Leveling kit and tires for stock wheels

BigBill Roc · October 31, 2019

Hello everyone my name is Bill and I am new to the forum. I’m sure there are plenty of this same post but I haven’t been able to find the exact one. I have a 2018 Silverado 2500HD that I would like to put a leveling kit and put the largest tires I can on my stock 20in wheels. Please reply with any suggestions on which kit and tires. I want to run an AT tire.

Thank you

NK 7906 · January 11, 2020

New to the forum also. I just put Cooper AT3 XLT on my 2015 2500 High Country. I went with 285/65 r20 on the stock wheels. This measures out to a 34.6x11.5 tire. I have not done a leveling kit or TBar crank

yet. They do fit Without rubbing on flat ground, but I would imagine they rub pretty good as soon as you get off road. I am going to crank the bars about 1.5” to get it closer to level, put new shocks and call it good. If you do any off roading I might recommend going one size smaller, I just took off a set of 33x12.5 r20 that fit with plenty of room. Those were Atturo Trail Blade XT I would stay clear of those unless you like loud tires, they howled from 15-80mph. Took them off with only 2500 miles, drove me crazy.

Woz · January 12, 2020

I purchased a 2017 2500HD Denali that had a level kit installed. Truck looked great, after driving it for a couple weeks never liked the ride. After reading info posted here and other places online I figured out why.

There was very little down travel left in the front suspension, the upper control arms had less then a 1/4” before bottom out, the ball joint was pushed all the way over to the outside, basically in a bind. The ride was choppy and harsh, even at slower speeds over speed bumps potholes etc.

So you may want to rethink just leveling. Unless you do it using Upper Control Arms with the correct geometry. Differential drop, shock spacers or new longer shock. Buying these parts individually cost more then complete kit from Rough Country.

I decided to install a 3.5” Rough Country lift. This kit includes everything needed at an affordable price and made the ride 100% better. There are other kits out there but they are all near 1k more in cost.

After installing the kit last weekend, I took the truck to Les Schwab for an alignment. While there I asked them what size tire would fit using the stock wheels. They are telling me 295/65r20 which is a 35” no problem. I am going to give these a try next month, after I collect a few more pay checks. I will let you know how it turns out.

Here is. Couple pics. The first pic you can see where the Stock UCA was making contact with the stop right above the brake line. The second one shows how much better the geometry is at the ball joint.

Good luck, hope this helps.

EJCarter · January 14, 2020

Check out Central Coast Motorsports (ccmoffroad.com). Their leveling kit is $550 and includes UCA, keys, shock spacers, and diff drop spacers (diff drop is sold separately, but included in the $550 price). I have been running it for about three and half years...no issues. I sit just below level and it rides just a little stiffer than stock. The ride did get much better when I later added the bilstein shocks and got rid of the stock junk rancho's. Shocks are not included in the above price.

I ran 275/65R20 BFG KO2 tires, but they were a little small / narrow in my opinion - especially with the level kit. It was time for new tires and I just put on 285/65R20 Nitto Ridge Grapplers about three weeks ago. This size looks a lot better - tiny bit taller and tiny bit wider. Both sets of tires were / are on the factory wheels. No rubbing with the larger size as of now, but I haven't put them in any extreme angles yet either - but there seems to be plenty of room.

Attached pics are with the older 275 tires, CCM UCAs (before I installed the bilstein's), and my CV angles...