went to 4 wheel parts to buy my leveling kit and shocks and they were saying that i need longer arms or something for the 2.5 leveling kit is that true or were they sing me to get more money. and also wants a better tire bfg a/t or coper ltz tire.

 

i once looked for some longer upper control arms. i never found any. would be nice if there were some made for our trucks. the 2.5 kit definitely puts a strain on the front end components.

what part of san diego are you from? im up in north county

 

im in the north county to. vista

 

wow, youre right down the street from me. (oceanside) so you must have went to the 4 wheel parts in san marcos huh? in my experience, the guys who work there arent very helpful, and frankly i dont like them very much. they all have that holyer than thou attitude. bunch of know it alls.

 

Wow, a mechanic that knows what hes talking about for once! lol.

Yeah, anytime you make the strut longer, with a leveling kit, or add space between the control arms, you pretty much need new upper control arms to correct angle and in some cases have it correct clearance issues.

The upper control arms are designed for a certain length strut, when you install a leveling kit and make the strut longer, the upper control arm cant handle the extra length when the suspension is at max flex, or the wheels are off the ground. Alot of times the control arm is too short, and will swing down and into the struts coil spring, where it then rests againts it, making its ball joint a suspension limiter. The results is a shorter life for your balljoint.

A good leveling kit that fixes all this would consist of new longer or reangled upper arms, a slight diff drop, and then the leveling kit spacers.

Thats pretty much a full blown lift kit though!

Thats why leveling kits arent the BEST choice for your pickup, but an economical choice.

My upper control arm is too short as well, for my 2" kit, and does what i explained above, but its been problem free thus far.


Off Topic:

The better leveling kits on the market, the kind that go inside the strut, to add pre-load to the spring in the strut assembly, prevent the over extension of the control arms, because the strut inside the assembly remains the limiter. Of course with THIS kind of leveling kit, you trade fixing those issues for giving up articulation, because if the suspension w/o a kit sits at "0" in the flex range, and max is +5 (wheels off the ground) and -5 is max compression, this kit would have you sit at +2 or +3, so you really dont gain articulation, the truck just sits higher. That actually makes the truck LESS capable IMO.

 

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