Leveling an 04 1500
Administrator
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 24,686
Likes: 21
From: South Georgia/East Florida
RE: Leveling an 04
Since I have never installed or used the keys, I can only go by what people have told me who have them. But this much I do know first hand.
Cranking the torsion bars puts more stress on the CV Joints (and these are the ONLY components that should have an issue here) than installing the leveling kit (keys). I personally know three people who have done so (I've helped two of them do it). Those people have reported no problems whatsoever except for the anticipated firmer feel of the front end. One of they guys I helped crank the t-bars has put about 22,000 miles on his truck and went the first 8 or 9k miles before even getting an alignment and has not had any problems as of yet.
Based on this, I'm gonna say that the leveling keys, although increasing the angle of the CV Joint which would add some stress, does not stress them to the point that it would be an issue unless you are doing some very serious off-roading or other similar use.
There are a good many people on this forum with the leveling keys and I've not heard of any issues directly related to them as of yet.
I also know of many 4x4 shops whose policy is to NEVER put a body lift and a suspension lift on a truck together. Now I hunt and go off-roading with at least half a dozen guys with such setups in GA. and nobody has had any kind of failure do to this, either. I had one guy we spent half a day getting out of the woods/swamps have a front end failure who had the lift combos together, but I believe his issue was more that he was running 38" Swampers on an IFS front end than the lift kits. If you've ever read ANY of my posts on the subject, I'm 100% against huge tires on an IFS truck...
Cranking the torsion bars puts more stress on the CV Joints (and these are the ONLY components that should have an issue here) than installing the leveling kit (keys). I personally know three people who have done so (I've helped two of them do it). Those people have reported no problems whatsoever except for the anticipated firmer feel of the front end. One of they guys I helped crank the t-bars has put about 22,000 miles on his truck and went the first 8 or 9k miles before even getting an alignment and has not had any problems as of yet.
Based on this, I'm gonna say that the leveling keys, although increasing the angle of the CV Joint which would add some stress, does not stress them to the point that it would be an issue unless you are doing some very serious off-roading or other similar use.
There are a good many people on this forum with the leveling keys and I've not heard of any issues directly related to them as of yet.
I also know of many 4x4 shops whose policy is to NEVER put a body lift and a suspension lift on a truck together. Now I hunt and go off-roading with at least half a dozen guys with such setups in GA. and nobody has had any kind of failure do to this, either. I had one guy we spent half a day getting out of the woods/swamps have a front end failure who had the lift combos together, but I believe his issue was more that he was running 38" Swampers on an IFS front end than the lift kits. If you've ever read ANY of my posts on the subject, I'm 100% against huge tires on an IFS truck...
