Level and wheel/tire combo for 2014 Silverado 1500

silveradoman72 · May 16, 2020

Hey everyone - first post here and just bought a new-to-me 2014 Silverado 1500 LTZ Z71 all stock. This is also my first truck so I'm definitely a newbie and if I'm asking some simple questions I apologize, but I couldn't find the answers I was looking for on other topics.

Basically, what I'd like to do is level my pickup. I thought about doing maybe a small lift but I don't really want to fork out the money and I think the leveled Chevy looks just fine. Any recommendations for this? Seen people put on 2 or 2 1/2" level kits - difference between my wheel well heights is pretty much exactly 2 inches.

The other thing that I'm having more difficulty making sense of is a wheel and tire combo. Currently, I've got P265/65/R18 on it. What I'd like to do is get a bit more rugged look while also getting more ground clearance for a bit of offroading, and hopefully not affecting fuel economy and ride quality too much, but I understand you gotta sacrifice somewhere. What I'm having trouble understanding is if I should get larger wheels or taller tires to achieve the ground clearance part. I've read that getting larger wheels can mess with your speedometer and such. Any advice on if I should stick with my 18's right now, and if I end up buying new wheels one day should I also stick with 18's then?

If I went ahead and got my pickup leveled, which (or both) would help me get that better ground clearance? Increasing tires or wheels? What's the largest combo you'd recommend (with the level) that still prevents rubbing? Definitely want to get that rugged look but I haven't been able to determine which route to chase down, as the options seem limitless out there for what you can do. Could I just get bigger, more rugged, maybe wider tires to put on my stock 18's?

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to give a newbie some advice.

Danyoda · May 16, 2020

Question, what do you mean between increasing wheels? Wheels is just the size of your rim that does not affect the ground clearance. Tire size does as well as lift.

When it comes to leveling if you’re just going for the off road look, a 2” spacer is fine. That’ll cost you around $40-$50 plus install of another $100(unless you can do yourself) plus the price of the alignment because any time you mess with the suspension you have to get realigned. If you want the better ride quality with a lift then you would want to replace your front shocks with either adjustable struts or coilovers. Your cheapest option would be the Bilstein 5100’s which for the front pair is around $220 on eBay. That will give you slightly better ride quality and with the adjustment it would raise your truck about 1.8”. Coilovers for instance Fox 2.0’s can be adjusted to 2” but coilovers are more expensive Fox’s will run you around $800+ just for the fronts. Once you go over 2” you’re gonna start messing with the angles and you’re going to need to replace your upper control arms which can start making your build more expensive.

Now tires/wheels. A coworker of mine currently runs a 2.5” motofab spacer on the front and he has 35” tires with 18” methods and he rubs. Now this isn’t the route I suggest you take. I would go with 33 inch tall tires and to prevent rubbing make sure they’re around 11 inches wide. I can’t give you the exact metric size of the tires in case you decide on changing the rims(wheels). Anything larger you’re gonna start rubbing and your MPG’s will start to deplete. I’m not sure if you know about offsets when it comes to wheels but that also plays a factor. Stock GM wheels have a positive offset between 18-27. What that means is because it is a positive offset, it pushes the tire more inside the wheel well and when you add larger tires you have a higher chance of rubbing. In order to fix that you would need to add wheel spacers to make your tires stick out an inch or so. Best option would be to get a new set of aftermarket wheels that have a 0 offset or between -1 to -18 I believe.

Extra tip. This is just a simple mod and it becomes a personal preference. But if you remove the front air dam that gives you a little bit more clearance.

I personally haven’t done any mods to my Sierra 1500 yet. But I’ve been doing research for months on this forum and I’ve learned a lot from here and the outside world. If you want to know what my plan is, I’m planning on getting Fox 2.0’s on my truck to get it leveled. Then I’m going to get some 34” tires with 18” Method wheels. I know I will rub but I’m not too concerned about it as I won’t be doing any off reading.