3" PA body lift on 2000 3/4 ton

Gary Lee · March 18, 2004

First off, just wanna thank anyone that responds! I'm very grateful for any advice or opinions. My truck as it is right now is pretty stock, except for the 285 BFG KO's on it. I'm considering a 3" body lift on my 2000 3/4ton ext. cab, long bed Chevy. This is so I can put a set of 315 SSR's on it. I've seen a couple of topics on these body lifts, and have seen some modifications that I'm not too keen on. For one, am I gonna have to cut or notch out my front air dam for the tow hooks, or would it be better to just take the hooks off? I don't need'em! What does it mean to have to modify the front frame horns? Also, if anyone has had any other modifications that were unusual, please let me know. Also, is there a noticeable difference between a 16x10 wheel as compared to a 16x8? I don't want to have to install fender flares. Any pictures are welcome as well!! Thanks again for your response.

Cool Zr2 · March 18, 2004

If a guy is putting a lift and bigger meats on it, It would look really wierd IMO without tow hooks.

cutting the airdam isn't a big deal, you can get a new air dam off of ebay for cheap anyway if you mess it up or remove the body lift.

MountaineerTom · March 18, 2004

I know you said you have a 3/4 ton, and I'm not sure how similar it would be installing a body lift as I did on my 1/2 ton, but I can't imaging it would be drasticlly different.

As far as the tow hook, you could leave them off. I've needed mine a couple times, so I wanted to keep them. Even if I had not used them previously, I would have left them on there though. You can cut a notch in it without butchering up the air dam too much. Here is what I did:

Again, I know your 3/4 ton is different, and if I remember correctly, don't the hooks kind of stick straight out instead of turning down like the 1/2 tons? If so, you may not need to trim as much as I did, if any at all.

Modifying the frame horns. They are the horizontal metal loop looking things just above the tow hook in this picture:

They just kind of fill up space behind the bumper, as a crush zone, I guess.

You don't have to cut of modify these, but if you don't, you will likely need to cut the tow hook hole in the airdam larger so they can stick through without distorting or breaking the airdam. Not a big deal to some, but I didn't want to do that, so I just cut them off. You can see in the pics above the lip I left on there. Some have cut them down and grinded the lip off and made that area smooth.

The body and radiator move up with the body lift, obviously, but the shroud stays in the factory location. You will have a gap between the top and bottom of the shroud and the top and bottom of the radiator that looks like this:

I had no problems with overheating or anything like that, but I decided to use some thin aluminum to dress it up a little so it looked better to me. After thinking about it, I personaly think it helps cooling more now because it seals the shroud to the radiator better, like it was from the factory, and allows the fan to suck more air through the radiator rather than sucking hot air from the engine bay through the gap, which would not be coolong anything. Some say it doesn't let air pass though like it should at highway speeds. To me, that is not an issue, because at highway speeds the fan clutch is not engaged and air is still passing through the radiator and out the back side of the shroud. It just gets differted down a little more than before. It's more helpful when sitting still idleing or slow speeds in my opinion. I've made several 6 hour drives that were 85-90% interstate in the last 2 years I've had it, with no problems at all. Anyway, here's what I did:

More fan shroud pics here.

I have a ton of pics on my website of the install, again on a 1/2 ton, that may help out. My body lift installation pics

On the left column, there is a link to Jon's (chevy4x4truck) web page with more pics of his installation.

Feel free to contact me if you have anymore questions.

Gary Lee · March 24, 2004

I'm driving myself crazy, I'm now on the verge of a 4" suspension lift. I do appreciate you Tom and ZR2, for your responses. I just happen to be lookin through the gallery of pics, and I really like the look of the suspension lift vs the body lift. Anyways, I'm torn as you can tell. Thanks again.

Chris97K1500 · March 26, 2004

No problems with putting on a bodylift on similar trucks as yours. But I noticed you are wanting SSR's. I also wanted these tires, very much. After doing some research on the net and talking with some people who actually owned them. They are not a very well designed tire. Tons of problems of the tread blocks chunking off first time out on the road. When I actually looked to get them. My local Interco dealer said that Interco was having some quality problems with the SSR's and had to stop production for a couple weeks. This was back in late Nov. Just do a google search. You'll find a few that have them with no problems, but many with pics of them coming off the rim and tread blocks totally missing. Just thought I'd warn you, they are an expensive tire. If you do get them, hopefully you won't have any trouble. Chris