GMCnewbie

Looking good. Let me know how well those Bilstein shocks ride after you complete the full swap. I went with the Fox 2.5 HTO's. I like the ride quality overall but I sometimes feel like a little stiffer ride might be nice. Granted, I also replaced the torsion bars and leafs with the Comfort Ride setup from Cognito. So that may leave my setup a little looser than others. But my ride quality is light years better than stock. So no complaints

The most difficult part I had replacing was the differential carrier bracket. More specifically, the driver's side bracket. I did one side at a time and didn't realize there was no way to easily remove or install the driver's side bracket with the passenger side fully installed. Pro tip: loosen the nuts on the passenger side bracket as much as you can without removing them completely. Also remove the skid plate. That will allow everything to droop about an inch or so making it super easy to remove the driver's bracket and install the new one. Outside of that, the rest was fairly straight forward from what I recall.

Damn! Great price considering I paid around $1,200 for a set last Nov. And mine was discounted.

I bought mine last year during the Black Friday sales thru shocksurplus.com and got maybe $100 off. It wasn't a great deal but it was the best available at the time.

Yes, I replaced all of the suspension components. As part of installing the Cognito bars, I initially tried leaving the stock keys, but the height was off. I had to install the Cognito keys to see the height gain from swapping to the ZR2 components. I did not over crank the keys as I didn't want the ride any stiffer than necessary.

It depends if the Cognito bars are in fact the same as the 4400lb GM bars. If so, I have them on my gasser and the difference is noticeable for sure. The same goes for the Cognito Comfort leafs. I have both on my truck and the ride is much better.

That makes sense. I didn't think about it as I was dealing with heat exhaustion while working on my truck and just put them in same the way the crappy stock Ranchos were. I'll change mine around one of these days.

Sorry for going dark for the last few months. Ive been traveling a lot for work and haven't had a lot of free time. I finished my suspension work and wheel install roughly two months ago and have maybe 100 miles on the truck since.

Great question. I didn't even think to check the position as I installed the new shocks the same way GM installed the stock ones. So I have mine body-down. I thought it was odd, but i figured GM engineers were smarter than myself. lol

Thanks for sharing that. I feel a little better knowing I torqued them to 110. Looks like Google AI wasn't too far off on this one.

Damn! I had these on my list of torque specs and didn't even catch this one. I totally looked past this as it called out the rear spring "unit bolt" rather than u-bolt. Oh well. I googled the torque spec for the u-bolts on the 2024 GMC 2500 u-bolts and the AI response said 110lb ft along with a number of search results. I went with 110. I don't think I damaged anything as I did a check of the stock bolts on both sides before I removed them. Both sides appeared to be tightened to roughly 110lb ft based on my torque wrench. This is by no means scientific, but it was what I had available when I was working in my truck. Edit: forgot to add I switched to the 3500 u-bolts due to the spacer added for the AT4X setup.

Yup, trying to avoid "permanent" changes to the truck wherever possible. Everything I've done so far can be "easily" swapped back to stock if the next owner wants. I'm not switching back as I love the look and ride quality of the new setup.

Cool video with good information. I'm not a fan of cutting the bumper if at all possible. That's why I'm blowing more money on a bumper extender (set of washers basically) to give a little extra space for the new tires. I really liked how they addressed the front "mud flaps" by heating them and pressing them back a bit. Much nicer look than removing or cutting them.

Great question. My guess is there's a difference and I say that simply because of the shape of the fenders between the Silverado and Sierra. But I have no clue. I shared my numbers simply to give folks an idea of what they might get from this type of swap. I was honestly surprised by how much lift my truck got. The front was initially higher (over 43") before I dialed it back a bit. Not sure if I shared this already, but I went back and swapped my torsion keys again to the Cognito keys as the stock keys didn't give enough lift.

2024 GMC 2500 AT4

No. That's with the stock wheels and tires.

This is very true. I ran 35×12.5 Nitto Ridge Grapplers on my Ram and they closer to 34" tall if not a bit shorter. They were plenty wide but not anywhere close to 35" tall. I chose the BF Goodrich KO3's for this truck in the 305/70r18 size. They are true to the sizes posted online. Mine measure in at just over 34 3/4" tall. I matched them with the Black Rhino Alpha wheels (18×9 and 0 offset). They look awesome to me. Looking forward to having them on the truck.

Yup. I wanted the +20 offset to more or less match the stock AEV wheels (+18). The only way I can do that now is to re-wrap these wheels on the pallet and ship them back to Custom Offset. And then comes the long wait for new wheels (my initial order took 8 weeks as they were backordered and shipped from China). And, I'd most likely have to deal with the new tariffs. So, I'm just gonna make these work and deal with it. The 0 offset isn't very aggressive at all and actually looks good in my opinion. It just sucks that I now have yet another unexpected cost to finish this up.

Mine is done with the exception of new wheels/tires being installed. I was a moron and listened to the sales guy from Custom Offset. I called and asked for a +20 offset wheel to match the AEV wheels that GM is installing on these trucks along with 305/70 tires. The goal was not to go so big that I'd have rubbing issues. If GM can run this size with these suspension components, I should be good to go. Well the sales guy convinced me a 0 offset wouldn't rub at all. He was wrong. I have significant rubbing on the front bumper on both sides of the truck. I took it to the dealership for an alignment and to verify the geometry up front. They still don't fit. The service advisor told me to take it to this shop that the dealer takes all of their new trucks to for lift kits. I took it to the lift kit shop and they said the only way these wheels will fit is to cut the bumper and lower valance... OR... to install a bumper extender. So, I'm not waiting for a bumper extender to show up. Hoping it gets here on Monday or Tuesday. Here are final height values before/after for center of wheel openings. Front driver - before: 39 7/8" after: 42 1/2" Front passenger - 40 1/4" after: 42 1/2" Rear driver - before: 41 5/8" after: 43 3/8" Rear passenger - 42" after: 43 3/8" The factory obviously didnt do a great job of dialing in the ride height of my truck as the driver side was 3/8" lower front and back. I'll post pics of the truck once I get the bumper adjusted and wheels installed. Hoping that will be either Monday or Tuesday.

I believe it is necessary (don't quote me) as I believe that's what prevents the ball joint stud from spinning while you tighten the nut. I did not remove the cv axles. I simply loosened the diff carrier bracket bolts on both sides along with removing the skid plate. That will give you an extra inch or so to maneuver with the brackets in and out.

The other parts that I wasted a lot of time with (and ultimately replaced) was the stabilizer link bar. GM did us a solid with these pieces of crap. There's a guide plate added to the lower bolt on this bar that is not permanently secured to the bar. I didn't realize this as I was removed the lower nut and was trying to get the bar free from the LCA. Well, the guide plate popped off for me and couldn't get it back on because of how they made it. So I was screwed by my local Chevy stealership into paying nearly double MSRP for a new stabilizer link bar. I say this just to make sure you're careful with that one part as you disassemble everything. I didn't have an issue with the passenger side. It was the driver's side that gave me all the issues. Be ready to replace if you're unlucky like I was. I wasted a lot of time trying to get the plate back on the bar. Not worth it in the end.

They were a massive pain to swap without any tips beforehand. I wasted a lot of time trying to get the old brackets out and then getting the new ones in. I started my project with the passenger side first and didn't touch anything on the driver's side until I completed the passenger side (with the sole exception of releasing the torsion keys on both per Cognito's instructions. The easiest way to get the old brackets out and new ones in is to remove the protector plate (mind just went blank on the part name) that covers much of the underside of your truck. Then, loosen the bolts on the other bracket to gain a little extra wiggle space to move the bracket you're working on. If you leave the other side fully mounted, it will be a massive struggle to get the brackets in and out. The driver side was impossible to remove until I dropped the plate and loosened the passenger side diff carrier bracket. Once I did those two steps, the driver's side bracket easily slid out and the new one went in without any issue. I felt like a complete moron after I got the new bracket in. Seriously. I struggled for more than an hour on the driver's side before I did those extra steps. It was a few extra steps that took maybe 5 mins and made the work soooo much easier. Good luck!

I've ordered parts from this dealership and had good luck. https://parts.jakesweeneychevrolet.com/oem-parts/gm-front-lower-control-arm-bolt-11549229 Ive also ordered from these guys too. https://www.gmpartsdirect.com/oem-parts/gm-front-lower-control-arm-bolt-11549229 My local dealer in Houston wanted $27 per bolt. I had to argue with the parts manager to get the to sell them to me for MSRP. Good luck!

I came close to having that happen as well. I got lucky and was able to shift my head just before it dropped.

I initially installed the Cognito keys and reverted to stock keys as I thought the height was too much. That was before I completed the rear swap. Was hoping to do it tomorrow as I'm flying home right now, but I was reminded last night that tomorrow is Mother's Day. Guess the job will have to wait until next weekend. I thought about the mini leafs but didn't want to disassemble the leafs. So I went with the full comfort ride leafs. Funny enough, they don't come with u-bolt mounts pre-installed. So, I had to break apart the leafs anyway to transfer the mounts from the stock to the Cognitos. So pick your poison I guess because you're gonna have to do some light assembly either way.