Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

MarkMC 2.5 Lift with Tahoe rear springs

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by sarg » Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:08 am

I figured I would give my general impressions so far. I was kind of doing a couple things at once. Tires, front struts, rear coil conversion from air bags and 2.5" MarkMC (Liftmeister) suspension lift. The back half went smooth enough other than my learning curve. Took about 2 hours or a little more. Half of that was dealing with the air bags, getting one out that decided to come apart and leave the top part still in the car. After that was done I compressed the rear springs and tried to slide them up in there. Word of advice, have the nut side of the spring compressor facing down and the bolt head side facing up or it is just not going to fit in there right. Try as I may, I was unable to figure a way to make it fit in there and decided to pull it back out and flip them the other way. Side two went much faster after having already figured this out. So I got the back part on. I have decided to get front installed by a local shop. It is cheap enough and would have cost me $50 for them to assemble the struts or $140 to do the whole job. I figured I would let a pro handle this half.

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by The Roadie » Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:00 pm

Did you remove one bolt out of each rear shock to lower the axle? Did you defer putting in new rear shocks? I assume you're putting in new front shocks because you don't want to be going back into the struts in the near future.
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by sarg » Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:41 pm

I did remove the shock bolts to lower it. I did hold off on the back shocks. I will get them soon. Lift is done. I feel it looks much better, like it should from the factory! I still have to go back in and add the rear spring isolators. I could not find a set anywhere local.

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by DustinC1989 » Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:40 pm

Any chance you can post a level pic? I'm debating on getting a 3" lift but not sure if the 30.6" tires will look too small.
They seem to look good with the 2.5"
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by sarg » Sun Mar 23, 2014 10:25 pm

Yup I will try to do that in the next day or two. Pretty sure the factory rear shocks are topping out. I am hearing a nice popping noise/clunking noise from the rear now whenever I go over bumps. I think the combination of the tahoe/z71 springs and the suspension lift has just put the rear shocks at their max. I was already planning to order new longer shocks and have been trying to research which ones are the length I need. So far all I have found is the BDS 2" longer shocks.
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by TBYODA » Mon Mar 24, 2014 12:20 am

A bunch of guy's run the skyjackers N8030, I pick up a set in their Scratch & Dent Shocks area for $32 each vs $49. Just looked like the box was open, everything was inside so I am happy. 8-)

Specifications:
• Collapsed Length (in.): 15.69
• Extended Length (in.): 26.57
• Shock Stroke (in.): 10.80

N8030 main

N8030 Scratch & Dent Shocks
2008 TB Radflo coil overs, Z71 rear springs, 2" spacer, skyjacker N8030 shocks, LT285/75R16E Goodyear MTR

My Build ----- MY Youtube Channel
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by sarg » Sat Mar 29, 2014 3:25 pm

Got a pic, but having trouble posting from my phone. Will get it on here tonight. Also put on the skyjackers. More on that later.
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by sarg » Sat Mar 29, 2014 10:16 pm

Image

So there it is. As for the shocks, I went with the 7030 skyjacker for now. The metal inserts and poly bushings were the wrong size for the Denali. Odd thing was out of 4 possible bushings, they sent 1 that was correct, 3 that were not, lol. Had to grab some washers as well. But they said they would ship out the correct inserts. We will see how they do this time. Not sure if the Envoy Denali is any different, but were all 4 18mm bolts on the rear and it seemed they shipped ones for like a 3/4" bolt maybe? But the topping out/clunking is gone with the addition of the shocks.
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by DustinC1989 » Sun Mar 30, 2014 2:20 am

Very nice, I think I can pull of the 3" lift minus Z71's with the 30.5" tires
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by sarg » Sun Mar 30, 2014 9:20 am

Of sure, just make sure you get the appropriate rear shock, haha. I had worn out factories and they were raising hell back there on every bump!
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by DustinC1989 » Sun Mar 30, 2014 8:39 pm

Going with BDS shocks.
They're only about 25 minutes from my house and my brother in law used to work there and is friends with them all (discount :D )
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by Marineguy » Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:50 pm

Looks good. What size tires did you go with on the 18" rims?
2007 Envoy 5.3, 8.6 rear G80 BDS 2", spacers 265/65R18 Dest AT
2004 Yukon XL 5.3, G80, torsion key 2" front, Airlift 1000 rear
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