[hndymn]

My box was beaten up too, had a hole in it, but everything was there. I spent over 2 hours installing it: everything that could go wrong did. At least it was warm; almost 40F. Speaking of warm I agree that there must be a special place for Hellwig engineers. A very. Special. Place. I thought about shortening the link bolt spacers, but decided the engineers knew best, and after 4 or 5 attempts I got the nut to catch on the bolt. The bar performs well when the bed is empty, but I haven't loaded the truck with much weight. I'm wondering what will happen when the springs compress, and the frame lowers. It seems like something's got to give. Once my cap comes in I'll be loading it up and then I'll know.

Originally Posted by phanham

Just got my Hellwig today and installed tonight. UPS had beat it up pretty bad (box was destroyed and bar scuffed up good as all the hardware had been tumbling around), but I really wanted to get the new toy installed. Gotta say the 1-hour estimate is pretty accurate for install; however, noone mentioned the additional hour spent scratching your head, saying "how in the hell???" and cussing Hellwig. I'm pretty sure there will be a special place in hell for those design engineers... After finally getting the frame mounts on (finding something to jam under the block and keep in from spinning on the driver side was a huge PITA!!!), I was lucky to discover there was no way the links were gonna go on in stock form (I had even tried using a jack to compress bushings). I trimmed ~1/8" off each spacer with a Dremel and was able to squeeze them on finally, with 2 threads visible once tightened up. Oh yeah, and my kit was extra special as it only had 3 regular nuts with the others being those wonderful crush-type nuts -- I strongly suggest borrowing some air tools before attempting this mod...

Anyway, the install looks good -- everything looks lined up well with no clearance problems I can see. Didn't get to try it out much more than driving around the block to see if my craftsmanship would fall apart (may have been just me, but seemed like it was pulling more to the right now?), but hopefully tomorrow I can feel the improvement.