Originally Posted by DakotaTravler

ideally you deflate the suspension then disable it. Deflation helps being able to compress the struts and disabling will prevent the system from attempting to adjust while working on it. In some ways though you can lift the rig and the truck may try to deflate the bags on its own as it wants to bring the wheels back into position - in this case, upwards. You will certainly need a calibration when replacing the suspension bits, mainly because of the upper arms which have a attachment point for the height sensor - this warning, abut needing a calibration, is outlined in the shop manual also. So once the work is done, the truck may sit a little differently which is okay - just recalibrate to spec a couple times and you are good to go.

The biggest issues in swapping will be front lower arms and rear uppers which typically have to have the bolts sawed off *** they end up fused within the bushing core. This is why buying all new mounting hardware is recommenced. The front uppers are usually never an issue - just hard to get to since you have to work from below and the engine bay. The rear uppers can be a pain to get into also but not the worst. One thing some people do is to simply cuts the lower arms themselves close to the mounting bolts that need to be cut. Then the bulky hardware is out of the way. Spelling of which, when I did mine I removed them as an entire unit. Meaning I undid the front uppers at the body and the lowers at the frame. Remove the tie rods. Then pulled the whole thing out as a unit to remove the knuckle. But if one is NOT replacing the lower ball joint on the front knuckles, care must be taken as over extending the components can pinch the lower ball joint boot and thus expose it to water, dirt. The rears I used the same method to remove, one whole assembly.