recommendation on replacement heavy duty front end parts
 

The truck in my signature needs some front end work. At a minimum, upper and lower ball joints, idler control arm. They are not horrible, but it also needs an alignment (pulls right, and is wearing the outside front passenger tire), so I figure I better just do it all anyway prior to the alignment. A lot of these aftermarket replacement parts are horrible. OEM stuff didn't last too long either (the truck only has 80K gentle miles). Anyone have any recommendations on heavy duty or good quality replacement parts?

Carli for the BJ's.

Hey thanks for the info. Yea Carli makes some sweet stuff. However....not for my 02 (second generation); only 03 and newer. Thanks again though!

Carli for sure on the ball joints bud I'm gonna order mine from CJC offroad!

Lemme know how you make out bud...I don't think Carli makes em for our 2nd gens.

I have a 94 2500/4x4... I have replaced everything in the suspension... here's a few tips, take 'em or leave 'em...

OEM rebuilt steering boxes = JUNK!(went through two! were both perfect looking... and completely mis adjusted and had more play than my original at 300k (even after centering and adjusting over-center screw as well as pre-load bearing!!)
replaced with a RED-HEAD steering gear, major improvement... not great though... will be getting a borgeson in the next week...

Already have the Borgeson intermediate shaft installed, that cured a HUGE portion of wander n play in the wheel... no-one should discount that as a cause... I couldn't feel any play in the old shaft when it was off the truck but it was an immediate noticeable difference...

my ball joints are still good, got about 120-140k or so on 'em, cant remember the brand... KEEP THEM LUBED, (no-one does... :) ) (just remembered, Spicer PRO (not the regulars... I'm 98% sure...)

all front end parts minus ball joints are MOOG, all is well there EXCEPT: trackbar(small taper for my particular truck) is screwed with ~5,000 miles on it, the ball joint (heim??) on the end is wobbly and it worked loose in the taper on the truck, now while RE-tightened, there is a millimeter of space between the bar and the frame mount point... I dont trust the damn thing now...

going to replace with the adapter plate and a 03+ trackbar to finalize my B.S. wandering crap for good...

TLDR: I cheaped out a bit in the beginning and decided to use "GOOD" oem style stuff, because "the designers had to know what they were doing..." blah, blah... four gearboxes, two track bars, and about $1,000 set on fire later, I will be putting a borgeson box, and a new style trackbar on... with the adapter...

will be selling a red-head gearbox with about 4-5k on it used for cheap with no core if anyone is interested... ;) i'll throw in a moog small taper problem solver track bar, and probably a b-d gearbox brace as well...

moral: don't cheap out, it costs in the (not so)long run... for me anyway.

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oh yeah,

General Spring in Kansas city, KS makes good springs... excellent prices, (2x 4,000lb. 8-leaf packs, $525+shipping with all hardware)...

Bilstein 5100's all around, ----ING GREAT!!

Helwig bigwig rear 1-1/8" swaybar. makes the camper easy...

Nitto CROSSTEK, is an awesome m+s tire, makes ZERO noise on the highway, excellent ice traction on my truck...

I have always sworn by Moog for Dodge front end parts... That's just my opinion!