Up next Cover Reveal! | F100 Builder’s Guide Cover + See What’s Inside! Published on May 07, 2021 Author Jason Mulligan Share article Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Mail 0 Max Trac Suspension | 2014 Chevrolet Silverado A 5/7 Max Trac Suspension Drop on a 2014 Chevrolet Silverado Because of their beefier exteriors and the fact that trucks come fairly high off the ground from the factory, many new truck owners have opted to go the lifted route rather than taking the slammed approach. A prime example is the fact that a C/K pickup could receive a 2/4 or 4/6 drop with C-notch, a set of 20-inch rims and get slammed to the ground as a cool cruiser, whereas now, in order to get a brand-new truck, especially the redesigned ’14 GM trucks, even close to looking lowered and fill the large wheel wells, a 5/7 drop and 22- or 24-inch wheels are needed. Heck, due to the kick-up in the boxed frame used for increased load and towing, you don’t even need to C-notch the trucks anymore. Max Trac Suspension provides for a variety of options when it comes to methods and parts for lowering, and it offers more choices from mild to slammed. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter With any new model, components and dimensions on the truck platform might have changed, so a little R&D needs to be done. The crew at Max Trac Suspension picked up a crew cab ’14 Silverado 1500 2WD to test out their lowering and lift components and build a mild custom for the SEMA Show. While the suspension components were nearly identical to the previous generation of trucks, not everything was the same. Max Trac Suspension offers lowering and lifting components for trucks with a variety of options. For the first iteration of its ’14 Silverado SEMA project, the crew opted to go the slammed route with a drop coil up front as well as a 2-inch drop spindle providing a near 5-inch drop on the crew cab 5.3L trucks. Out back, a flip kit with built-in lowering block and shackle help the axle fall just enough under the bump stop to give a slammed 7-inch drop. Any more of a drop and the frame and possibly even the bed floor would need to be notched. Follow along and see all that is needed to get the new ’14 GM trucks closer to the ground. Next time we’ll upgrade the performance and appearance of the truck with a Magnaflow exhaust, Street Scene bumper cover and Rigid Industries LED lights in a special grille insert. Max Trac Front Suspension The first step is to remove the front struts in order to replace the coil spring, providing a portion of the drop for the front suspension. There are two bolts on the lower control arm and three on the top mount for the strut. The tie rod is also removed to allow easier access. With the strut disassembled, the inner bump stop and factory coil spring are removed and tossed aside. The new drop coil spring is slipped over the strut. Make sure to clock it into the correct position; making a mark of some kind can help. The spring is compressed to help with reinstalling the top strut mount. The strut is reinstalled making sure to line up the top mount and bottom mounts correctly. You might need to use a pry bar to get the strut in place. Install the drop spindle next. The brakes and hub are removed. Make sure to disconnect the ABS sensor and move out of the way before removing the hub. The castle nuts holding the spindle to the ball joints are removed. A few blows with a dead-blow hammer to the side of the spindle at the ball joint will help loosen the spindle. Here you can see the factory spindle on the left and the Max Trac drop spindle. The location of the hub and brakes move up providing the drop, while the steering tie rod remains in the factory location to reduce bump steer. The new Max Trac drop spindle is installed in the same way the factory version was removed. Don’t forget to reinstall the ABS sensor to the new spindle. The location of the bracket might need to be bent for clearance. The front suspension is completed, and now it’s time to move on to the rear, which is more involved. The tie rod is adjusted eight full turns back to help correct the toe from lowering. It’s best to get the truck aligned quickly to avoid improper tire wear. REAR SUSPENSION The rear suspension consists of a flip kit. In order to remove the leaf springs, the hanger and shackle bolts need to be accessed from the inside of the frame. On the crew cab trucks with short beds, the bolts can be difficult to remove. The muffler needs to be removed to access the passenger bolts. The tow hitch has to be removed as well, there are several top and side bolts with a pair supporting the bumper as well. On the driver’s side the gas tank needs to be lowered out of the way. The best way to do this is to carefully support the gas tank and plastic cover, undo the straps and gas neck filler before lowering the tank out of the way. The rearend is also supported before removing the shocks and factory U-bolts. The rear shackles and front hanger bolts are removed. The bracket holding the ABS sensor lines needs to be trimmed to allow the flip kit saddle to be mounted. The clips are removed and the bracket is cut off. The new flip kit saddle is checked for proper clearance and seating. The old U-bolt mounting plate is removed from the spring pack. The stud on the leaf pack is seated into the saddle, and new U-bolts are secured over the leaf pack to the saddle in a cross pattern and torqued to spec. The factory bump stop holder needs to be removed using a cut-off wheel and grinder. By cutting the welds on the bracket, it can be removed without cutting into the frame. The frame is tapped to accept the new shorter polyurethane bump stops. New drop shocks are installed in the factory locations. WHEELS & TIRES Now comes the wow factor. A set of Raceline Royalty 24 x 9.5-inch polished billet wheels with color-matched, painted centers are wrapped in Falken 295/35/24 S/T Z05 tires.
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