its a shortcut you don't wanna take. leveling kits aren't designed to work with the leveling struts, and the leveling struts aren't designed to work with a RL spacer. Your suspension geometrys gonna be really off, and your CV angles will be too big... IMO, not a good call

 

Yeah that makes sense. Maybe I'll just keep it leveled as is and run some tires a little smaller than 33's. It'll still look good.....I appreciate the input. Thanks for the help.

 

U can fit 33's without rubbing with just the leveling kit, as long as ur wheels are stock or close to stock offset. At the most, u would only have to tie back the plastic liner with a zip tie, no big deal.

 

Ok cool. I guess I'll just have to try it and see. I'm fine with trimming a little plastic, just don't want to run a tire that wil require me to cut metal.

 

I have a 2.5 inch level kit and im running 275 70 18s and nitto claims there a 34 but its a 33. something

 

Your a hair over 2 inches now. Any more than that will not let your suspension cycle like you need it too. Even 2 inches is pushing it. Don't give it too much gas while you are at full lock in 4x4, or you will be putting new axles in and maybe have a tow bill depending where it breaks at. The stock CV's work well until you put them at the max angles and then they can pop pretty easy. I have had quite a few GM trucks and this has always been the case. They sell some bullet proof ones but they are really expensive.

 

I'd like to hear the opinion of some experts here because I don't know why combining the 5100's with spacers would be any different than an RC 3.5" lift. Instead of a single 3.5" spacer, u would just have the 2.5" spacer and u could just add an inch of height to the 5100. Actually, I would think this method would be better than the RC kit cuz u would still have the benefit of the added inch of travel that the Bilstein gives u vs stock. The only thing u might need to do is trim the bump stops. Can someone explain why this would make the geometry any different than the RC 3.5" kit? Now, I would say if u were going to be doing any serious 'froading, it wouldn't be a good idea, but for the occasional trail or 2 I just don't see how its that bad. Several people on this forum have attested to many trouble free miles with their RC 3.5" kits. Just my. 02. I'd love to hear some expert opinions on this.
I realize this thread is pretty old, just been thinking about different suspension options lately.

 

At stock you have 8" of suspension cycle. if you are sitting in the middle, that means you have 4 inches of up and 4 inches of down travel. With a spacer/torsion key, you are taking from the droop side of the suspension. Most of the time the factory set it at 4 1/2 droop and 3 1/2 compression. Most people ( like myself) are OK with going with a leveling kit that gives you 1 1/2" to 2" of lift but any more than that you are rolling the dice and will likely end up with premature front end wear. I definitely will not do any heavy off-roading with a leveling kit as you can easily start popping CV axles.

Your ride, your call.

 

Makes sense. I agree that for froading these methods are definitely not the way to go, but for someone like myself who is just trying to clear bigger tires, I still don't see how it could be that different than the RC 3.5" kits. Mine's not even 4wd so I'm not worried about cv's, but there are diff drop brackets available. Control arms are not that expensive, and they're easy to change out, so personally I'm not worried about the front end wear. I'll deal with that if and when it comes, but so far I've had no problems with my 3.5" kit.

 

bringin back an old thread...........

situation: i have a 2.5 inch level kit, if i added bilstein 5100s and kept those bad boys at 0 (factory no lift on those at all)...how would that do. big no no or what

 

Shouldn't be any different than adding stock struts!!!

 

doesnt answer my question vato.

to add...i have a coil spring spacer above my strut assembly. so in reality i would just need factory sized struts to replace my worn ones.....................right?

 

Correct...

5100 adjustables have 4 settings...

0" lift (stock height)
.59" lift
1.18" lift
2.77" lift

So if you left them on the lowest setting you would have the same height as a stock strut..

I currently have a 2.25" lower strut spacer and I'm adding the 5100s on the 1.18" setting for a total of 3.43" of lift. I am also adding a diff drop to help correct the cv angles... I will also trim the bump stops... giving me a similar lift to the RC 3.5" kit with better shocks

 

youre the man kbacon

link to diff drop? price?

 

I ordered the tapered block diff drop off ebay for $53 shipped...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FRONT-DIFF-DIFF ... ea&vxp=mtr

Which looked almost identical to the pics of the diff drop on RC's website..