Our project tow vehicle can stop on a dime and has some gorgeous wheels to boot but it needs to be lowered just a hair to give it the right look. Above is some things you are provided with this 2 (front) 3 (rear) lowering kit from Belltech Suspension. The kit also comes with shocks which we will install. A Part 2 will also take place to show how we put on Belltech Swaybars.

Raise the Tahoe and place it on jack stands under the front crossbeam. Remove the tire. Disconnect the vehicle speed sensor(VSS) from the Tahoe at the frame rail. Remove the tie rod from the spindle. Now remove the brake caliper (you can keep it attached if you support the caliper), caliper bracket, and brake rotor.

Remove the nuts for the upper and lower control arms.

With a jack placed under the Spindle, hammer the side of the spindle near the control arms until it “pops” off the control arms. The jack will now support the weight of the spindle.

Remove the three bolts that will separate the spindle from the hub.

Once the three bolts are taken out you can remove the hub from the factory spindle as shown above.

Here is a comparison of the spindles. The Belltech one is on the right and our factory GM one is on the left.

Now you can install the hub onto the new spindle.

To replace the shock you are going to have to support the lower control arm with a jack. Remove the lower shock bolt, then lower the jack. Now remove the upper bolt and the shock will come out.

Place the new shock into the Tahoe. Tighten up the top bolt. Do not do anything to the bottom mount yet.

You may now take the new spindle and place it on the jack. Pump the jack up so that the spindle goes into the ball joints. Hand tighten the nuts onto the ball joints.

Move the jack to the left side of the lower control arm. Jack the control arm up until you can insert the lower shock bolt.

Now tighten all suspension bolts. Be sure to reconnect the tie rod!

Reconnect the VSS, and reinstall all brake components. Attach the tire, lower the vehicle and torque the lug nuts.

THAT WILL COMPLETE YOUR FRONT INSTALLATION. NOW FOR THE REAR INSTALLATION. 

Raise the rear of the vehicle. Place jack stands on the frame. Now place the jack under the differential. Slightly raise the differential. Now remove both rear shocks (the upper bolt is most easily accessible from the inside of the frame rail). Lower the differential.

Remove the factory rear spring.

Install the new springs; be sure to reinstall the upper and lower grommet.

Install the shock relocation drop bracket. Note the bolt loosely placed in the photo. This is how the bolt is to be installed in the original lower shock location

Install the shock. Place the upper bolt in first.

Jack the rear differential again. Thread the lower shock bolt.

Tighten all bolts. Lower the Tahoe and Test drive.

These are some after shots with the lowering kit. As you can see we have a much improved stance all around on the car and added a 1.5 inch lifted hitch for ease of towing. We have some Belltech Swaybars and other installation goodies around the corner so stay tuned!

The last time we checked in on Project Tahoe’s lighting situation, we had drastically increased visibility inside the truck by replacing the factory interior lights with LED counterparts from V-LEDs. This time around, we’re tackling the exterior lights to greatly increase night visibility. Towing long distances often means driving through areas with little to no street lighting and being able to see clearly in low visibility conditions is absolutely vital. That’s where V-LEDs comes in, as we’ll be replacing exterior lights with V-LEDs, and our headlights with HIDs by V-LEDs.

We started out with the taillights. The taillights are simply secured using a few phillips screws. Once you remove the screws, the lights should pop right out exposing the sockets. To remove the lights, simply twist the bulb housings out, and remove the bulbs. The bulbs at the beginning of this article are taillight bulbs, showcasing the stock bulbs compared to it’s V-LED counterpart.

Moving to the front of the Tahoe, we come to the headlights which will be receiving a V-HIDs upgrade. This V-LEDs HID kit contains everything you need for a painless plug-n-play installation including Bulbs, Ballasts, and a relay harness for compatibility with your factory harness.

Removing the headlights on our Tahoe was incredibly easy. The headlight and daytime running light assemblies are secured using two metal posts. By lifting these posts out, we’re able to pop out the housings to access the bulbs.

The headlights are equally as easy as the taillights. Simply twist the bulb out of the socket, and replace it with the LED bulb being careful not to damage the bulb while inserting it into the housing.

Pull out the housing below the headlight housing. This contains our daytime running light as well as the turn signal. We twisted the bulbs and effortlessly replaced them with VLED bulbs. Pictured above is the parking/turn signal bulb ready to be replaced in the housing. Once this is done, both housings can be replaced, and the pins dropped back in securing them to the vehicle.

Installing the relay harness is easy. Simply ground the black wire, and attach the red wire to your battery lead. The remaining wires plug together only one way making this part a no-brainer. Plug the battery relay to the ballast, and the ballasts to the bulbs. Secure excess wiring and the ballasts to the vehicle using the attached zip ties and double sided tape.

The bulbs in the foglights were also due to replacement. We received an additional V-HIDs kit for our foglights to match our headlights. Installation was identical to the headlights. Simply twist out the factory bulb, and replace it with the HID bulb while making sure to not damage it while inserting it into the fog light housing.

Plug the bulb into the ballast, and the ballast is plugged into the factory fog light plug which will now act as a switch to turn on/off the HID fog lights.

Be sure to secure any extra wiring, as well as the ballast securely to the vehicle using the supplied zip ties and double sided tape. Failure to do so could result in damage to the HIDs or fog lights.

And that’s it! Quite possibly the simplest installation, and the results are staggering. Improved visibility means safer nighttime driving, and V-LEDs delivers unparalleled quality and ease of use.

This was some of the most fun we have had at the office in quite a while. Our two vehicle received the most massive brake installation you can find on the market. The Performance Friction Brake kit was tested with our factory brakes that haven’t been serviced since our purchase a good 30,000 miles and one year ago.

With our Giovanni 24 inch wheels and Toyo Tires we managed to bring the car to a stop at a horrible 189.11 feet from the stopping cone. This is quite a few feet past the stock brake test zone of the car from 60-0 but we accounted for wear/tear on our brake system and the fact we added 24 inch wheels/tires to the car from our factory 16 inch options.

We then took our Performance Friction kit after installation back to our secret test track for a big 60-0 stop. You can visually notice a huge difference in the front end of the car from the stock brakes to the PFC kit. The final result with the PFC kit on the Tahoe was 117.02 feet. We eliminated 72 feet off the braking distance which accounts for over one foot per MPH the car is traveling. In case you need a reference point for 72 feet we found a yacht that exact size being towed on a public street.

Photo Source: http://www.news-examiner.net/?p=3157

So that is our reference point for a braking situation with our new brake kit. You really cannot discredit the value of stopping 72 feet short in our SUV under any circumstance or stopping scenario.

We decided to compile a list of cars that our Project Tow Vehicle lose to in a 60-0 braking contest*:
2005 Wrecked Magazine Project Tahoe with PFC Brakes: 117.02 Feet
2006 Bentley Continental GT: 118 Feet
1997 Acura NSX-T: 120 Feet
2004 Pontiac GTO: 120 Feet
2011 Ford Explorer: 120 Feet
2010 BMW 535i GT: 122 Feet
2011 Honda CR-Z: 122 Feet
2004 Cadillac SRX V8 AWD: 122 Feet
2011 Lexus CT 200h: 123 Feet
2011 Audi Q7 TDI: 124 Feet
2011 BMW X5 xDrive35i: 125 Feet
2008 Mazda CX-9: 127 Feet
2011 Nissan Armada: 128 Feet
2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited: 128 Feet
1997 Dodge Viper GT-S: 129 Feet
2010 Toyota 4Runner Trail Edition: 129 Feet
2007 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – 129 Feet
2012 Fiat 500: 131 Feet
2007 Acura RDX: 135 Feet
2007 Chevrolet Suburban: 138 Feet
2009 Honda Fit Sport: 139 Feet
2011 Nissan Quest: 139 Feet
2011 Hyundai Santa Fe: 139 Feet
2008 Ford Expedition King Ranch: 139 Feet
2007 Ford Expedition: 140 Feet
2004 Ford F-150: 147 Feet
2011 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD: 156 Feet

*All times came from Motor Trend outside of our Tahoe test at 117.02 feet.

The brake installation on our Project Tow Vehicle was put together in two videos (front and rear) and feature step by step instructions on how to improve your braking! The kit just fits inside our 24 inch Giovanni Wheels (smallest wheel option is a 22) and the PFC kit installs clean, simple, and fast. The parts they ship you provide everything required to get the kit together.

Another video installment will be coming out shortly showing how many feet the brake kit shaved off the 60-0 brake time of the car. The kit performed so well it put us in performance car territory in a huge overweight Chevrolet SUV. Stay tuned for the brake test video which should be coming out soon!

If you’ve ever towed a race car, you’ll know that your braking time increases with the added weight of the car and trailer. The addition of our 24″ Giovanni Wheels and Toyo Tires increased braking time as the factory brakes had more rotating mass to stop, and when we towed a car, braking was downright terrifying. Upgrading your brakes is one of the most overlooked aspects of a proper tow vehicle. Larger wheels and the added weight of towing a vehicle contribute to longer braking times and distance, and without a proper brake upgrade, you could be looking at a world of hurt.

To combat this, Performance Friction Brakes sent over their Z-Rated brake kit  for all four corners of Project Tahoe. The brake kit included their monobloc calipers for the front and rear, massive cross drilled rotors, stainless steel braided brake lines, and their Performance Friction Carbon Metallic Pads to aid the braking process.

Stay tuned as we get this brake kit installed. We’ll be showing you how to properly install this big brake kit, as well as performing some necessary before/after braking comparison tests.

The guys at V-LEDS loaded us up with lights to give our Project Tow Vehicle a complete overhaul of LED lights. This huge pile of lights sitting on our tow vehicle hood is everything we installed to complete our LED light conversion.

First off we disconnected our Optima Battery so we could safely replace and work on all the lights in the Project Tow Vehicle.

The factory dome light is on the left side of this image and our new V-LED dome light is on the right. The installation is simple as the factory light pops out of place with a little pull and the new LED lights snap right into place.

This is our dome light that sits behind the driver/passenger seat complete with all three LED lights. This was completely done almost instantly. The factory dome light just snaps back into place and the interior is 100x brighter and easy on the eyes.

The vanity mirror is an equally simple process to replace the lights. Here is a photo of the V-LED light installed on the front fold down mirror.

The front map lights put some completion to our interior overhaul of LED lights. The interior change over was a great move and really helps interior visibility. You can definitely read a map now with the new LED map lights. Our next V-LEDS piece will highlight our HID headlight conversion and our LED taillights which finishes up our LED conversion.

We got our Giovanni Wheels (24×10 +20) Calisix style and our Toyo Proxes together and ready to be installed on our Project Two Vehicle. The car looks great but really needs a lowering kit and some brakes which should be right around the corner for the project Chevrolet Tahoe. The 305/35/24 inch Toyo Tires ride great and really improved the overall handling of the vehicle. The two products really complimented each other along with looking great installed on the car.

We picked up some Toyo Proxes STII in 305/35/R24 in anticipation for our Giovanni Wheels that should be arriving shortly. These Toyo Tires have great load ratings and quite an amazingly soft tread to give the car some added grip levels. We will have more once our wheels and tires get installed on the Tahoe!