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I've been reading and searching for 3 weeks and I believe I have the the answer...but I want to confirm or at least get differing opinions. 

A 3-3.5" leveling kit like the Zone,  Cognito, or Superlift, that comes with new UCA are much less prone to breaking stuff and are a pretty good option if you just want to add slightly bigger tires like say a 295/60/20 or 35x11.50 but all require a different offset than the factory wheels...OR the best option would be to go with a full kit like the BDS, Zone,  Procomp, etc some of which you can reuse the factory wheels which helps to offset the higher cost of the full lift, but require you to cut up your truck. 

 

I miss the days of swapping out torsion bar keys and doing a little cranking, swapping out the factory block for a 4" and calling it a day. Drove my 2001 Sierra like that for nearly 300K HARD miles with no issue. 

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23 minutes ago, ThatredneckguyJamie said:

I've been reading and searching for 3 weeks and I believe I have the the answer...but I want to confirm or at least get differing opinions. 

A 3-3.5" leveling kit like the Zone,  Cognito, or Superlift, that comes with new UCA are much less prone to breaking stuff and are a pretty good option if you just want to add slightly bigger tires like say a 295/60/20 or 35x11.50 but all require a different offset than the factory wheels...OR the best option would be to go with a full kit like the BDS, Zone,  Procomp, etc some of which you can reuse the factory wheels which helps to offset the higher cost of the full lift, but require you to cut up your truck. 

 

I miss the days of swapping out torsion bar keys and doing a little cranking, swapping out the factory block for a 4" and calling it a day. Drove my 2001 Sierra like that for nearly 300K HARD miles with no issue. 

 

 

A 3.5 inch lift on a factory ride height Z71, X31, or 4X4 with new UCA's should be pretty reliable based on the information available to us at this time, even without new UCA's.  Its when you go beyond that height that you start to see UCA issues.

 

If you retain the factory wheels, you can have 35" tires without the 3.5" lift.  I forget the name of woman from GM that stated it, be she clearly said that the TB was designed to fit 35" tires on factory wheels and it has been proven to do so at factory ride heights.  When you go much higher, the suspension drops lower and hugs in closer to the centerline of the vehicle requiring offset wheels which in turn create rub issues.

Edited by Gangly
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Stock UCAs can't hold up on leveled Trail Boss/AT4.  So anything beyond a 2 inch, get UCAs.  

 

The CVs are stupid now too, they use retainer rings to hold them to the stub axles in the diff and GM has seen those get damaged on leveled TB/AT4 as well.

 

The best approach would be a true lift kit that can correct the angles back to as close as factory as possible.  IMO, any level over 2 inches on stock parts is not ideal.    

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On 1/28/2022 at 5:02 AM, ThatredneckguyJamie said:

With that being the case, other than BDS and Zone which both get praise for the warranties..how much difference is there amongst the others, CST, Procomp, Superlift, Rough Country..etc..

I recommend staying away from Rough Country.  They are like the Walmart of trucks parts -- cheap, cheap, cheap. 

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