Upsides and Downsides of Leveling and Lifting Your Truck
Leveling or lifting your F-150 can improve its looks and performance, but it can also mess up your headlights and make parking more difficult.
If you have a Ford F-150 (you’re reading this right now so it’s a safe bet that you do), you’ve probably modified it in at least one way. If you haven’t already, the odds are good that you’re eventually going to. Maybe you’ve thought about installing a leveling kit to make the front end sit at the same height as the rear end. Or perhaps you plan on lifting your rig. Either way, it’ll look great, but each approach has additional benefits…and its own set of potential issues.
In this video on the Town & Country Ford YouTube channel, the Bessemer, Alabama dealership‘s co-general manager Mitchell Watts uses a pair of F-150 XLTs to explain the pros and cons of each modification.
Leveling
Pluses: When F-150s leave the factory, they look as if they’re leaning forward. A leveling kit makes sure the truck sits nice and flat from front to back. But it’s more than just a cosmetic upgrade; it also allows you to fit larger tires. The F-150 that Watts uses as an example has a 2.5-inch leveling kit installed up front and is able to run 20-inch wheels and 35-inch tires.
A leveling kit has a cost advantage, too. Its relative simplicity means it’s typically cheaper than a four-corner lift – somewhere in the neighborhood of “five or six hundred bucks or something like that to actually do the leveling kit, to do the installation, to do the alignment, to basically do everything to the suspension,” according to Watts.
Minuses: When you modify any vehicle, you have to consider what ripple effects the changes you make could have. There’s a possibility your truck’s suspension may suffer more wear and tear as the result of a leveling kit. However, Watts has had a positive experience with the setup on his personal truck. “I’ve got … 15,000 miles on my F-150 that’s got a 2.5-inch leveling kit and I’ve had zero issues with it.”
Lifting
Pluses: One of the most obvious benefits of a lift is that it makes an F-150 look even cooler. Then there’s the fact that that extra height increases ground clearance and leaves more room for larger tires (the truck Watts points to sits on a six-inch lift and a set of 22s wrapped in 35-inch tires) – both of which help during off-roading. A properly installed and calibrated lift can compensate and correct for changes in the suspension geometry, making sure the F-150’s hardware doesn’t wear out unevenly or prematurely.
Minuses: Lifting a truck requires more parts and labor, so it also requires handing over more dough to get it done. And it doesn’t mean you can just stuff the biggest tires you can find into the wheel wells. It depends on your setup. If you give your F-150 a wider stance, you’re better off going with a smaller tire than you would have to use with a stock width so that your tires don’t rub when you turn the wheel. Be mindful of where you choose to park, as well. Watts says, “Don’t expect to pull … into every single parking deck that you can find.” We’ve found that that can be an issue in even stock vehicles, such as the Infiniti QX80.
Whether you go with a leveling kit or a lift, there are two main things you have to consider. Both mods require the suspension to be periodically re-torqued just to keep everything nice and tight. And don’t forget that since your headlights will be pointing higher than before you’ll have to adjust them so they don’t blind oncoming drivers. After all, one of the reasons for modifying your truck in the first place is having other people see how badass it is, right?
Join the F150online.com forums now!
