LowCoyote

Yes I lower every vehicle I own, it's what I'm into. Now that we got that out of the way... I recently dropped my '18 F150 SCREW with the 4/6 kit from IHC. This is not a post to trash anyone, I want to be very clear about that. I am writing this to hopefully help the community avoid the same mistakes I did!
Lots of pics and words coming at you, hopefully you stay along for the ride. Breaking it up in separate posts to keep the images together.

Why did I choose IHC?

• I wanted it slammed, but also the ability to align it flat. Their custom control arms allow just that, and you even retain the factory coilovers. (this also meant I could change the springs/coilovers in the future, or hopefully some airride struts to achieve even more of a drop)
• Maxtrac drop spindles are cool, but I didn't want to restrict on front wheel size.
• Belltech is good stuff, I used it on my buick roadmaster wagon, but I didn't like achieving that full front drop on just springs.

My buddy and I installed the kit in about 8 hours all said and done. I received the kit with no instructions, called IHC and they next day air'd me printed instructions. They did the trick and we got it done. Now, we did not cut out the crossmember to mount the carrier bearing bracket, I wanted to see if it vibrated first.




We trimmed the factory bumpstops and curved them to mimic stock. The truck looked freaking awesome, was so stoked. It did vibrate at highway speeds, so we elected to do something about raising the carrier bearing.



We cut off the raised mount, and using some shorter bolts from Ace we bolted the IHC carrier bearing bracket over the crossmember. This helped, but the truck still had some vibrations at higher speed.

LowCoyote

I posted the wrong picture above of the rear flip complete, here's what it looked like with the IHC rear setup on install day. If you look closely, you can see that there's room between the U bolts and the edges that turn up. I'm telling you this for a reason. The bracket is a bit too long.


So now that we had the drop installed, it was time to mount some sticky wide tires as I was having traction issues at the track.


So I mounted some 305/45/22s.

The truck aligned perfectly, very happy at this point in time.

Took it to the track, because yes. First launch of the night, I'm out of the hole and have 2 cars on my buddy's tuned duramax....

LowCoyote

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG. I crept down the track, luckily it was our 1/8th mile track.


Both upper brackets bent on the side facing the front of the truck. The axle rolled back and extended the driveshaft. The lower strut bolts wrapped against the lower flip kit plates, guessing that plus the yokes are what worked as a team to keep the driveshaft connected.

Had it towed home so I could assess the damage.







U- bolts bent, lower strut bolts bent, driver's side shock blown, and rear-driveshaft was F'd.
​​​​​​​Appeared to me and the driveshaft shop I brought it to that it hyperextended at the slip joint and then essentially crossthreaded/couldn't marry back up.

LowCoyote

So, I contacted IHC. They are evidently very busy as they wouldn't return my calls, but I was fine with that as the owner did communicate via email (although, I feel as though it would have been much better and more personal to just talk on the phone).
I sent him pictures and videos. He said I installed with the top brackets positioned too far forward. I sent him the pics of it installed initially and pointed out that there isn't any sort of positioning pin or anything on them. He said he had a dealer install his kit and have a similar issue, so he was having some newly designed brackets made up and will send to me. He didn't seem to be too concerned about me being without my truck, or about the messed up driveshaft... but whatever, he has a business to run.
About a week went by. A box from IHC arrived. In it was:

• An IHC T shirt (a nice gesture)
• A few IHC stickers (another nice gesture)
• Two of the exact same top brackets. You know, the ones that bent. Not shorter ones, not thicker ones, not ones with a positioning dowel. The same ones.
• 2 U-bolts. Not 4, 2.
• No lower strut bolts.
• 1 replacement shock

I emailed him thanking him for the swag, and asking how I get two more U-bolts and if he wanted to trade me a set of VAS traction bars to cover the cost of the driveshaft/tow/strut bolts from dealer/and being without a truck.
His response was that he only warranteed parts that were theirs, he races his truck with no issues, you have to torque everything before you go to the track, and don't race if you don't want to break stuff.

I replied letting him know that I was disappointed, and that his instructions provided ZERO torque specs. I have not heard back.

LowCoyote

For those of you that are still hanging on... thanks. This is a ton of typing. NOW, time to stop being irritated and get the truck on the road.
I found a local driveshaft shop (Dependable Driveshaft in Clearwater, FL). Great guys. They removed the rear shaft, ensured the front was perfectly balanced, and built me a 3.5" diameter (factory is 3") rear shaft with an updated style slip joint, with new U-joints.



I had my awesome fabricator buddy make me some thicker, correct sized top brackets with positioning dowels to avoid movement. Painted them black.




I called Belltech to see if I could buy U-bolts and hardware from them instead of the entire flip kit, because I couldn't find those freaking square top U-bolts in that width and length anywhere! In their kit, they also had new bump stops, so score! I put everything back together. I also have the IHC helper bag kit which I like, and installed prior to the debacle, and still like.





The truck was finally back on the road. Still had some higher speed vibrations. I was poking around on Bellthech's site and found some install instructions for their flip kit.
2 things:

• They don't use a carrier bearing bracket and require you to cut the crossmember to mount it, they just cut the bracket off that I did and then drill bolt holes to mount the carrier bearing directly to the crossmember. So I removed the bracket, (remember I didn't cut out half of the crossmember because I didn't want to, and had the bracked over the crossmember) and did just that, raising about another 1/4". Much better, vibrations are almost gone. The pinion angles all seem to be within the 3 degree operating range now.
• Torque the U-bolts to 100 ft lbs. Holy crap that's tight. Tighter than I had them initially, for sure.

LowCoyote

Thanks for reading. Truck is back up and running, better than ever. I'm not as pissed as I was, and feel that I'm partially at fault for not torque'ing the U bolts to 100 ft. lbs. But how was I supposed to know? Would the brackets still have bent if I did? We'll never know. Hopefully none of you have to go through this if you took the time to read the post.
I sent the owner of IHC pictures of the upgraded bracket, and honestly, I think he should make them up and send them to all of his previous and future customers. But that's just me.
Would I recommend the IHC 4/6 kit? Yes, but consider changing out that upper rear bracket and make sure you torque your U bolts!! The front control arms are powdercoated and are gorgeous, hoping I don't have issues with them.
Pics for fun.

Stoopid313

I’m sure everyone will tell you “it’s all your fault” but I’d just chalk it up as a learning experience.
Also, those new top brackets look sweet!
Furthermore, nice *** truck!

2018LLB4x2

For comparison, does anyone happen to know what the torque spec for stock u-bolts is?

LowCoyote

Yes- a learning experience for sure. I’ve accepted some of the fault here. I’m really just hoping to help others avoid having this happen (or something worse!). Getting towed from the track sucks, but no one was hurt.

UNBROKEN

iTrader: (1)

My advice on any kit that uses those type of axle saddles is the cut the tabs off that fit into the oem spring perch, set your pinion angle and weld the saddle to the axle tube.
None of them are strong enough to live with heavy abuse like racing.