VAS 3/5 Suspension Drop with Traction Bars **FULL INSTALL** 

I couldn't believe there wasn't a single how to video online so I figured why not make one for others. Glad I could help.

awesome. definitely worth the investment.

thanks glad I can help.

Thanks. Yeah I try to include my dad in everything. Making memories 💯

Awesome.......Enjoy

Thanks. Glad I could help.

Thanks!!! Your welcome.

Thanks I appreciate it

been using that creeper for a long time. love it.

glad to help!!! 👍

Thanks!

Well here is my report. Operator error. go figure. I had the Traction Bars to tight to begin with. I loosen them up drove around for a day. vibration was gone. everything is good now

@@fast5.0l18 Fantastic!

Thanks i drive thru dfw on my way to work every 2 weeks but I live in Nacogdoches. oldest town in texas.

@@fast5.0l18 do you have much knowledge on RideTech lowering kits. I read that they are adjustable. I have a 2021 f150 FX4 KR edition. I like the thought on a 3/5 adjustable drop.

The short and sweet answer is after you lower the truck you absolutely must go to the alignment shop because the front end will need it or you will be replacing a set of tires in no time. The ride quality is really pretty good. once you learn the right adjustments. Truck is smooth as silk when you want to cruise down the road and will lauch awesome when you want to race. Something else I did learn is that some trucks but not all of them will have a vibration in the driveshaft after lowering. mine did. went to a local accessory shop and that fixed the problem for me since I couldn't figure it out myself. What they did was actually pretty easy to to yourself but I didn't know any better. The bearing carrier where it bolts to the frame has to be relocated to get the driveshaft angle right. They unbolted the carrier from the factory bracket. Then cut that bracket off the truck frame and grinded it completely smooth. Then painted the area to keep from getting rust. Then took a piece of ¼ inch flat plate with holes in it, took a coat hanger and fished it through the frame so that the holes would line up where the bearing carrier originally bolted. installed the carrier with grade 8 bolts through the frame to the flat plate. and that's it. basically what that does is raise the bearing carrier and pinion angle of the driveshaft to the correct degree needed for lowering the truck. The whole job took them less than 30 mins. cost me $105 / labor and $8 / parts. I'm not complaining it was worth it. Hope this helps.

@@fast5.0l18 Definitely helps a lot, appreciate it! So for alignment did you end up notching out the lower control arm brackets or buy the adjustable arms? I definitely have heard really good stuff about the Viking coils & shocks gonna look into those & some point too! Also good to know about the carrier bearing part. Have you had any issues with bottoming out at all since you didn’t install helper bags?

yeah I live in Nacogdoches

I just put the full vas 3/5 on yesterday with weld in relocated shocks, going to have to get upper control arms my negative camber is bad

Also do you have a Facebook or anything that’s easier to message

That's a good question. I believe the original shocks were bilstein so there is a slight difference I'm guessing.

yes I still have the stock control arms. when I went to the alignment shop they said it barely fit within the tolerance.

yes I had to buy a different traction bar kit. because I flipped the leaf springs below the axels. Then I sold my standard traction bars on Facebook marketplace for $250. had it sold in less than 1 hour.

A new bolt came in the kit. It's stronger than OEM.

IYKYK

my understanding is that you don't need a C notch kit until you do a 4/6 drop As for the 3/5 drop... if your on the softest settings for "ride confort" then you will feel the rear hit the bump stops. I adjusted my shocks for a middle of the road setting. Not drag racing but not total comfort either. and it doesn't bottom out anymore. I've heard of plenty of people doing helper bags for the comfort ride and love them. I'll be setting mine up for higher horsepower later this year.

I went to the alignment shop immediately after to check everything and I got lucky and was able to get camber and toe perfect without doing anything else. I've heard some people buying the upper control arms with camber adjustment to make it easier.

honestly yes there is a slight vibration in the driveshaft. I am currently looking to see what the cause is. maybe have to change the shackles slightly which can change the leaf springs and rear end angle. That's one option. another is taking ubolts loose and adjusting pinion angle on driveshaft. I will be talking to VAS about this very soon. side note.... I don't drive this truck very much because I work away from home and use a work truck most of the time. Just made a trip to Houston yesterday and didn't like the way it vibrated from a stop. so I will be finding out very soon what the cause is. I'm probably going to make an updated video to explain what I found and how I fix the problem.

@@fast5.0l18 did you solve the issue? I’ve been having vibrations once i hit 40 mph, i installed some shims to help with the pinion angle which it seemed to make it a bit better but i still have the vibrations

@@SuperXxModderxX So as of now I'm just found out yesterday that the bearing carrier needs to be raised. I went to a local shop that that does lifted trucks and lowered truck. found out its very common. I talked to him about shims and he said "they can work, but if you do any hard acceration it will spit the shims out. The best way to fix the problem is to have the bearing carrier modified. " he told me they have done countless amounts of truck. So I am scheduled to bring my truck to them in a couple of weeks when I get home from work. I'll be making a short video showing what takes place. Side note.... I have taken my rear end apart on my truck 3 times trying to adjust the angle. No matter what I tried it didn't fix the problem. It helped it but not fix it. I've also found out that it doesn't matter what lowering kit you buy, they all have this potential problem. Very few people have actually gotten lucky and didn't have any problems. Like I said soon as I can I'll be making an update video on what takes place.

nothing said one way or another. I just figured if you tighten lugnuts on a wheel before all the weight is on the ground then same rules apply.

@@fast5.0l18 I actually don’t tighten all lug nuts on a wheel. I Snug them as good as I can in a star pattern because with the wheel off the ground it spins. Set it down and torque to spec. Wasn’t trying to be rude or anything I just have been contemplating doing a shackle kit on mine with a block removal and everything always says wait to tighten u bolts particularly with vehicle on the ground. They bind up from one side to another if torqued before weight of the vehicle is on the suspension. Don’t let me bother you though I really wasn’t knocking anybody

I'm guessing it's not necessary because I didn't install that. I've only seen those on high horsepower setups.

been great so far. Ones I got the pinion angle set correctly everything has been fine. I have my suspension set on about a middle of the road as far as adjustments go. I can launch pretty good and it's a fairly smooth ride. Not plush but smooth. Zero issues with suspension parts. Definitely handles the road way better than it did when it was stock.

What process did you do to correct pinion angle? Did you mount the carrier bearing bracket directly to the cross member and shim the axle? Want to lower mine as well. Thanks.

this particular kit was for a 2wd but they do make a kit for the 4x4 as well and it uses basically the same setup.

it took less than 8 hours from start to finish.

@@lightningdad13 thanks looks great! so all the shops quote me 800 to 1000$ for labor so basically they are charging 100 $ + an hour for labor. That's hard to swallow but I want my truck lowered lol

I did some research. thank you for the message. I finally found the torque specs. and will update in the info section.

dang what was bad about that setup

@@fast5.0l18 Bwoody didn't test their traction bars with Maxtrac's leaf spring lift hangers that's included with their 4" lowering kit and the bars ended up being way too long. After going back forth with Mike at BWoody trying to come up with a solution...even dropping another $200 on the extended brackets that WERE supposed to be for "any and all kits that require use of a drop bracket in front of the leaf spring" (it's actually a lift bracket) that didn't work at all. In the end I was forced to trim the adjustable bolt end of the bar... basically cutting it right in half to make it fit. And BWoody had to put a Maxtrac non-compatible disclaimer on the traction bar page. Probably the worst experience I've had with the aftermarket so far. Proper R&D is so important...too bad most companies just do test fits on one product or one make/model of a vehicle and call it good for future products/make/models making the end user do their R&D for them.

@@xxdemonshitxxhow were the IHC control arms?

@@simion33 The control arms were fine for the most part. I didn't take measurements beforehand to see if it was exactly 3 inches, but it was definitely lower and level with the rear once I got rid of my Maxtrac front leaf spring hangers and swapping out the rear leaf brackets for a supposed 5" drop in the back. I'm not sure if the control arms were the cause, but towards the end I started getting a loud clicking noise on the passenger side whenever I let off the brake or came to a complete stop. I greased the arms, checked every component, uninstalled/reinstalled my brakes, and still. I guess we'll see now that that I swapped everything out for IHC's performance kit which uses the stock LCA's.

I guess that depends on what you want to tow. A jetski or trailer with lawnmower..... sure. I wouldn't tow a travel trailer. Just my 2 cents.

@@fast5.0l18 it would be a car , once in a great while ..