1.5"Level kit with 4600s update and rear spacer help needed.

[Ezekiel2517]

Hi there, this first part is a re-post from the Iridium Trucks thread. In retrospect I should have posted here first:

 

I recently leveled my 2014 Z71 4x4 Crew Cab with 1.5" motofab level. Added Bilstein 4600s at the same time. I think they added another 0.5" to it because the lift is more than 1.5". The next week I added 33" Nitto Terra Grappler G2s (P265/60/R20XL). They ride nice and are very quiet. Not as cool looking as the BFG ATs, but a lot lighter, a little quieter and softer riding (my dad has them on his). Overall it looks pretty good and makes the truck look way less wussy. Would love to remove the step, but with little kids, its a necessity.

 

Overall I am pretty pleased with the minimal impact on fuel economy. I have made two long distance road trips since this whole operation and still can get 20+ mpg doing 70 mph (which i guess is really 71-72 now since tires are 3% bigger). I think I lost about a half mpg highway and maybe .5-1 mpg in town.

 

The 4600s took some time to get use to. Either that or they got smoother as they got several hundred miles on them. In the first week I hated them. Now i think they are pretty nice. Not as soft as I had hoped, but well controlling of the vehicle. Not sure if I would do it again, but I am not gonna take them off unless I have to. I might be imagining it, but I swear they were so sensitive that I could feel the nubs on the new tires before they wore off.

 

Immediately after the install I began to notice a rythmic ticking noise when I turned my wheel. I had to have my rack and pinion replaced to fix it. Thankfully it was just barely under warranty still. Not sure what made it go bad but I guess all the banking on the knuckle or the different angle might have effected it. I seen many folks with levels have this issue on this forum but it is common even without the level I have learned.

 

ISSUE:

 

I really wanted to keep a little bit of nose down rake since I haul heavy loads and tow. This looks perfectly level to me even though the tape measure says that the front is half inch lower than rear. Sometimes it even looks nose high to me (and it is nose high when I have a load)

 

Debating on options (in order of complexity/cost):

1. Leave as is and get over it.

2. Raise rear 1/2-1". Parts about $60 so not too bad.

3. Lower front by replacing 1.5" level spacer with a 1" spacer. parts cheap. Labor is more intensive. May require re-alignment. And might screw up my rack and pinion again.

4. replace front end spacer/shocks with 5100s (this was my original plan but it got screwed up by the vendor - too much to discuss here)

 

All the posts that I read say that the z71 has a 2" rear block, but it sure looks like only an inch to me. I measured it and it looks like 1" to 1.25" depending on where I measure.

 

Can someone confirm that this is a 1" rear spacer? If I could get a 1.5" spacer I might even be able to keep the same U-bolts, given the amount of threads showing. However I probably will order a whole kit to make sure something does not go wrong.

 

Also, if I am only want to raise the rear 0.5-1", will that cause an issues with the rear shocks? If some trucks come with 2" spacers, then it seems like the shocks should already accommodate this.

 

 

 

Thanks for any ideas!

 

 

 

 

[Ezekiel2517]

Another possibility I see for the rear block may be to replace it with a GMT800 rear block. Supposedly the GMT900s are 1.25" I think these K2s use the same block? Does anyone know where I could get a factory 2" K2 or GMT800 rear block? Thanks!