alright yawl
ive beedn thinking about doing a solid axle swap on my 04 2500hd. ive been looking at different kits on the new. i was wondering if anyone has done it to there trucks and what they think about it. im just trying to get different people opitions about it. can anyone give me some help on this????

 

why are you looking at doing the swap? the ride is going to be poopie afterwards

 

i have had 2 sets of wheel bearings go bad and there gone again. i can get a year out of a set and thats it, ive had to replace tire rod ends on it multi tomes due to the front wheels pulling in when in 4wd, and i have been thinking about hooking it to a sled in the future, i just think that it would be alot stronger than ifs.my buddy has it on his 00 dmax and his dont ride bad.

 

i slep pull alot, and drag race alot also, i never have any problems with it failing on me after i addressed the small trouble areas. and there are tons of other duramax guys with IFS still being top competitors in sled pulling an drag racing, theres really nothing wrong with it

if your front end is cranked up and your cv angles are extreme it will give you problems in any 4wd situation on the road, it does pull you to the side when you launch in 4wd with the tortion bars cranked up its just how it is.

thats why you see anybody whos going to drag or sled pull u see them drop thier tbars and lower the front end all the way down, it gives you multiple advantages in both competitons

 

that and upgraded parts.... will help, be a whole bunch cheaper than trying to swap a new axle under it

but if you were gonna do it i would use the Dodge AAM, should be similar, but my Dodge rode like a TANK compared to my dmax

 

From what I have read, it takes a 6"+ lift to do the SAS. Thought about it, but for $3k for the kit plus axle and tires / wheels when I was looking, it was not in he budget.

 

x2 I researched this almost exactly 12 months ago and that was my conclusion. The smallest life you can do for a SAS is 6-8" on a GM right now (supposedly ORU is developing a low-lift SAS kit for our 01+ trucks), in addition to the larger tires you'd run with such a setup. (Probably 35"-37" tires)

Solid Axle Conversion, Convert your Chevy IFS to a Straight axle
cheapest leafsprung kit is $1295

Pure Performance, Inc.
$3000 Dodge AAM axle coil-over kit

I say go for it, despite what everyone else has said so far. IFS sucks!! Sure, tie rod sleeves help but if you want to have dependability off-road, you need a solid axle. Just ask No Problem https://www.dieselbombers.com/off-ro...e-weekend.html
Everyone who has done a SAS to their GM truck will tell you the same thing; basically they got sick of spending $2000 at a time to replace failed IFS parts at regular intervals because it can't take the off-road abuse.

But if you're not gung-ho about going off-road and just want to drive hard on the street, tie-rod sleeves and the other aftermarket pieces should be all that's necessary for that kinda stuff.

 

You will easily spend over 10 grand on a straight axle swap. And the wheel bearings go bad on those axles too! So you really solve nothing!

If you strengthen the ifs and do not crank the t-bars you should not have trouble. The 3/4 ton ifs is really strong. I have wheeled mine pretty hard for years and have not had any major problems.

 

and you run over cars too

 

cognito actually sells HD tie-rods that fit under stock height trucks, as well as all the other HD parts to make your IFS as strong as you need to be, and you wont sacrifice your ride

I had to replace tie-rods, wheel barrings, front axel u-joints and a couple other things on my dodge and it ended up costing me something like $1400 for parts at cost! my cousin did the work so that was free, but ouch that hurts, and it needs to be done ever 100,000 miles or so...