Lifting an 06 Suburban LTZ

[onetime77]

Does any one know if you can properly lift an 06 Suburban LTZ, I am in the market for a new burby and like the LTZ, the dealer claims that there will be no probs, but after calling a few lift shops, not as sure. The lift shops say I might have a prob, with the stabilitrak system, but I believe that is standard on all new chey suvs and trucks. I like the Z71 but it has a smaller engine than the 6000 vortec that the LTZ posseses. Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

 

OT77

[snoman]

Does any one know if you can properly lift an 06 Suburban LTZ, I am in the market for a new burby and like the LTZ, the dealer claims that there will be no probs, but after calling a few lift shops, not as sure. The lift shops say I might have a prob, with the stabilitrak system, but I believe that is standard on all new chey suvs and trucks. I like the Z71 but it has a smaller engine than the 6000 vortec that the LTZ posseses. Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

 

OT77

 

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This is a tuff subject to answer and there will be different views on it but I will attempt to speak to it from a "engineers" point of view. When you have ABS and traction control and such, the ECM monitors wheel speeds and when you install larger tires you have to be sure that the electronics are reprogrammed to accept these changes and work properly. On lifting it, you will need to lower control arm mounts and front differentail if you want to do this right to keep CV shaft joint angles reasonable for long life so stay away from lifts that crank up Tbars or install new keys in them or that use dropped splindles without lowering front diff too. Any large tire size increase (at around the 35 inch soze and above) will accelerate front end ball joint wear a lot make no mistake about this (steering too) and will likely have tire wear issues too because of suspension design limitations and added stress that larger tires and lifts place on other stock parts so keep this in mind. Do regear your truck and do not use stock gears like most do as it will allow you to have good performance and reduce driveline strain too. Also, while a 2500 would be a better platform to do this, a 1500 can work if you limit it to 35's max (less prefferable) and regear truck with at least 4.56's because even the 5.3 in a 1500 will do well with a lift IF it is properly regeared for tires being used. BTW, the GM ECM supports up to 4.56 gears so reprogramming it to accept them is quite doable. One final comment if this is more show than go (no planned hard off road playing) 35's will work on a 1500 if you use plan above with reasonable good results but if you plan to play hard with it, limit the 1500 to 33's.