Alignment issues after lift

I hate to say this(not really),....but this is about the 30th person I've heard having issues with a Rough Country lift....

....I always warn people about them....people always want to save money and buy a "cheap lift"....and this seams to always be the outcome(something doesn't fit right, something is off, rides like hell, etc, etc, etc)....

...and with Rough Country, Super Lift, and other "affordable lifts"....you always seem to need their "optional parts" later on...which brings their lifts close to the price of a quality lift anyways..

....good luck....hopefully you get it fixed.

I appreciate the .02 cents on Rough Country, but I was well aware of what I was buying. I'm not expecting the ride to be spectacular. I did a lot of reading before I bought what I did. I don't regret it.

This isn't my first lift but the first time I took the time to do it myself. I'm not knocking the kit or blaming them on my issues. I think the issue is more along the lines that I did or didn't do something right during the install.

I would agree with you that Rough Country used to be crap lifts but they have improved their quality in the last few years. The shocks still aren't the best but then again with what I paid for the kit I can easily upgrade the shocks down the road.

pretty basic lift I can't see what they could build wrong that wouldn't be obvious from the get go ?
no pitman arm/ no trac drop / alignment was able to be in spec

3" inch isn't much if it was a bigger lift I would question the the parts but in this case
not so much
My 2 pennies

Actually there was a track bar drop

OMG I take it back

your screwed



LOL

sorry 7 pages I forgot

So adjustable track bar is settled then? haha

no I am not on board with that purchase

unless your axle is off center now

or you plan on going higher later

I doubt I'll be going any higher. Plenty of other things I need to do first before worrying about that

I'll look up how to check the axle from center because I have no idea

Zmann said:

pretty basic lift I can't see what they could build wrong that wouldn't be obvious from the get go ?
no pitman arm/ no trac drop / alignment was able to be in spec

3" inch isn't much if it was a bigger lift I would question the the parts but in this case
not so much
My 2 pennies

Click to expand...

Selling a kit with a drop track bar bracket but no drop pitman arm is the problem.

Big Stroker 6.4 said:

Selling a kit with a drop track bar bracket but no drop pitman arm is the problem.

Click to expand...

I would have to disagree. Do you realize how many people by 2.5 to 3.5" lifts with a trac bar drop of some sort whether it be factory bracket spacers or a bracket drop? This is should not be his issue. If he was complaining of maybe bump steer or some death wobble then yeah, it might would help to get the geometry at a closer angle with each other

WoodBoy said:

I would have to disagree. Do you realize how many people by 2.5 to 3.5" lifts with a trac bar drop of some sort whether it be factory bracket spacers or a bracket drop? This is should not be his issue. If he was complaining of maybe bump steer or some death wobble then yeah, it might would help to get the geometry at a closer angle with each other

Click to expand...

OP may have a couple things going on. Seems obvious to me to eliminate any issue that could develope death wobble. I said my peace, I'm out.

Right but I think he is at a point where he wants his current issue fixed, not worried about future things right now

Let us know how it works out. Sounds like what I was trying to figure out with my lift. You need to drop the trac bar mount when dropping the pitman arm. I'd recommend buying a kit that goes together like Icons box kit. I'm replacing my trac bar with PMF's bc it's got 160k on it. Figured I'd go ahead since I'm replacing everything else.

Also, they should have installed new alignment cams when they did the alignment.

only if they couldn't get the caster into spec
I don't know if they used them

and apparently it is aligned and in spec now

For some reason I wasn't getting the notifications of new posts or I'd have jumped back here sooner.

The 3" lift came with a radius arm drop, so to my understanding that eliminates the need for alignment cams. Caster is good though.

WoodBoy said:

Right but I think he is at a point where he wants his current issue fixed, not worried about future things right now

Click to expand...

Yes and no. This is my first SFA truck so I want to make sure I've got it set up right. What BigStroker was saying makes sense, but I've read and got conflicting info on at what point a pitman arm drop is needed. Granted Rough Country isn't the biggest name in the lift world, but they have been around a while so I'm thinking if it was really needed it would have been included with the kit. Plus when I had called Rough Country after the install to specifically ask about the pitman drop they told me it wasn't needed for 3".

The steering wheel being off center is really the only "issue" that I have now. I've had multiple professional shops look at my front end and they all tell me that everything is tight and they can't find any biding. My truck has also been driven multiple times by multiple techs. The only thing left it could be (and I've been told this twice now) is that there could be slop in the steering box that would cause the issue I'm having. I'd like to jump in there and try to tighten it up, but from what I've read on it, it's very touchy and can cause only more problems if over-tightened.....and I have a big problem with over-tightening things lol

the drop radius arm brackets can negate the need for the adjusters depending on the bracket and lift height your correct yours should be fine


the steering slop if the gear is responsible is easy to do while proper procedure requires removal of pitman and steering this is not practical

if you do small increments at a time you will be fine but establish if the gear is not moving the sector shaft properly with the steering input

my box needed 3 full turns when i bought it then a fine tune a little later

I did a little at a time going through the wheel well that was 70,000 ago

A little update to this.

I pulled all the 3" Rough Country lift off and replaced it with 2.5" Carli stuff (coils, trac bar, shocks). Had it re-aligned after the new lift and all my previous issues are gone.

One of the big thoughts was that it was related to slop in the steering box. It never got any worse, and now that it is corrected, disproves that theory.

Perhaps it was the angle of the pitman arm. Maybe 3" is too much, and it needed a drop bracket.

Anyway the truck is aligned with perfect specs now. It tracks perfectly, and I couldn't be happier.

Which makes me ask the question. What was included in the Carli kit that was not in the rough country.

Cuz if its all the same parts, then it was the i
Un install and reinstall that fixed it.

Rough Country had trac bar drop bracket - Carli had adjustable trac bar
Rough Country had radius arm drop brackets - Carli had alignment cams

Other than that it was just coils and shocks.