2014+ Leveling Kits

Pig Sooie 4 · July 22, 2020

7 hours ago, malibu43 said:

I am also interested with this same question. I have a two inch front leveling kit with 295/55/20 Ridge Grapplers and it sits perfect but if i have anything in the bed of my truck i notice it squats. Any 1 inch rear blocks worth having?

I'm curious about this as well. My truck sits perfectly level with a 2" kit up front. But on uneven ground or with any load in the back I get some squat. I added Hellwig 990 helper springs, and they definitely improved the ride with a load, but didn't get rid of the squat like I expected.

I was toying with the idea of going .5 or 1 inch higher with a block in the back. Didn't see any blocks for a .5 inch lift though...

Rockboyz · July 23, 2020

Hey Guys,

New to the forum. So in brief, I recently picked up a 14 Sierra SLT, All Terrain. The rake is driving me crazy, so I ordered the Rough Country 2" leveling kit. Watched a bunch of videos on the install. My question is for those of you who have installed this kit, or looked at this kit, I see the reason to having to disassemble half the suspension is because of the shaft being in the way of dropping the one bolt down in from the top. Looking for opinions on cutting that bolt to length, so it doesn't hit the shaft, and installing it from the bottom. Thoughts on strength issues? I mean in theory, the strut doesn't know which direction the bolt is in? Correct?? I greatly appreciate your feedback! Thanks guys! pics to follow!

Bensjamming · July 23, 2020

3 hours ago, Rockboyz said:

Hey Guys,

New to the forum. So in brief, I recently picked up a 14 Sierra SLT, All Terrain. The rake is driving me crazy, so I ordered the Rough Country 2" leveling kit. Watched a bunch of videos on the install. My question is for those of you who have installed this kit, or looked at this kit, I see the reason to having to disassemble half the suspension is because of the shaft being in the way of dropping the one bolt down in from the top. Looking for opinions on cutting that bolt to length, so it doesn't hit the shaft, and installing it from the bottom. Thoughts on strength issues? I mean in theory, the strut doesn't know which direction the bolt is in? Correct?? I greatly appreciate your feedback! Thanks guys! pics to follow!

I did the proper way and put them both in from the top, mainly so if a nut should come off I wouldn't lose the bolt out the bottom and cause major havoc. It took me about 20 minutes per side and that was doing it myself. Its not hard at all to do it that way. I think from looking back at it that you could possibly even skip the upper ball joint and get it in by unhooking the tie rod and just sharply turning the hub to move the shift out of the way. Even with separating the UBJ it only took about 45 minutes start to finish for it all, including putting the tools away.

MANDINGO · July 24, 2020

malibu43 · July 28, 2020

Now that I have my 2" level installed, I've been shopping casually for tires/wheels online and looking at other trucks out on the road and in parking lots. I was doing some work on the truck last weekend and had the back end lift up so there was almost no weight on the wheels, so the frame and body were several inches higher than normal. My wife came out and said "when are you going to do that to your truck?" "Lift it like that?" I asked. "Yes, that's what I thought you were going to do. You should do that."

So my wife planted this idea about going up higher and now I'm starting to agree. I started looking at 3" front and 1" or 2" rear leveling kits with control arms. I watched a youtube video and didn't realize how easy the control arm swap is if you're already in there doing a leveling kit. So while the 2" level was fun and got my feet wet, I'm thinking now I may want to go a little bigger.

A couple of questions:

1. With a 3" front level and new control arms, how big can I go with tires? Does that allow you to go bigger than 33" (305's)?

2. Everyone seems to be sold out of control arms right now...? Which are the best to go with (assuming they are available)?

3. What would be the "next level" after a 3/1 or 3/2 leveling kit and control arms? Shock upgrade? At what point should I consider that vs level kits?

Edited July 29, 2020 by malibu43

RJ3 · July 28, 2020

Where is the best place to buy leveling kits and shocks ?

malibu43 · July 31, 2020

On 7/28/2020 at 1:18 PM, malibu43 said:

Now that I have my 2" level installed, I've been shopping casually for tires/wheels online and looking at other trucks out on the road and in parking lots. I was doing some work on the truck last weekend and had the back end lift up so there was almost no weight on the wheels, so the frame and body were several inches higher than normal. My wife came out and said "when are you going to do that to your truck?" "Lift it like that?" I asked. "Yes, that's what I thought you were going to do. You should do that."

So my wife planted this idea about going up higher and now I'm starting to agree. I started looking at 3" front and 1" or 2" rear leveling kits with control arms. I watched a youtube video and didn't realize how easy the control arm swap is if you're already in there doing a leveling kit. So while the 2" level was fun and got my feet wet, I'm thinking now I may want to go a little bigger.

A couple of questions:

1. With a 3" front level and new control arms, how big can I go with tires? Does that allow you to go bigger than 33" (305's)?

2. Everyone seems to be sold out of control arms right now...? Which are the best to go with (assuming they are available)?

3. What would be the "next level" after a 3/1 or 3/2 leveling kit and control arms? Shock upgrade? At what point should I consider that vs level kits?

Bump...

I guess everyone's out driving their trucks instead of reading forums...?

langston1726 · July 31, 2020

Bump...

I guess everyone's out driving their trucks instead of reading forums...?

I’ve been running a 3” level up front with forged Rough Country upper control arms for almost 20000 miles now and have had 0 issues. I’m running a 315/70/17 BFG KO2. (Not a big rim guy) I did have to do some trimming to keep it from rubbing. I would think a 305 would fit fine as long as you don’t go crazy with negative offset. My rear is stock with Bilstein 5100s. My front is about 0.5 higher then the rear but very hard to notice most of the time. I don’t tow anything either.

3” is the max I would go. Anything beyond that is probably asking for problems. I would definitely replace your UCAs. The stock ones will be struggling. I also have some Kryptonite outer tie rods sitting in the garage. Just haven’t had a chance to put them on yet.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

mrhonestlyinsane · July 31, 2020

Malibu,

You have 500 pages of people that have a difference of opinion.

If you or only doing a level going to 3 " will stress your ball joints. Hence the reason for the upper control arm. The ride will suffer . It will make it more stiff. The lower control arm will sit at an angle during the resting position . It will put stress on the CV joint and lower ball joint as well.

When I had my 2010 I ran a 2 inch level for 5 years even that made the ride more stiff. When I bought my 2014 I ran the same 2" level and put 275/65r20 Duratracs technically 34.1" tire on with stock rims. It barely rubbed the wheel liners and I just tied them back.

Wasn't happy with it and went to a 5 inch lift.

Alot of people will tell you different things.

Personally I wouldn't do a 3" level.

Like I mentioned before everyone has their own opinion and money and skill set weigh into it.

malibu43 · July 31, 2020

5 hours ago, mrhonestlyinsane said:

Malibu,

You have 500 pages of people that have a difference of opinion.

If you or only doing a level going to 3 " will stress your ball joints. Hence the reason for the upper control arm. The ride will suffer . It will make it more stiff. The lower control arm will sit at an angle during the resting position . It will put stress on the CV joint and lower ball joint as well.

When I had my 2010 I ran a 2 inch level for 5 years even that made the ride more stiff. When I bought my 2014 I ran the same 2" level and put 275/65r20 Duratracs technically 34.1" tire on with stock rims. It barely rubbed the wheel liners and I just tied them back.

Wasn't happy with it and went to a 5 inch lift.

Alot of people will tell you different things.

Personally I wouldn't do a 3" level.

Like I mentioned before everyone has their own opinion and money and skill set weigh into it.

Thanks for your input/opinion.

I did read most of this thread several months ago when I decided to do my 2" level, but I mostly soaked up info related to the mod I was looking at at that time. Hence, me just posting a question about a 3" level or additional upgrades, rather than reading the entire thing again.

Again, thanks for the input.

malibu43 · July 31, 2020

12 hours ago, langston1726 said:

I’ve been running a 3” level up front with forged Rough Country upper control arms for almost 20000 miles now and have had 0 issues. I’m running a 315/70/17 BFG KO2. (Not a big rim guy) I did have to do some trimming to keep it from rubbing. I would think a 305 would fit fine as long as you don’t go crazy with negative offset. My rear is stock with Bilstein 5100s. My front is about 0.5 higher then the rear but very hard to notice most of the time. I don’t tow anything either.

3” is the max I would go. Anything beyond that is probably asking for problems. I would definitely replace your UCAs. The stock ones will be struggling. I also have some Kryptonite outer tie rods sitting in the garage. Just haven’t had a chance to put them on yet.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the response, and especially the pics! Your truck is actually very similar to where I'm hoping to take my truck (even same color), and it's been hard to find pictures of the look I'm going for (including black bowtie and grill mesh), so you posting them has really helped me see what it might look like when it's done.

Built2crash · July 31, 2020

Just to contribute to the post, my experience with leveling kits:

My 2013 Silverado had a 2" RC Leveling kit in it and I ran 32.5" BFG TKO2, all other components were stock. I ran that truck for 50K miles before I upgraded. I had zero problems with that setup.

I just recently put an Eibach Pro Level kit in my 2016 GMC Sierra. that kit includes 4 new shocks and spring up front. I'm running that on the 2.5" lift setting. I have stock 18" rims with 285/65/18 BFG TAKO2 on it (32.5" tire). I'm sure I can fit 33" tires on it no problem and I'm pretty sure I could fit 33.5" with no or maybe minor trim. Also, all other components are stock. Will post pictures soon.

My brother in law has a 2018 sierra we put a 2" RC spacer in it with 33.5" BFG TAKO2's, did the nor Cal mod on it and they fit fine. We actually did the Nor Cal mod prior to testing the tires out so I cant say if they would have rubbed without the mod or not, I think they would have rubbed just eyeballing it.

In all these cases the ride quality was basically the same with the level kits installed, My eibach setup is better ride quality.

Conclusion: IMO and as others have said, stay at 3" or less for a level to save your components. Otherwise, spend the money and go 5" or 6" lift kit, this allows you to run a larger tire and saves your components and ride quality.

Hope this helps

Danyoda · August 2, 2020

My 2018 Sierra has a 2.5 inch level and I’m running 315/70/r17 (metric size of 35/12.5) with very and I mean very little rub on the felt liner on the back side of the wheel well.