Best Leveling Kit - Answered

[uh6tdrvr]

I was going to ask which was the best way to go , upper or lower spacer and then i went to the Bilstein website and they answer it for you....... http://www.bilsteinus.com/leveling/index.php.

I know its what they sell but it has the best explination i have found on which kit works best for a coil over front end if you want to level it.

If you have a better explaination, lets hear it....before i spend the money on this kit.

[dansk]

That's interesting. I wonder if the ball joint problems many have seen using spacers are due to extended downtravel. I assumed it was due to a change in the angle after doing a lift.

[alaska511]

I have it. I love it. I had a CCM spacer kit, and I removed it for the Bilstien kit. I have a thread on it if you would like to read it. Search

[Matt_]

With spacers you do limit your UP travel, however you do not over-extend on DOWN travel because the suspension is already designed to max out at a certain point using the upper control arm stops which are independent of the strut used.

 

EDIT: if your leveling kit has you CUT the bump stops OR has specially shaped control arms to "add" down travel, then you will be over-extending the components like stated in that article.

 

With that said... ball joint issues are mostly due to the increased angles from the ride height. But to be clear, putting on a 2" leveling kit does not mean you WILL 100% have balljoint issues; its just more likely (regardless of which truck you drive GMT800/GMT900/ford/dodge/etc).

 

Lastly, there have been an increased number of GMT900s in the shop lately with ball-joint issues (and there's even supply issues now for replacements). I would venture to say that GM screwed up with these new greaseless joints and hopefully we'll see a fix or at least an aftermarket improvement in the near future. BUT, due to the current status- i would advise everyone to stay in the 1-1.5" range for leveling kits. 2-2.5" is not worth the risk of premature failure IMO.

[97SierraGMC]

The higher you go the more problems you will have if you dont change anything else. Same for Coils/Torsion Bars

[cerbomark]

do we need to do an alignment with this? Whats the cost?

[Matt_]

do we need to do an alignment with this? Whats the cost?

 

Yes, any change/modification to any front end component requires an alignment

[gabet95]

do we need to do an alignment with this? Whats the cost?

 

 

Yes, alignment is required when installing leveling kit (I did the upper strut spacers, 2.5inch level)

 

Total cost for leveling front (parts, labor, including alignment) of 2009 GMC Sierra Crew Cab 2WD 1500 was $225.