Leveling Kit Gone Bad?

Riggin’ · June 9, 2019

I had a torsion key leveling kit put on my truck, raised the front about two inches. Gave me a little more clearance for the front air dam and overall gave me the look I wanted. No other mods at this point besides the keys. Factory shocks, wheels and tires.

I've noticed going over speed bumps, or any decent bumps for that matter, the ride on the front end sucks. I've attached a few pics. My guess is it's an upper control arm issue, but I'd like those with more knowledge to chime in and tell me where I went wrong here. I'm a novice with this stuff. What I do know is the look is great, but that's about it, the ride has suffered significantly. What do I need to do (besides going back to stock keys)?

The truck is a 2019 GMC 2500 CC, short bed. Not sure how much that really matters.

redwngr · June 9, 2019

You uncovered the myth of 'leveling' not affecting ride.

The pictures show why.

Suspension needs to be able to travel both directions. Cranking keys or changing keys both result in suspension that can only permit the wheel to travel up relative to the truck. As the pics show, when the wheel needs to travel down it will hit the stops.

Lifts supply modified UCA's that don't hit the stops with normal travel..

Tx_operator87 · June 9, 2019

Those angles though [emoji15]. Your UCA's need to be level, there's not enough travel, and that ball joints not going to last long like that. The downfall of torsion bars is that no matter how right you do a level or lift, they still have a slight rough ride. A coilover conversion would be ideal, but they're costly and require some welding/modification of the frame. I personally went with the cognito leveling kit with UCAs, I also replaced the front and rear shocks with Bilstein 5100s. Altogether $1200 for parts. A buddy installed them for me for the price of me buying him lunch. Truck rides much better, the roads of Houston and surrounding areas aren't the best, so at times it will have a slight rough ride depending on how bad the roads are. For the majority of my driving, I have 0 complaints on the ride.

Those ranchos don't help either

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Paintor · June 9, 2019

https://www.roughcountry.com/gm-suspension-lift-kit-1959c.html

SierraHD17 · June 9, 2019

Shock spacers to start if you don't have them.... the shocks will bottom out long before the a arms.

You could have just kept the factory keys and achieved level by the way lol.. new keys are just for the overcrank crowd that want a 4" lift on the cheap.

Your angles are bad and if the a arm is hitting along with the angle of that joint you are literally binding in the front end...

I mean my own truck is level and doesn't look like that.

MotionMan · June 9, 2019

I did keys and spacers and mine does not look like this at all, I go to the sand dunes a lot and it's bumpy and I don't hit. It looks like they went over two inches to me, I would back them down and see how much it changes. UCAs are an easy swap all you can't do is align it. I have 40k on my truck and there have been no problems and the ride is just like stock. I think I went 1.5 on mine.

Silverado4x4 · June 9, 2019

9 hours ago, Riggin’ said:

I had a torsion key leveling kit put on my truck, raised the front about two inches. Gave me a little more clearance for the front air dam and overall gave me the look I wanted. No other mods at this point besides the keys. Factory shocks, wheels and tires.

I've noticed going over speed bumps, or any decent bumps for that matter, the ride on the front end sucks. I've attached a few pics. My guess is it's an upper control arm issue, but I'd like those with more knowledge to chime in and tell me where I went wrong here. I'm a novice with this stuff. What I do know is the look is great, but that's about it, the ride has suffered significantly. What do I need to do (besides going back to stock keys)?

The truck is a 2019 GMC 2500 CC, short bed. Not sure how much that really matters.

Nick that is a problem waiting to happen and that leveling kit is way over 2" those ball joints are going to go out real soon and with those angles your front axle CV angles are bad also and going to greatly reduce that life of those. If I were you I would not drive that truck much until the kit was removed asap or crank the keys down as much as possible without running out of threads (even turns down on each side) clock wise. Those ball joints and CV joints are binding.

gearheadesw · June 9, 2019

I'm running about 2" of lift, aftermarket keys, shock extenders, Bilstein 5160's, and Ready Lift UCA"s and a diff drop. All the common front leveling products, mine is riding nice and smooth right now, but I was in the same boat as you are, stiff non compliant, felt like the truck was on it's tippy toes, not planted. The control arms where my last addition in the process, and they made a huge difference in ride.

I like where my truck is now, running skinny 35's, and truck is low, I get in and out of the bed like 50 times a day, I wouldn't want it any higher at all. I'm running air bags in the back, I like to be able to throw the 4 wheeler mud bike in the bed and roll, 1,200 pounds of tools, thousand pound 4 wheeler, I love my 3/4 ton.....

Riggin’ · June 9, 2019

42 minutes ago, Silverado4x4 said:

Nick that is a problem waiting to happen and that leveling kit is way over 2" those ball joints are going to go out real soon and with those angles your front axle CV angles are bad also and going to greatly reduce that life of those. If I were you I would not drive that truck much until the kit was removed asap or crank the keys down as much as possible without running out of threads (even turns down on each side) clock wise. Those ball joints and CV joints are binding.

I can’t argue, I think the shop that put these on kind of blew it. They said it’d be 1.75” or so but there is no way it should be this extreme, they must have cranked the keys way too much. I was shocked when I checked the UCA’s. It’s going back in tomorrow, choice is to either get a kit with new UCA’s (need to see what all the kit includes) or just have the stock keys put back in. I noticed that backing up, cranking the wheel, I am hearing some creaking/popping. This whole thing has me kind of pissed because I told them I wanted a mild lift w/o compromising ride quality, just a little more clearance up front for the air dam and a better overall look, and this is what they gave me. And this shop is the biggest in my area!

Riggin’ · June 9, 2019

9 hours ago, Paintor said:

https://www.roughcountry.com/gm-suspension-lift-kit-1959c.html

Yeah, I actually looked at that kit in the midst of doing some research the past few days. I've heard so many bad things about Rough Country, so many people rip on them. But I'm not building an off-road machine here. It's my daily driver, a nice truck, but the country boy side of me just can't live with the low ground clearance up front and the heavy factory rake. I want a little more clearance, better overall look and modest off road capability. So in that sense, a kit like Rough Country could make sense. Maybe better shocks though, I've hear their shocks suck but far be it from me to judge, haven't tested them myself.

Tx_operator87 · June 9, 2019

Yeah, I actually looked at that kit in the midst of doing some research the past few days. I've heard so many bad things about Rough Country, so many people rip on them. But I'm not building an off-road machine here. It's my daily driver, a nice truck, but the country boy side of me just can't live with the low ground clearance up front and the heavy factory rake. I want a little more clearance, better overall look and modest off road capability. So in that sense, a kit like Rough Country could make sense. Maybe better shocks though, I've hear their shocks suck but far be it from me to judge, haven't tested them myself.

Look into cognito leveling kit and UCAs. Or kryptonite UCAs are good too. It sounded like you had leveling keys which should be good for 2" over stock keys, but by the looks of your UCA's it doesn't look like the stock keys got changed at all. The basics you need are 2" leveling keys, UCAs and shock extenders. Some people will add a 1/2 diff drop spacer, but if your just going for level or
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SierraHD17 · June 9, 2019

6 hours ago, Riggin’ said:

I can’t argue, I think the shop that put these on kind of blew it. They said it’d be 1.75” or so but there is no way it should be this extreme, they must have cranked the keys way too much. I was shocked when I checked the UCA’s. It’s going back in tomorrow, choice is to either get a kit with new UCA’s (need to see what all the kit includes) or just have the stock keys put back in. I noticed that backing up, cranking the wheel, I am hearing some creaking/popping. This whole thing has me kind of pissed because I told them I wanted a mild lift w/o compromising ride quality, just a little more clearance up front for the air dam and a better overall look, and this is what they gave me. And this shop is the biggest in my area!

How does the truck sit? You have to be nose high with that setup and how much angle are on those balljoints. Like I levelled my 17 with the stock keys and then added shock spacers, steering stabilizer and the 1" diff drop. I might do a arms on mine in time but only once the stock ones wear out lol.

Riggin’ · June 9, 2019

21 minutes ago, SierraHD17 said:

How does the truck sit? You have to be nose high with that setup and how much angle are on those balljoints. Like I levelled my 17 with the stock keys and then added shock spacers, steering stabilizer and the 1" diff drop. I might do a arms on mine in time but only once the stock ones wear out lol.

No, still about a 1” rake measuring at the fenders. From center of hub to fender is 27” (up front).

MotionMan · June 9, 2019

This is a RC key lift with spacers, 285 65 20s. It sits about an inch high in the rear but for the most part is level. The bolts are in the factory position, the lift was from the keys. Rear is stock.

Riggin’ · June 11, 2019

***UPDATE***

I took your guys' advice, along with doing a bunch of reading, and got my setup corrected today. At least it's 90% better than it was (I realize there might still be some technical issues). Got new upper control arms installed, along with front shock spacers. Ride difference is night and day. Honestly I could bring the front end down almost a whole inch if I wanted and still have a slight rake, in fact I just might do that. New tires too, really like them and they just barely touch the control arm at full crank, but not enough to worry about. All in all the difference is clear, wish I just had done this the first time.