Dodge Power Wagon Dodge M880 Dodge W200
An extreme lifted Dodge Power Wagon M880 W200 will not give problems when you use the right parts, do not weld or cut at your steering components, especially home made front blocks under your front leaf springs are very dangerous, so only use high performance steering components, hardware of the right strength and new leaf springs, when I decided to increase my syspension lift again, I choose a Skyjacker lift, 8" rear and 7" front, these are the finally measurements after you have mounted the springs to your truck, I did not buy a complete kit, but I bought the parts separatetely, I wanted the front lift a little bit lower, because I usually carry heavy load in the truck bed, also without with any load this looks really cool, to my opinion, another reason is that the head lamps positions is pretty high because of the extreme lift, now the other road-users are less dazzled from the head lamps of my Dodge Power Wagon in their mirror. Be aware that mounting such an extreme lift in combination with a 3" bodylift needs the following adjustments concerning comfort, roadability and safety.
Tip:
Most shocks are available
in a large range of colours, and the attached shock boots (protects the
shock against dust and dirt) could be red for example, when your Dodge
is completely black, in our case, you can better sand them and repaint
the shocks in your own favorite colour and for the shock boots, you can
order the colour you prefer, in our case black, Summit: EXP-12127 above
Sway
bar (re)installation
The most Dodges of this
type (W200-M880) have facilities for this, in the seventies this
sway eliminator was an option, you have lots of benefits of this on the
highway or in the city, it gives much stability, you can disconnect the
swaybar to have more freedom while you drive through terrain (do this only
when you drive in the terrain), when you lift the Dodge you will
have to apply extended brackets to mount the swaybar to your frame, you
can make these yourself or order them, for example, SJA-SBL40 (Swaybar
Lowering kit) above
Adjustable
draglink
The Adjustable draglink
makes that you can optimize and adjust the turning-circle within the range
from 0 till 8 inch lift, you can combine the combination of raised steering
arm, pitman arm and your new draglink without welding or bending anything
to your steering linkage, no matter what kind of steering box you have,
it will always fit, it saves you a lot of time and pain in the neck, it
looks like that the whole steering linkage is stock, dependant on which
kind of (power)steering box you have (GM or Dodge, both new or old) every
connection is possible to order. Brands: Skyjacker, Procomp,
Superlift above
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Raised
Steeringarm
To mount the adjustable
draglink exact horizontal between pitmanarm (arm mounted at your steeringbox)
and steeringarm you absolute need a raised steering arm, I tested
both the 6" and 8" raised steering arms from Skyjacker, eventually after
several roadtests and measurements the 6" steering arm was the best option
in my situation, cause I had mounted the GM powersteering box pretty high
on the frame, with the eye there seems to be no difference between the
6 and 8" arms, but when you take a good look at the mounting hole to connect
the adjustable draglink you will notice the difference, the hole is tapped
conical but on the 6" it's tapped from under and on the 8" arm it,s tapped
from above, so with the 6" arm the adj. draglink should be mounted as stock,
with the 8" arm the adjustable draglink should be mounted above the steeringarm
(the opposite way), the 8" model is also designed with a slightly different
angle where the tie-rod is to be installed to accomodate this.
Tip:
To remove the old steering arm is a heavy job, better combine this when you work on your front brakes and bearings, then you have more space to reach the old studs, to remove the old studs cut the top of the stud in a way that you can use an adjustable tool that exactly fit (see pictures), do not forget to use spray to loosen the old studs some days before removal.
above
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toovet
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Extended
front drive Shaft Spacer
Indispensable for a strong
reliable connection to your tranfer case. If you want to lift your truck
6 to 8", the extension of your front shaft is a must, actually you
don not lenghten the driveshaft itself, you just lenghten the outgoing
frontshaft of your tranfercase with a spacer mounted to the flange yoke
of your constant velocity joint and of course, longer bolts, now your front
shaft won't touch your frame anymore under extreme circumstances, you keep
the same spline contact with the same strenght, as before lift. Summit,
Brand: Superlift Partnumber: SLF-4310. above
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Flexible extended stainless
steel brakelines
With such an increased
lift you have to lenghten your flexible brakelines to the axles, also check
your whole brakesystem for rust, bends and damages. above
Suggestions,
extended brakelines
Summit: SKYJACKER:
SJA_FBL60 FRONT
SJA RBL61 REAR
The stock brakelines are
easy to replace with brass or stainless steel brakelines and new fittings,
there are lot of possibilities and many brands make them. above
New
flexible EZ fit Steering Shaft
One of the weakest parts
of our Dodge's is the steering shaft (connection between steering
box and steering wheel), in particular when you use a body lift your
steering shaft will work under a different (sharper) corner, especially
the shady/shabby stock canvass coupling is a part that asks for trouble,
if you have a periodical inspection for your truck, beware, this means
cracks in your canvas or clearance in your coupling, even a wrong mounted
coupling when a garage replaced the canvass some 7 years ago in my situation
could be what happens, now you know exactly why I started to do everything
on myself, if you want to rely on a reliable new solid steering shaft then
choose for a made to measure steering shaft from for example "Flaming
River", this steering shaft has a constant velocity joint at both ends,
shaft kit includes 3 inches of up & down movement to absorb chassis
flex and will collapse in the event of collision, .it,s a matter of measure
the number of splines at both sides, measure the exact diameter of
the yoke and the total lenght from yoke to yoke, for example at
the columnside this is for a M880 1976 3/4"diameter, 36 splines and
a lenght of about 22-24" , for the steering box side this could be a different
size, for a few hundred dollars you have a very strong reliable connection
between your steering components maybe you find this too expensive but
it's your life!.
above
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Problems
One of the biggest problems
with the extreme lift was to combine the raised steering arm, the second
front shocks and their mounting brackets (has to be mounted with brackets
over your stock plates and U-bolts) and the swaybar mounting together,
obvious at Skyjacker they did not mount these three parts together on the
same truck when they designed these products, which resulted into a big
problem which did not fit at all together, the only positive thing was
that I had an idea what they have in mind, the only thing was to figure
out how to combine all this idea's, which resulted in a construction of
my way own idea's, so I made new brackets which allowed to work every needed
parts together without touching each other, after the whole experience
it was a lot of measuring but the final result was something to be proud
on.
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Passengers side
Keep enough space(about a 1/2 inch) between your raised steering arm and your second shock, you have to design your own shock bracket on the driver's side(your own styled bracket should move the second shock more backwards) to keep enough space between second shock and the position of the turning steeering arm and considering the space you need to mount also the inner mounted swaybar on the front leaf spring plates as well!, you can check this over and over again if you have you raised and supported your truck off the ground, at the passengers side it's quite easy, there is no steeringarm that gives any problems but also here you have to design your own bracket when you use the swaybar connected to the leaf spring mounting plates, in this situation the second shock can be positioned in the heart off the plate but again on the outside of the plate cause the swaybar is mounted at the heart of the original plate, I designed a bracket to mount the second shock at the driver's side which almost touches the stock shock but still has 1/4" distance, now the raised steering arm doesn't touch the second shock no more.
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On top of the frame the upper second shock brackets should be mounted, however more problems will appear, the angle of the welded brackets (Skyjacker second shock brackets) is not correct, so you have to cut out the wrong welded triangle shaped corner, than reshape/bend them, and weld again under the right angle with a new triangle shaped piece of metal, so that the second shocks comes in line with the mounting corner of the lower brackets.
Tip:
Although I had some seriously
doubts concerning buying this package, I still didn't have any regrets,
cause I didn't had to develop the whole design on my own, I just had to
change some major ideas, it took some hours but finally the impossible
solution could eventually be done.
Summit: Skyjacker dual
shock bracket kit:SJA-DS350 above
New
leaf springs 7” front
I did this before, some
years ago with a 4” Trailmaster kit, days before you spray the bolts and
shackles with a penetrating oil, but again it was a heavy job to loosen
the bolts from the shackles, the easiest way to lower or to raise the
axles is using one or two hydraulic oil pressure bottle jacks 
or
garage jacks 
under
the axle, I ordered new bolts with the right grade, according
to Skyjacker you have to place your new spring assembly first at one side
and then on the other side of the truck, well just forget this information,
to install the new front leafs I had to lower one side of the axle for
at least 12 " , the problem appears that the axle is hanging crooked under
an angle which makes it impossible to position the leaf assembly straight
and the U-bolts can't be mounted, so disassemble both sides and lower the
axle so you can mount your new leafs to the frame and shackles, take care
of your axle, support the axle when lowering it with lots of woodblocks,
wedges, ropes and a crowbar (and anything else that will easy the job),
I did the job alone but believe me, ask some help when you want to do this
installation job, when your leafs are assembled, position your axle under
the leafs, this is again try and error, just have patience and use a lot
of wedges and wood blocks, finally you can mount the leafplates and U-bolts.
above
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New
leaf springs 8” rear
This was a new experience,
with my old 4" Trailmaster lift it was just a matter of new (angled) spacers
and an "add a leaf", now the complete rear leaf assembly had to be removed,
one of the leafs of my old package was already broken, again the same story,
so days before, spray lots of penetrating oil on the shackle bolts, the
front oval bushings and the nuts of the U-bolts, soon I figured out that
I had to remove the leaf spring assembly complete with the shackle assembly,
to remove the nuts is a simple job, but when I tried to remove the bolts
in the eye bushings they didn't want to move, at the front eye there is
less room to use equipment, so after a few hours using pullers and everything
else that came up into my mind, I got them out: with a heavy hammer and
a smaller sized bolt you finally hit them through, now you can start to
disassemble the leaf springs, disassemble the shackle assembly and start
cleaning, grinding, protecting the shackles, you can use new bolts and
bushings (Summit: SJA-SE17D REAR SPRING EYE BUSHING KIT, SJA-SE14D
SHACKLE BUSHING KIT).
Now it is the moment to clean, grind and protect the brackets, mounted on the frame, that holds the leaf spring assembly, when you observe the axles you will notice there is a lot of dirt and dust on the axle assembly (welded brackets, which supports the connection to the leaf springs), also take care for the plate and stud assembly (the plate where your U-bolts are coming through), when you look at your old trail master spacers you can see what rust can do to your truck (see picture below).
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These mud baths do a lot
of damage to your car, so for the future make sure that these parts are
protected for the next baths, the mounting of your old treated shackles
to your new leaf spring assembly is not much work, remember that you won't
exchange the left and right shackle and at the right position when you
mount them, if you finally after days of preparation want to mount the
leaf spring assembly to the frame, it does not fit, ok, make up your mind,
measure, think logical, they are too short @!!#@??#, ..........!? after
a deep breath and some glasses of wine
,
I noticed that the curve of the leaf spring assembly was extremely high,
to make the curve less bended I used some, real heavy clamps (see picture
below, on the right), to clamp the leaf springs together, you need more
clamps, because it will not work at once (the force is too heavy), start
from out the middle, put on both sides of the heart of the leaf spring
package a clamp, then put a second set of clamps (on both sides besides
the clamps in the middle) with a distance from about 3 inches, repeat this
process, so remove your first set of clamps and put them 3 inches away
from the second set, finally you have the clamps at the outside of the
lowest spring (see picture below, on the right), I did it alone, but believe
me ask some help for this project, again the reposition of the axle to
the leaf spring assembly is a heavy job, so again use wedges, woodblocks
etcetera and of course hydraulic oil pressure bottle jacks, also you have
to clamp the U-bolts together with small clamps to make the plate and stud
assembly fit together, in brief: a whole jungle of clamps and lots of inventivity,
this job takes at least one or two days, but finally when the body and
the frame are supported by your new leafs and you look at the result then
you now what an awesome high truck you own, retorque all the U-bolts to
the right strength when you have lowered the vehicle, repeat this when
you have driven the truck after for example, 100, 400 and 800 miles, do
this together with the bodylift bolts and all other bolts concerning your
whole steering system.
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Tip:
Way
of driving
With an extreme lift you
can drive comfortable, if everything fits technically it is possible for
you to drive 75/70 miles per hour on the highway, on bad country roads
you have to take care of your pretty stiffen leaf springs, so also anticipate
on big bumps, in the terrain do not worry. above
Wear
out of joints and bearings
Of course everything wears
out much quicker than with a stock truck, there are ways to keep the wear
and tear to a minimum, I have driven for years with a 4" suspension lift,
3" body lift and 35" BFG's, still the bearings had no clearance, the front
drive shaft has to work hard, especially you will have to keep an eye on
the joke at your front differential, as mentioned before: be careful with
the power of your rebuilded engine, when you transmit this force to the
drive lines, it's easy to destroy everything you have rebuild, especially
accelerating in curves gives the bearings a lot of wear and tear.
So, check your jokes every 3 or 4 months for clearance and grease them periodically, when one joke has clearance and you wait too long, the other jokes will follow, so replace immediately, after you have driven in the mud grease your bearings (and of course clean everything together with your front end rear brakes). above
Tires
With such an extreme lift
the "little BFG's" had to be replaced, I have choosen the TSL Super Swampers,
they have quite extreme side biters like the Mickey Thompson Baja
Claws, but besides that they have a rather wide section for road thread,
these tires are also used with the US army, they used them for special
force vehicles, "real Hummer tires" do not have enough side biters to drive
through the mud and too much road profile, according to my purpose and
opinion, the Super Swampers make the same noise as the 35" BF Goodrich
Mud Terrains I used before, here in The Netherlands the tires has to stay
within the fenders, they may stick out one inch, I did not want extra "cut
out" fenders, I had to cut out the corners of the fenders so I would not
hit the fenders with the tires when I drive through the terrain.
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