Whippled 496

iTrader: (4)

Hey guys...looking for a little leveling advice....

Since its been too hot to drive the Whipple truck I have been tinkering with the daily driver for a little while trying to get it to my liking. Added heated power leather seats, center console, redundant wheel controls, etc. Now I am ready to move on to some exterior upgrades and the first thing on the list is to level this thing out. On the other truck (also an 8.1L 2500HD) I just crankd the torsion bars up, bought some Bilstein 2" lift shocks, and got an alighnment. I have heard though that this causes exessive wear on the front end parts like the pitman, idler, cv's, tierods, ball joints, etc. It doesnt really bother me for the whipple truck because I dont put more than a thousand miles a year on it, but for my daily driver i want to keep the ride some what decent and not tear up the front end.

I see that they make leving kits for our trucks that come with new keys that have the hex holes re-indexed to lift the front so you don't need to crank the bolts as much. What is the real benifit of new keys instead of just cranking the old ones and getting an alignment? Either way the front is coming up higher and its going to change the geometry and angles of the front end parts right? Is there a specific benifit of getting a leveling kit over just cranking the old keys and getting an alignment? I am not talking about the kits that come with new A-arms and everything, just the kits they sell that come with new re-indexed keys and longer shocks. I am getting ready to pick up some new 265 or 285 BFG's and want to make sure i get the truck leveled out correctly for a daily driver.

Thanks,
Jimmie

DV2000NJ

iTrader: (10)

You are absolutely correct. The only benefit of the re-indexed keys is that they let you crank further, they do NOTHING to reduce wear. 2" of crank is 2" of crank, no matter what the keys look like.

As long as you don't crank over 2", you shouldn't cause much excess wear.

Bumpers

iTrader: (10)

You can run 1500 keys and lift it up like 2"-2.5" main thing is just keep the angles in a safe operational area and not in a bind and you will be fine. I have some of the keys to sell to.. Then just run some shocks like you have on your other truck.

Whippled 496

iTrader: (4)

Thanks....thats kind of what i figured. Looks like I will be cranking the bolts, getting some longer shocks, and an alignment.

02_2500avalanche

I have 1500 keys in my truck, they work great and gave me the lift i wanted. I highly recommend you go onto cognito motorsports website and take a look at some of the stuff they offer to fix many of the problems with ifs gm front ends. I have every front end part they make on my truck and it made it ride a hell of alot better not to mention tighten up the idler arm and pitman arm that constantly wears with the design of the steering set up. As you will read on there site, when you crank and or use 1500 keys, the upper control arm pretty much rests on the bump stop and causes a rough ride over bumps.....more like a banging. Their control arms are longer and correct the negative camber issue as well as offer more clearance around the bump stop. Sorry to sound like I work for them I just really believe in their products and I know they work cause I own all of them....well and I got tired of replacing idler arms and pitman arms lol.

Alex

Bumpers

iTrader: (10)

He's right cognito has some nice upgrades for the trucks I will be purchasing some soon myself

stranger ranger

If the truck has the snow plow prep package, run the bolts all the way up for the torsion bars, get the 2 inch shocks and leave it be. The snow plow prep package trucks have heavy bars, and when you crank them up all the way, they don't sit right on the bump stop like the other due, they have about 2 inches of clearance. I know this might not be much but its a hell of a lot better than no clearance.