Leveling Kit ?

[plumberoon]

have a few questions about the leveling kits.What is the diff between torsion keys or the spacers?Would like to get something 3''and what's the biggest tire you could run?I have a 08 gmc CC with 20". Thanks

[drdoublej]

Tortion keys are for 06 and older with a tortion bar. Spacers are for the 07 new body style and newer with coil over's.

From what I hear going with 3" spacers on the NNBS will cause damage and wear on the front end components. I was advised to stay at 2" or below. Tire size 285

[chev1guy]

Alot of people on here are running the Rough Country Leveling kit and have had no issues.

[MacA]

have a few questions about the leveling kits.What is the diff between torsion keys or the spacers?Would like to get something 3''and what's the biggest tire you could run?I have a 08 gmc CC with 20". Thanks

 

Like the others have said, your truck will only need spacers for leveling. Most of these leveling kits are for the front suspension and use a spacer to "lift" the front height to equal the rear height. I think most of these kits are less than 3". I am pretty sure if you want 3" you will need to find a system that also raises the rear a little.

 

Food for thought....A 2" kit, like my Rough Country kit will allow you up to 33" tires on stock rims. According to most of the Leveling/Lift kit manufacturers, you need to do a 5"+ lift to go beyond 33" tires. So, since I didn't want to lift my truck that high, I just went with the 2" leveling kit and will have to be happy with the 33" max tire limit.

 

If you search, you will find that many have pushed the tire size to lift height "ratio". But most of these have either used aftermarket rims and changed offsets, or they have had to do some significant fender and wheel well trimming.

 

I'm not an expert on lifts, but what I mentioned above is what I learned when I was researching the leveling/lift upgrade for my truck!

 

Good luck!!

[AThomas7782]

I don't believe I've seen a spacer over 2.5". I would assume a 3" spacer would blow a lot of your front-end components to kingdom come. The 2" spacer is by far the most common around here. Go 1.5" if you are playing it safe, or you can go 2.25" or 2.5" if you want completely level or to add lift to the rear a bit.

[Matt_]

I don't believe I've seen a spacer over 2.5". I would assume a 3" spacer would blow a lot of your front-end components to kingdom come. The 2" spacer is by far the most common around here. Go 1.5" if you are playing it safe, or you can go 2.25" or 2.5" if you want completely level or to add lift to the rear a bit.

 

That, and because the stock suspension only has 3" of down travel. So if you put in a 3" spacer you will be left with 0" of down travel. And then there's the use of aftermarket control arms to allow even more down travel which some people get a hard on for ; but this won't resolve the lower balljoint angle or steering component angles which are extreme at those heights.

 

There's plenty of threads on this topic. Read up, and choose wisely

 

IMO:

If you want 3", look into a leveling kit + body lift combo. Keep the leveling kit at or below 2", and you have the option of 1.5" or 3.0" with the body lifts. A 3" body lift and 1.5-.2.0" leveling kit with a set of 33" tires looks amazing on these trucks and does not put any of the suspension components at ridiculous extreme angles.

[AThomas7782]

...And I still wish these ball joints had zerks.

[09Jimmy]

I don't believe I've seen a spacer over 2.5". I would assume a 3" spacer would blow a lot of your front-end components to kingdom come. The 2" spacer is by far the most common around here. Go 1.5" if you are playing it safe, or you can go 2.25" or 2.5" if you want completely level or to add lift to the rear a bit.

 

That, and because the stock suspension only has 3" of down travel. So if you put in a 3" spacer you will be left with 0" of down travel. And then there's the use of aftermarket control arms to allow even more down travel which some people get a hard on for ; but this won't resolve the lower balljoint angle or steering component angles which are extreme at those heights.

 

There's plenty of threads on this topic. Read up, and choose wisely

 

IMO:

If you want 3", look into a leveling kit + body lift combo. Keep the leveling kit at or below 2", and you have the option of 1.5" or 3.0" with the body lifts. A 3" body lift and 1.5-.2.0" leveling kit with a set of 33" tires looks amazing on these trucks and does not put any of the suspension components at ridiculous extreme angles.

 

 

Uh, it's the upper balljoint angle which is extreme with a levelling kit and the aftermarket control arms correct it.

Our shop hasn't seen a failure yet of an upper balljoint, just normal wear from high mileage, on a stock height GMT 900, but we've repaired plenty of failures on fairly low mileage levelled trucks that actually go off the pavement.

[Matt_]

So the lower balljoint angle doesn't change at all?

 

Actually, its the upper balljoint, lower balljoint and tie rod angles. Although the weakest link on these trucks happen to be the upper balljoint which tend to fail even on stock trucks (thanks GM ).

 

I have had street queen trucks come in with leveling kits and needed damn near everything replaced, not just the uppers.

 

we've been down this road before... lets agree to disagree and as always, its buyer beware so members can make their own decisions.

 

On a side note though i'm still waiting to see pics of your truck. From what you've described it sounds pretty bad-a... so even if i don't agree with some of the suspension angles, post it up and show it off

[plumberoon]

Hey thanks alot i think that answers all my lift questions.