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Bryan Irons photos
Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
1. Shocks, blocks, springs, bushings, brackets and badges all showed up in two boxes. The “Caution, heavy item(s)” sign should not be taken lightly.
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Bryan Irons photos
Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
2. We like to do any preassembly we can before rolling a rig in. This involved assembling the control arm bushings. We had to re-tap the powder coating out of the Zerk fitting holes first. With a little white lithium grease, we slid everything home. We assembled the shock bushings at this time as well.
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Bryan Irons photos
Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
3. With the front of the truck on 6-ton jack stands as high as we could, and jacks under the axle, we started disassembly by removing the swaybar, track bar, lower shock bolts and brake line brackets.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
4. Removing the shocks involves taking the shock hat out completely. The passenger side air box just lifts out to access the bolts; the driver’s side is a little more sheltered, but manageable without dislocating joints.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
5. Pull the shocks out through the top and drop the axle to remove the springs. Take care not to stress the brake or ABS lines and do one side at a time.
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Bryan Irons photos
Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
6. The factory control arms are next on the hit list. Doing one arm at a time is not an option with the “axle forward” arms. We find that simple ratchet straps are a lifesaver when trying to align boltholes.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
7. Instructions for the track bar drop bracket were a little confusing. In a nutshell, you use the factory bolthole, one vertical hole into the cross member, and then drill two additional holes to sandwich it all together.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
8. Get the shocks preassembled with the included spacers and ready to slide home. The shocks are what limit total suspension droop, so make sure you double-check your torques.
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Bryan Irons photos
Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
9. This is where setting the truck up high in the beginning comes in handy. We managed to get the springs in without issue, but you may require a spring compressor. The shocks simply slide home. Connect the sway bar at this point with the included drop brackets.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
10. The machined driveshaft spacer could go in now along with the dropped pitman arm. We didn’t have a socket large enough to remove the pitman arm nut, so we left the job for the alignment shop.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
11. The rear of the truck is more of the same; with the truck up as high as you can SAFELY put it on jack stands; remove the shocks and U-bolts on one side.
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Bryan Irons photos
Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
12. Install the tapered lift blocks with the narrow section facing forward.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
13. Making sure you don’t lose the goofy factory plastic centering pin. Really? Plastic? C’mon Ram!
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
14. Torque up the new U-bolts to spec and install the shocks.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
15. The Bushwacker flare installation involves unscrewing and peeling off the old flares to start.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
16. Here you can see the added tire coverage afforded by the flares. If you want to paint them an accent or body colour, now is the time. We left ours in the satin black they left the mold with.
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Bryan Irons photos
Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
17. The stainless hardware and nylock nuts are next to go in. Bushwacker includes the torx driver needed. Installing the rubber edging is an easy task with a pair of scissors, but measure carefully as there is not much extra in the kit.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
18. Align the flare with the factory holes and use the hardware indicated in the instructions to keep them in place.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
19. The fitment is second to none, and quality of all the Bushwacker components from hardware to gaskets is superb.
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Installing a Lift on a Power Wagon
20. With the 37X12.5X17 Falken Wildpeak AT’s and Black Rock Street Lock wheels, we netted 6.25-in of lift in the front, and 6-in in the rear before the front springs settled.
Story & photos by Bryan Irons
Heavy Lift - Giving a Power Wagon a little extra capability
“Power Wagon.” Just the simple name conjures up images of rugged self-reliance. Dodges reintroduction of the classic over a dozen years ago was not just a sticker and cup holder deal. It emerged from the factory with two lockers, deep gears, a true Warn winch and electronic sway bars, making it a tough act to improve upon. Upgrading one of these rigs is a knifes’ edge walk and involves shopping in the same isle as 80 grit toilet paper and turpentine cologne; they had better be tough.
Interweb folklore would have you believe that the suspension system in a Power Wagon was made of unobtanium and cannot be altered without the written consent of the Dodge Brothers themselves. We’re not here to make angels cry, but it’s really just a ¾-ton Ram suspension with a few tricks. A call to Revtek revealed that they could easily set us up with a suspension system in the 4-in lift range, both front and rear, to keep the stance of the truck we love and have enough room to stuff 37’s under the body. If you remember a few issues ago in 4WDrive, we added a Tiregate rack to the truck to hold just such an animal. It’s as if we had a plan! Don’t tell the boss.
Revtek carved out a reputation for themselves by building lifts that function properly and don’t require any special pieces down the road, as wearable items eventually succumb to age. It’s naive to think that ball joints, bushings or bearings will last forever. The included control arms are designed to leave the truck with the factory caster angle in place as well as push the entire axle forward slightly to center the tire properly in the fender opening. The track bar drop bracket and dropped pitman arm are included to keep the lifted truck tracking straight. Revtek has designed their systems for people who want to use their rigs for today, and long into the future.
Staying street legal as well as dirt friendly, can be a walk of consequences if caught outside the law. With 5-in of backspacing on our chosen 17-in Black Rock, Street Lock wheels, this was going to hang the 37-in Falken’s out too far from the sheet metal to avoid po-po lashings. Bushwacker saved us with a set of easily installed pocket flares.
We’re not going to tell you that installing a lift on a ¾-ton truck that gets used for ¾-ton work is something to take lightly, but we managed to pull off the install abandoned and alone in the shop in a full day. Most of this time was spent shooting pictures and clearing the 14-yards of sand found under the truck from our eyes. Heavy-duty jacks and stands are mandatory, but no real specialty equipment was necessary. We let the alignment shop take care of the new dropped pitman arm, and we let Jesse (the trucks Chuck Norris wannabe owner) bolt up the front driveshaft spacer. We think he intimidated it into position, but are too scared to ask.
After the sand storm calmed, we were left with a truck that looks ready to proudly wear its “Power Wagon” badges. Revtek came to the table with a suspension ready to take on heavy loads and long hauls. This is not a trophy truck; it’s a workhorse that gets some playtime on the weekends. Between hauling a horse trailer to the track, a quad into the woods, or just out having fun in the dirt, this heavy hitter received an upgrade worthy of its pedigree.
Revtek Suspensions - www.revtek.com
Bushwacker – www.bushwacker.com