw a beefier front swaybar and a rear swaybar on it and swap in a LQ4 I&#39;ll have me a lifted SS. haha. I&#39;ll take my crappy 246 transfer case over the AWD (149 is it now?) transfer case. It&#39;s not like you really need AWD below 450hp.

I like the look of Tim Z&#39;s truck. It&#39;s clean and proportional.

[Red03SilSS]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wrath &#064; Aug 21 2006, 10&#58;46 AM) [snapback]61836[/snapback]</div>

Don&#39;t need a Honda, the only thing ever made that was unibody that I liked were the F-bodies and the Y-bodies. Those Honda pickups wrinkle the rear pillar if you run them up a RTI ramp. It&#39;s worse than Ford&#39;s 05up F150&#39;s flopping boxsides when the tailgate is down.

I always thought the great part of the SS was the fact it came with a rear swaybar and it got a 6.0L in a 1/2 ton. You could get 4.10 cogs in a half ton. From what I understand (which is quite possibly wrong), the SS shocks aren&#39;t even as good as the 46mm Bilsteins on the Z71s.

So, if I get rid of the rear block (likely just going to replace it with a 1" block), throw a beefier front swaybar and a rear swaybar on it and swap in a LQ4 I&#39;ll have me a lifted SS. haha. I&#39;ll take my crappy 246 transfer case over the AWD (149 is it now?) transfer case. It&#39;s not like you really need AWD below 450hp.

I like the look of Tim Z&#39;s truck. It&#39;s clean and proportional.
[/b]

I beg to differ on the shocks. My 99 NBS Z had a rough as hell ride. My SS rides like a Cadi. If you plan on dropping your Z and doing all that stuff it wont be a jacked up SS. Simply bc the SS is only 2 inches lower than the 4 x 4 chevy. and sits up higher than a 2WD truck. The all wheel drive is awesome. Especially if it is raining. No I dont need it all the time. But it I has 2 WD i would smoke my tires when I punched it at the line. with the AWD there is no was to not grip. Just a matter of preference i guess.