T -- Glad this helped.
Jimmy -- I cut and installed new links that measured almost 2-1/4" (without end caps). It's been a week now driving all of my normal routes, and the rods have not popped off. The truck is riding great, and no suspension light.
For me, I'm @ 1/4"-1/2" higher in the rear than front. I think this is perfect. There has to be SOME rake, in my opinion, or the illusion is that it's sagging in the rear (people don't realize that the back window's bottom edge is NOT parallel with the driver and passenger windows' sills, and that if you get the rear height even with the front, that rear window will be running downhill).
To address your other question about the link caps being tight, yes, mine are, too. That just goes to show that a 2" rod length is just too short for normal driving, and that I really must have torqued the crap out of it (just by normal driving) in order to pop it off. It just can't operate properly, geometry-wise, when it's that short. But a 1/4" more seems to make all the difference.
I haven't heard my compressor once at the new almost-2-1/4" length. I think I've got it dialed in now for good.
One more thing regarding the illusion of sagging in the rear when lowered: It's very possibly that anyone's side molding can be "off" from the factory, making it look more like it's sagging when it's really not. Also, the side steps can create a look like the front is higher by the way the leading edge of the steps gradually returns into the side of the truck. That swooping return makes that part of the step look higher than the rear sometimes...
