- Hey guys, Brad here at Custom Offsets.
Another episode of Lifts & Levels,
this is going to be a Fabtech 6 inch
for 2014-2018 GM trucks.
So, 6" Fabtech, we're gonna start off with the crossmembers
like we always do.
We're gonna measure them up here
and these ones, as you can see, are gonna actually measure
about 7 inches of drop on these front crossmembers,
which is a good thing.
That means this isn't a 4 inch kit that they then
just branded as a 6 inch kit.
This is actually a true 6 inch kit,
but we'll see some other things in this lift kit
that kind of don't coincide with the drop amount
on these crossmembers.
So we got these nice front and rear crossmembers.
There's a little bracket here for the differential brace
when it gets dropped down.
And then this is going to be a strut spacer kit
so it re-uses the factory struts.
These are gonna measure about 7 inches as well.
And remember, that doesn't necessarily equate
to the amount of lift.
The strut spacer size doesn't necessarily equate
to the amount of lift because of
where the struts are placed on the control arm
and how much they're dropped et cetera, et cetera
Um...but let's see, moving on,
we got our sway bar drop brackets here.
Let's see what these measure.
These measure about 3 and three-quarter inches
to drop that front sway bar down.
Now where it gets a little weird is the front diff drop,
which is these brackets here, these two brackets.
And, as you can see, they don't quite look like
6 or 7 inches.
They really measure about 4 inches.
So that's a little concerning to me.
I think we're gonna see that in the finished product
with the CV axle angles.
So the front diff is dropped down only 4 inches,
where the lower control arms
are gonna be dropped down 6 inches.
So I'm gonna need to, um, assume that we're gonna have
some good angles - when I say good I mean more extreme
angles - on our CV axles once this is all installed
and said and done.
They also do include, a differential brace which is nice
This will bolt in here and just kinda brace up
the front differential when it's dropped down
with the crossmember.
Uh, we got our new knuckles with this kit.
They do include new tie rod end links, which is nice.
These are shortened versus the stock ones - some kits
you have to cut the factory tie rods -
this kit includes these new ones so you don't have to
cut the factory tie rods.
Let's see, we also got a little bit of a
front differential skid plate which will tie in
between the two crossmembers on the bottom
to protect the front diff when it's dropped down.
And then, a bunch of hardware and stuff here.
You can see Fabtech also includes this wheel spacer here
it's like a quarter inch wheel spacer.
That's so you can run a factory wheel, if you ever have to
for if you get a flat or something like that.
You can use that and then bolt the factory wheel on.
And, let's see, for the rear we got 5 inch blocks
in the rear. Yep, 5 inch tapered blocks for the rear
Uh, so that would mean the rear is gonna set a tad higher
if not--a tad higher to
pretty much level in the rear, with the front.
And we got new U-bolts.
One thing I don't like about these U-bolts is they are raw
there's no coating on them. So those are going to rust up
if you don't coat them yourself.
And then, this is the basic kit so
you get the basic white monotube shocks.
And these are gonna be for the rear of the vehicle.
And, that's going to be, about it.
We're gonna go ahead and get it installed
and we'll check back in once it's installed
and we'll get to see everything on the truck
and then also look at the angles of everything
once it's installed on the truck.
Alright guys we got the Fabtech kit installed
on the truck here. We're gonna run through the parts
and then get some shots of the angles
and all that good stuff.
We got the new knuckles installed here.
As you can see, there's a brake line relocation bracket.
Sway bar drop brackets are installed as well as the
differential drop is installed as you can see here.
We'll get some shots of that.
Uh, one of the key pieces of this kit is the strut spacer,
that's up here, installed in the strut.
You do re-use your factory struts on this kit.
It's simpler on installation, but almost more of an eyesore
for some people, as you can see these old struts here
look a little poopy, ah, but that's how this kit is.
We got our new tie rod end links, and then we got our lower
and then the new front drop crossmembers,
differential skid plate,
and there's a bracket back here as well
that braces the differential up to the crossmember,
as we talked about on the bench.
These were about - I forget now - about 7 inches
of drop on the crossmember, but only about 4 inches
of drop on the differential, and you can see
as the truck is up here on the lift
the angle--the angle of the CV shaft is not the greatest.
The truck is up in the air at full droop,
and it does rotate, it's not binding too hard at least
'cause I can spin it, but you can see that the angle
isn't very great at full droop, compared to
some other kits that drop the diff more.
Um, but we'll see what it looks like once it's on the ground
'cause that's really what matters.
But you will hit full droop running down the road.
As it is limited though so
it'll never get worse than this
so it shouldn't be too bad, you just might see
a little bit of decreased life on the CV shaft.
So we got the lift blocks in the back,
our new U-bolts, once again these are uncoated U-bolts,
not the biggest fan of uncoated U-bolts
'cause they rust up very quickly.
We got the standard Fabtech twintube shocks here.
And some more re-locating of the brake lines,
simply bending the factory brackets
like a lot of the other kits do here
to give you slack in the brake lines.
Relocating the ABS lines, our wheel speed sensors,
and then also relocating the parking brake cables up here
with the factory brackets.
And, that's it!
(upbeat rock music)