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Raised / Lifted Dakotas
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billy
Dodge Dakota
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4/03/2003
18:52:07
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 Subject: riser spindles
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Message:
I got one for all yall, how come no one makes riser spindles for the dakota? i was told by fabtech they did not make they cause there is no high demand for them. maybe if we all flood them with email for them we might see something. I cant afford the fabtehch suspension and i dont want to mess with a body lif so were does that leave me? any kinda of relpey is welcome, let me know what you think.
GEN III 2wd dakota sport club cab
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goon1
Dodge Dakota
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4/06/2003
15:27:02
|  RE: riser spindles
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Message:
yea i want those damn spindles too but nobody makes them, quite frustrating. i did email fabtech but they dont care, bastards....
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jason S.
Dodge Dakota
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4/15/2003
01:43:49
| RE: riser spindles [long response]
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Message:
I talked to FabTech about this and their comment wasn't about the issue of demand: it was about the difficulty of doing it safely, due to 'negative' [or was it 'positive'] factory offset. Basically, what they told me [and I am the first to admit I know NOTHING about lifts/geometry] was that the Dakota was designed with the rims/wheels so close to the center of the truck that making riser spindles to lift the truck 4-6" or whatever would be too unsafe, due to excessive stresses on the ballbearings and the spindles themselves, since they would have to stick out so far to clear the frame/stearing components.
I visualized having 12" wide rims on the existing spindles, with only 3.25" of backspacing, and having all of that truck weight to the outside of the mounting hub, leading to 70% of the weight being on the tip of the spindle. When I visualized that, I also visualize a LOT of worn out bearings and even more snapped spindles, due to all of that unsupported weight on the end.
Like trying to backpack cross-country with a 50lb pack, split into two 25lb packs and each one being supported by the part of our arms between the elbow and hand: all carried horizontal to the ground at all times. Our arms would be so fatigued that it wouldn't be much fun. From a medical point of view, now imagine running over irregular ground and doing it. It isn't too difficult to imagine injuring ourselves that way.
As I said, I don't even pretend to be in the know about steering geometry and offsets. I do know that, if you are willing to spend enough, you can do anything you want. But, from a manufacturing point of view, I can see the profit/loss picture leading me to decide it isn't a good utilization of resources to develop that 6" lift kit with spindles, if I have to sell it at $2500+ for all of the parts to make it safe and [somewhat] reliable, just to have them fail on a very regular basis: costing me warranty money and lawsuit money if you are injured when it fails.
From a business point of view, [if my understanding of why is accurate] I can't fault their decision. I just wish, as all who read this post do, that it was available. However, if it is something that is not feasible due to the original design of the front end, then we need to just be happy for what we can get and blame Dodge for designing this in such a way as to limit the upgrades.
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