Lift kits for trucks can contain a lot of components and parts that will depend on the type of lift and amount of lift you want to do. Lift kits for trucks are an aftermarket change that will either raise the suspension or the body to make the vehicle taller. Some of the topics you will want to know about are Body Lift Kits, Suspension lift kits and shocks for lift kits. When I first decided that I wanted to look in jacking up my truck I didn’t know about some of the things you are going to learn. I hope this saves you some time and money.
Lets get on with it so you can get out there shopping for lift kits for trucks and know what you are looking for.
Basically there are two kinds of lift kits for trucks. The suspension lift kits and the body lift kits for trucks. Once you put the kit in, your wheel wells on your truck will be higher depending on the inches you put into your kit. Then you’ll probably want to get a new set of 4×4 truck tires as well. Here is the difference between the two types of truck lift kits.
Suspension Lift Kits For Trucks
With suspension truck lift kits you do not modify the contact points between the body and the the frame of the truck. The lift comes from the increase in distance from the axles to the frame. To do this, you’ll get new rear and front leaf springs as well as new truck shocks. Because of all these new components the suspension lift kits for trucks are more expensive than body lift kits. Just like anything though, you get what you pay for. You’ll get more height and ground clearance, and travel generally speaking. This allows the addition of even larger tires increasing ground clearance even more.
On the down side you’ll have a higher centre of gravity due to the heavy components of the vehicle being lifted. The ramifications of this increase as you go from 4 to 6 and up inches. This becomes something to be aware of on the higher speeds of the highway on off ramps and hard corners.
When you figure on the costs take into account that you may need additional parts other than the actual truck lift kit pieces. Your drive shaft might not be long enough any more and you may need to shim up other parts like the transfer case for example.
Body Lift Kits For Trucks
Body lift kits for trucks don’t raise the truck by lifting everything away from the tires. They raise the body away from the truck frame using spacers and blocks. So you don’t actually get more ground clearance. You just get the body of the truck itself higher. Away from the frame. It does allow you to get more clearance between the wheel wells and the tires though so you can get bigger tires and increase ground clearance that way.
Body lift kits for trucks are more common due to being less in over all cost and major truck modifications, generally. You’ll still need to check radiator, gas neck, brake line and steering column distances and clearances.
For those that are using their trucks for off roading 4 x 4 type stuff the body lift does not do much to increase performance. This is because there is no real increase in wheel travel or suspension performance.
Once thing that you will want to keep in mind when you are shopping for lift kits for trucks is that as you increase the size of your tires over stock you will need to compensate or adjust your speedometer and odometer by having them re-geared. One tire size up over stock is not too noticeable but higher than that and you may want to watch for speed traps!
A lot guys put the kits in themselves if they have some tools but if you have not done this stuff before you may want to pay that job out. Before you do as well, give your truck dealer a call to make sure what truck lift kits will not void your warranty.
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