1995 Dodge Ram 1500 Skyjacker Suspension - Higher Rambitions

10. At first glance the new Skyjacker pitman arm looks just like the stock arm, but a closer inspection of the arm reveals a reverse taper. This taper allows the drag link to be mounted on the bottom of the arm instead of the top, which helps it compensate for the increased suspension lift.

11. This photo shows the new pitman-arm bolt being tightened on the sector shaft. In the foreground the new Skyjacker steering stabilizer is visible. We opted for a single steering stabilizer but a dual is also available. Installation of the stabilizer is pretty straightforward, though it is repositioned slightly to eliminate downward stress on the drag link. A pair of front sway-bar drop-down brackets and a pair of new poly bumpstops round out the major new front suspension components.

12. Skyjacker notes that it's important to cycle the steering and check clearance between the sway-bar end-link mounts at the front base of the coil springs and the drag-link tie-rod assembly. We had some contact between the drag link and the base of the passenger-side coil-spring mount.

13. A little bit of grinding provided the clearance needed for the drag link to travel unrestricted.

14. Rear lift is accomplished via new leaf-spring packs. The first step in removing the old rusty spring packs was to cut the factory U-bolts off with a grinder. The next step is to remove the spring packs, but before that can be done the fuel tank must be loosened and carefully slid toward the center of the vehicle so the forward spring-eye bolt on the driver side can be accessed. Naturally, our well-weathered truck had rusty fuel-tank straps that disintegrated when the technicians tried to remove them. This necessitated ordering a new $63 set from Chrysler.

15. We had new spring-eye bolts on hand in case any or all of our six had to be destroyed during the removal process. A word of warning: These bolts are expensive. We paid $21.70 for each bolt, but fortunately all of our bolts were removed without a problem so we could return the pricey new ones.

16. Once the old leaf springs were out of the Ram, it was just a matter of swapping the factory shackles to the new Skyjacker leaf springs. With that done, Alich installed the new springs using the factory blocks and the new Skyjacker U-bolts.

17. Here's the finished rear suspension with the new Hydro shocks. In addition to what you see here, the kit also contains a driver-side brakeline relocation bracket.

18. We chose to run a set of 315/75R16 Mickey Thompson MTZ radial tires. We chose the MTZs because we really like this mud terrain's inherent ability to bite into surfaces that would leave other tires spinning. They have what Mickey Thompson calls "Power Ply sidewalls," which have a special angled third ply that gives high-performance handling, better puncture resistance, and improved towing capability. We'll appreciate the self-cleaning, high-void tread lugs, which we expect will give us great traction in mud and snow--standard fare here in the Midwest.

19. Our Ram rolled on 15-inch wheels, but we chose to upgrade to 16-inch because we intend on installing bigger brakes. We opted for 10-inch-wide Mickey Thompson Classic Lock wheels. They're a handsome wheel and they're easy to clean. They come with valve stems, chrome center caps, and a polished ring. We're big fans of the beadlock look and these wheels are some of the most realistic beadlock-looking wheels out there. We chose to upgrade to a black ring, and we think the whole package looks great.

20. Earlier we mentioned that the new adjustable Skyjacker track bar can be shortened up by inch to facilitate the lateral adjustment of the front axle. The team at Forreston Auto Body had to remove this amount using a chop saw in order to correctly place the front axle. Here you can see the internal threads of the track bar before the bar was trimmed.

21. One of the many cool things about Forreston Auto Body is that they can do alignments in-house. One of the benefits of this is that if a problem is encountered during alignment (like a bad tie-rod end or ball joint), most often the problem can be quickly fixed in-house. They reported that our Ram aligned beautifully. With that, the installation was complete.