First here is why I am asking the question.
I had a '90 full size Chevy pickup. I had it lowered 5" in the front and 7" in the rear using Belltech lowering kits. I had a local speed shop do the lowering since I'm not very good at the diy thing yet. They charged me so much for the labor it about broke me after everything was said and done. Anyway after it was lowered on stock tires and rims it skraped on everything. Like speed bumps or any grade of incline. Put a set of 18" Lexani rims on it and had the same problem. The other problem was it rubbed so bad it would deflate the tires in the front. So to try and fix the problems I had the shop cut out some of the fenders and add some fender flares and I ended up bagging it. Oh yeah the ride with the lowering kit was absolutely horrible. So after the bags the ride was a lot better and didn't really have the rubbing issue anymore. So yeah I liked the bags but they charged me like $1800 after installation and everything. So I ended up dumping alot of money into the lowering job. Now I want to lower the box but 1. don't want to run into the same problems (skraping, rubbing) 2. I don't want to have to spend money doing it twice. I am willing to spend the money to do it right but I only want to do it once. So my question is what is a good method for lowering the box? I have been doing a lot of reading and it seems there are mixed reviews for the df210's. Well everyone seems to like them but the ride isn't the best. I don't know if I should go with new springs/shocks and that will work fine or go with bags or what. So what would be a good way to do this for best ride quality, avoid past problems, etc... I want to eventually run 17" rims too. Sorry for the long post I just want to make sure I do this the right way. And if you suggest something could you please give the name of a good brand if you know one.

 

I'm not a big DIY either I found a Scion Dealer on Ebay selling TRD springs for $199 including shipping....Took them to my Dealer and they installed then for $228 (With a Coupon) total $427.00 for a 1.25" drop...pretty darn cheap if you ask me. And it carries the Toyota warranty for 12 months since they installed them. I bought 18s with 215/35 series tires, it rides actually better IMO than the factory springs and no rubbing any direction I turn. Even had 3 passengers(about 500lb) in the back seat...it was sittin' pretty low...lol, but still no rubs. I have been very pleased.

 

Find a tuner shop--they will ususally do for less. I have 17" wheels and Tein-stech springs. I only scrape once in a long while when there is a bad drive way entrance. People also say they are happier after they put on some Monroe shocks--but I am happy the way I am.....

 

I did my S-techs in less than a hour. You could do it with basic hand tools. I used my air tools to speed it up, but its so easy. Saved yourself some money and DIY. BTW this was the first time for me lowering a car myself.

 

You can definitely do this yourself.

 

i lowered it myself, easy stuff, there is a DIY on here for swaping springs, but use a spring compressor, i wasnt going to , than after i started to looses the top strut bolt, the tension was was to much for comfort. easy though, look in the tech section for article to give ya an idea.

 

Ok well you guys convinced me to try and do it myself now I just need to try and decided which setup to get. Thanks for all the replies so far. Ok so far we have TRD springs, and Tein s-tech springs with Monroe shocks. Do either of these "bottom out" when you hit bigger bumps? If I go with just springs I will definitly try and put them on myself but what if I get the shocks to? Is it still do-able for a newbie? Does adding the shocks make it any harder? How much drop do the TRD springs give you? I think I read the s-techs give you 1.25". Ride quality is very important to me when considering this because like I said when I lowered my truck it was unbearable till I got the bags. I drive a lot but I know done right I can have a good riding lowered car. Again thanks for the help.

 

TRD is just about an inch, but I hear they ride pretty rough. I have H.Tech on mine and it settled to about 1.2" They ride pretty nice.

S.Tech generally settles closer to 2"

It's an easy job. Don't pay a shop to do it. Doing the shocks while doing springs might add a whole 15 minutes to the process. Once you decide on springs, then you detemine what shock to get.

 

you seem really concerned with bottoming out and poor ride quality. try doing a mild drop like the h techs and you wont have any of those problems. sure it wont be as low as the others, but it still looks a million times better than stock and the ride quality with the h techs is very good. and yes, you can do this yourself.

 

^ Yea, I haven't had any scraping or bottoming problems on my H.Tech. Also with Monroe 5987.

 

I have the Hotchkis springs and sways. They dropped the box about 1 3/4" front and back. A bit more than they claimed after they settled. Luckily my hubby is a technican so he did them at work. The alignment was out of specs before he did the springs. I'm glad he checked it. Hotchkis sways made big difference in stability at highway speeds and cornering is better for a box. Springs are a bit rough on little bumps but less bumpy on bigger bumps if that makes sense. I have stock size tires on my enkei rims so the extra rubber helps with bumps! I really like my setup. I paid 300 for the TVS system and well you know what I paid the Hubby!!!!

 

id say bag it just my opinon

 

To clear it up a bit, I don't expect it to ride like a cadillac or anything. I had a lowered truck so I know it won't be great. But I drive an hour to work 6 days a week so I don't want to do something that rides real rough and end up beat to death by the time I get to work. When I first lowered my truck I couldn't even listen to the cd player cause it would constatly skip from riding so bad. I don't really care if the ride isn't great I just don't want it as bad as my truck was. So maybe the s-techs are the way to go. The other thing I didn't want to have to worry about was having to avoid potholes and be careful driving on bad roads but I realized today that I do that anyway. Which I guess is a good thing so I don't tear up my car.

I actually was thinking about this but if I can go with springs and get a decent ride and a lot cheaper I would rather do that. I don't know I need to check up on the price of bags. When I first got the box I was definitly going to bag it now I'm kinda leaning toward springs. I have a hard time making decisions like this that's why I started this topic. Looking to see what other peoples opinions are that way I can do it right the first time and be happy with it. Again thanks everyone.

 

you'll want to stay away from tanabe df210s if you are concerned with scraping. My lip is demolished. The other 2" drop springs (goldlines etc) may cause scraping as well but I can only speak for what I actually have.

 

i was able to do mine for just over a grand

 

Have you had any problems with it? How does it ride? What brand do you have?

 

no problems other than a small leak here and there that i fixed
i have easystreet struts i got for $480 shipped firestone 2500 bags fro the back and i had randode fab up some brackets for me im also running 8 smc 3/8" valves with 1/2" line and a viair 450 compressor and a 5 gal tank and right now im trying to figure out how i could do an engine driven compressor and it rides like a caddy

 

Where exactly do the leaks come from? I had bags on my last ride but never heard anything about the leaks until now. And how do you fix them?

 

leaks come from were the hos connects to the fitting ot the fitting to the Valvetank bag etc. were it didnt seal real good orginally they are very easy to fix all you do is diconnect the fitting from were it is leaking rewrap it in teflon tape and tighten it back down really good most of the time when you do the install it will take about a week or two to find all the leaks and fix them but after that yoou shouldnt have to worry about them

 

Oh ok. Wow decisions, decisions. I'm still torn between bags and s-techs.