21 Sierra 2500HD level / wheels/tire

[Shatterz]

Hey Y’all 

Just bored and thought I’d share my mods from this past Summer, celebrating paying the truck off with installing a bunch of fancy new stuff . 

 

 

Kryptonite Uppers Here with Fox 2.5s, running stock keys turned up. The kryptonite keys even with the bolts all the way out gave me Carolina Squat ( kryptonite said truck is too light with their keys being a gasser plus I have the snowplow prep rated torsion bars.

 

Full install in my driveway took about a day and a half not killing myself and doing everything proper. The FOX 2.5s were a major pain the ass to get in place especially mounting the reservoir, did I need 2.5s - no, did I just want to be a baller and put them one yes lol . 
 

Added KMC Impact forged wheels 18x8 with 18 mm offset and Toyo Open Country 35x12.5-18 load range F. 
 

I think it came out absolutely killer, very functional setup for what it is, rides the best it ever will with the limitations of the stock suspension. 
 

anyway just sharing in case anyone wanted to do a similar setup. Ask me anything if you like

[PBNB]

Looks nice, did you do anything to the rear apart from the shocks?

 

I did King Shocks and Cognito UCA's and Cognito rear 1" block. 

 

With the torsion keys, I went with the Suspension Maxx keys and diff drop spacers. It was fun setting the keys up but they give you bunch of different positions to set things up the way you want. I also have a heavy duramax. I raised the front by 1.75" and the rear by 1".

 

My tires look tiny now at 295/70R18's!

 

 

 

[Chuck FB]

On 1/6/2026 at 1:09 PM, PBNB said:

Looks nice, did you do anything to the rear apart from the shocks?

 

I did King Shocks and Cognito UCA's and Cognito rear 1" block. 

 

With the torsion keys, I went with the Suspension Maxx keys and diff drop spacers. It was fun setting the keys up but they give you bunch of different positions to set things up the way you want. I also have a heavy duramax. I raised the front by 1.75" and the rear by 1".

 

My tires look tiny now at 295/70R18's!

 

 

 

 

Do you know what your front measurement would be now from the underside of the fender trim to the center of the hubs. Also had you then lifted the front end off the ground and remeasured to figure out what your current droop travel is but also total droop distance as well is now. It would be interesting to see where those numbers land now as the UCA and shock travel etc would play into any increase of total droop travel distance over the stock droop distance which I believe is close to that 28" or maybe just under that. 

[Chuck FB]

On 12/16/2025 at 12:10 AM, Shatterz said:

Hey Y’all 

Just bored and thought I’d share my mods from this past Summer, celebrating paying the truck off with installing a bunch of fancy new stuff . 

 

 

Kryptonite Uppers Here with Fox 2.5s, running stock keys turned up. The kryptonite keys even with the bolts all the way out gave me Carolina Squat ( kryptonite said truck is too light with their keys being a gasser plus I have the snowplow prep rated torsion bars.

 

Full install in my driveway took about a day and a half not killing myself and doing everything proper. The FOX 2.5s were a major pain the ass to get in place especially mounting the reservoir, did I need 2.5s - no, did I just want to be a baller and put them one yes lol . 
 

Added KMC Impact forged wheels 18x8 with 18 mm offset and Toyo Open Country 35x12.5-18 load range F. 
 

I think it came out absolutely killer, very functional setup for what it is, rides the best it ever will with the limitations of the stock suspension. 
 

anyway just sharing in case anyone wanted to do a similar setup. Ask me anything if you like

 

Call me confused but I see what would be considered zero rust on a 2021 model truck from New Jersey, how is that physically possible as don't they pour the salt on the roads or does this vehicle never see a winter road ?

 

Also do you know where your suspension height is now set height wise by measuring from the underside of the plastic fender trim to the center of the hubs. That measurement method eliminates any differences in tire size/diameter on a vehicle to compare one trucks suspension to another ( as long as it does not have a true LCA lift, then that becomes something still different ). I realize the GMC vs the Chev has a slight difference in that measurement due to the different shape of the fender so that has to be factored in when comparing the two sub brands. 

[Shatterz]

Your praises of my zero rust 61k mile ‘21 that is driven everyday day is much appreciated good sir! 
 

I have a regime of cleaning and protecting that I am very proud ! 
 

I will get some new measurements and share. I had them but lost the paper, I will say my droop travel is significant based on how much I need to jack the truck up after this work. 

Edited January 8 by Shatterz

[Chuck FB]

2 minutes ago, Shatterz said:

Your praises of my zero rust 61k mile ‘21 that is driven everyday day is much appreciated good sir! 
 

I have a regime of cleaning and protecting that I am very proud ! 

 

I would like to hear your secret as the only vehicles I have ever seen around here where I am in Alberta that look like that, were ether new sitting on the dealers lot or a vehicle that was bought new and never once driven on a winter road that had salt or calcium chloride on it ( parked in the fall and not taken out onto the highways until late spring after rains washed the salt off the roads ). Also due to the sand and small gravel they throw on the roads here, the front tires kick up the road debris and it jus sand blasts the vehicles underside on the frame and the rear axle on its front side just gets pounded and so rust takes over. If one looks at photos of the trucks on the Ritchie Bros site for this area and its a truck that got used a lot such as an oilfield pickup pounding up and down the highways and gravel roads all year around, that is a good example of what trucks end up looking like only 3 years time and a 10 year old truck getting that type of use has rocker panels ( a GM anyway ) completely rusted out the bottom and gaping holes above the wheel wells and why the big plastic aftermarket fender trims get thrown on to try and hide the mess as they dump it on auction. 

 

I am only guessing that they don't used calcium chloride in NJ, that stuff is so corrosive, many times more so than salt is and they use that crap up here on the river crossing hills a lot. 

 

So is there an oil spray of some sort that your having applied every year as well ? ( I am experimenting with my new truck by using fluid film ) as there are no companies around here anymore that have a business where they apply an oil type product on vehicles which is odd as central Canada as in Ontario for one seems to have various companies that apply various products.  

[Shatterz]

10 hours ago, Chuck FB said:

 

I would like to hear your secret as the only vehicles I have ever seen around here where I am in Alberta that look like that, were ether new sitting on the dealers lot or a vehicle that was bought new and never once driven on a winter road that had salt or calcium chloride on it ( parked in the fall and not taken out onto the highways until late spring after rains washed the salt off the roads ). Also due to the sand and small gravel they throw on the roads here, the front tires kick up the road debris and it jus sand blasts the vehicles underside on the frame and the rear axle on its front side just gets pounded and so rust takes over. If one looks at photos of the trucks on the Ritchie Bros site for this area and its a truck that got used a lot such as an oilfield pickup pounding up and down the highways and gravel roads all year around, that is a good example of what trucks end up looking like only 3 years time and a 10 year old truck getting that type of use has rocker panels ( a GM anyway ) completely rusted out the bottom and gaping holes above the wheel wells and why the big plastic aftermarket fender trims get thrown on to try and hide the mess as they dump it on auction. 

 

I am only guessing that they don't used calcium chloride in NJ, that stuff is so corrosive, many times more so than salt is and they use that crap up here on the river crossing hills a lot. 

 

So is there an oil spray of some sort that your having applied every year as well ? ( I am experimenting with my new truck by using fluid film ) as there are no companies around here anymore that have a business where they apply an oil type product on vehicles which is odd as central Canada as in Ontario for one seems to have various companies that apply various products.  

Starts with when the truck is new, any exposed metals I immediately prep and hit with rustoleum satin black, including front axle, drive shaft, lightly sand and hit the entire rear axle, basically anything uncoated. For the frame it’s simple no rocket science here, many will people will say the frame wax coating is trash on these trucks but it’s not, you just need to know what your working with and how to maintain it. You put ANYTHING over this coating you’re gonna melt/ destroy its integrity, been there done that. Frame maintenance has been a strict regime of underbody flushing and a maintenance coat/ repair of any areas on the original wax coating. Yes you can buy the original wax coating GM uses but in aerosol form and apply it over your frame. Simply clean and area, spray let it setup and you have fresh protection. Google Daubert NOX-RUST-X121B. This is the factory coating in aerosol form 

[Chuck FB]

14 minutes ago, Shatterz said:

Starts with when the truck is new, any exposed metals I immediately prep and hit with rustoleum satin black, including front axle, drive shaft, lightly sand and hit the entire rear axle, basically anything uncoated. For the frame it’s simple no rocket science here, many will people will say the frame wax coating is trash on these trucks but it’s not, you just need to know what your working with and how to maintain it. You put ANYTHING over this coating you’re gonna melt/ destroy its integrity, been there done that. Frame maintenance has been a strict regime of underbody flushing and a maintenance coat/ repair of any areas on the original wax coating. Yes you can buy the original wax coating GM uses but in aerosol form and apply it over your frame. Simply clean and area, spray let it setup and you have fresh protection. Google Daubert NOX-RUST-X121B. This is the factory coating in aerosol form 

 

I could see that helping giving it an extra layer of protection if it was already painted as your applying another layer or in fact painting what was bare metal as GM is doing with the CV areas of the front diff drive axles and the front axle housing on the right side. Before I had put the fluid film on my truck I had asked various people that had been using fluid film as per youtube video comments sections etc and the claim was that it didn't cause damage to the wax coating. However I have not proven it one way or the other and honestly have not tried to wipe on the frame for example to see what comes off but would not surprise me if it would given how easy the wax will come off if rubbed hard on and certainly if any petroleum products such as gasoline etc get on it, its being compromised. 

 

However I did not feel that I had a lot to loose in putting the fluid film on due to conditions that I suspect are very different compared to what your dealing with on your roads as be it a GM or a Ford with its painted frame, I would say the GM fairs the worst but the Fords get their paint stripped off further back on the frames as well but just takes a bit longer. I have found in the past that depending on the state, some states have almost every public road paved in a rural farming area and as an example going back to the 1970's when we stopped at a farmers place in Oregon that my dad knew as he was a grass seed farmer as well ( lawn grass .. not the other kind ! ) and we were blown away by how there was pavement right past their yard on this non important road that dead ended some ways past their farm as we said we have mostly gravel roads where we live, the farmers wife had zero concept of what a gravel road even was. There are the few main paved highways through this part of the province but the rest of the roads as in grid roads are gravel roads and sharp crushed gravel and its all loose rolling around on the road and it flies off the front tires throwing back into the rear diff and along the frame, and destroys rocker panels unless one has running boards to try and prevent some of that damage but its impossible to eliminate it. So whatever coating was on the vehicle gets stripped off if its being driven on gravel and even the highways with the sand during the winter do a number anyway. Then like myself, I live 50 miles from town, when I wash it in town  I can't physically get home from town without getting crap on my vehicle all over again and have no way to wash it at home as its winter. I realize some places have their roads dry off during the winter and once in a while get a snow, here its mostly crap on the highways as it rarely gets warm enough to ever melt off a highway so its months and months of salt and snow flying. I had mentioned the calcium chloride, that crap once its on a surface keeps drawing moisture from the air so its rusting action is 24/7, and that is the crap they use on some gravel roads as dust control so can't even escape that during the summer on some roads. 

 

That's why its very upsetting to know how insanely expensive vehicles are and then watch it rust to pieces and no one really have an answer as to how to prevent it, even the Ford aluminum bodies can get hammered up from the underside and can have the body start to fall apart, again gravel and rough roads kicking the crap out of a vehicle. 

 

But anyway its good that the process your doing and the cleaning is keeping your truck looking like it is, I wish it could be done the same here but no one has figured out the magic solution in how to accomplish it. I had extended mud flaps put on behind all four tires and the factory running boards and my fluid film experiment, I guess I will know in a few years time if its been a total waste or has been of some help.