Originally Posted by Fifty150 (Post 5247226)

For a leveling kit, you can run 33" tires on stock wheels. Trimming plastic is not the issue. The issue will be the inside of those tires vs your suspension components & your wheel well. Leveling kits will change the angle of the upper control arm and wear on the ball joint. Most people feel that it's not really an issue, and that they will just install new ball joints when they wear out.

With a 6 inch lift, you can run 35" tires, but not with those wheels you have now. You will need new wheels with specs for the kit you are installing. Most lift kits will have a specific wheel fitment intended to work with their kit. Wheel width & backspacing are the most important numbers. Offset not so much. There are different lift kit options, and the more you spend, the better quality. Spend more, and you will get more parts, and better parts. You're not saving yourself any money with a lesser quality kit. Get a suspension lift.

I recall people trying to get more lift out of their trucks by using body lifts in combination with leveling kits. Some people use adjustable shocks, and add a leveling kit spacer on top of their adjustable shock. Others actually stacked a strut tower spacer on top of the suspension lift. Doing any combination of those options will result in failure later.

The wisdom in investing $3K+ into a lift kit for a 15 year old truck is questionable. Not only will you incur the cost of the kit components, but then you will find yourself adding on more to make the truck operate at it's best. After the kit install, you will quickly discover that you want the steering stabilizers for lift kits. Now you will have to recalibrate your computer & transmission shift points. You need your speedometer readings corrected. Then you will have to consider regearing since your stock gears were meant for stock tire size.

All of this is usually done when people buy new trucks. But if you want to spend the equivalent of what your truck is worth, that's up to you. In the end, you are looking at $5K - $6K to do everything right. That's probably what your truck's Blue Book value is. And no, nobody will offer you $10K for a 15 year old truck that you just spent $5K on. It will only be worth that to you. Somebody else might take that $5,000, sell the truck for $5,000, and put the $10,000 into a new truck.

I do need new tires tho and I’d like to go as big as possible for now.

Question tho, when would you think it would be appropriate to lift a truck?

Originally Posted by Fifty150 (Post 5247232)

I get it. You like the way the bigger tires look. I like the look too.

Bigger tires will not give you anything significant by way of ground clearance. The OEM tire is 31". A strut spacer allows for a 33" tire. Where are you going with that extra 1"?

Bigger tires will not provide you with any performance advantage. It will actually degrade your driveability. Your speedometer will be off calibration. Your transmission shift points will be off calibration. Your gears will be the wrong size, thereby losing mechanical advantage in turning a bigger, heavier tire. This causes added wear to your gear box, and your transmission.




Opinions vary Lifting trucks, just like making cars go faster, is strictly a hobby and not an investment. If you can afford it, and you receive personal gratification, then there really isn't a question of when.. It comes down to your fiscal condition, and your outlook on financial management.

For some people, never. Vehicles depreciate. No sense to throw that much money into a car which depreciates daily & by the mile. That money is gone. You can't even take the parts off, and try to sell that lift kit to someone as used. Same way that putting a supercharger on your Mustang is a waste of money. You have no need for a car to go that fast. You have no need for a truck to be that high. As with all hobbies, there is no real need. I enjoy the pleasures from loose women, but I have no need for such activity. Over the years, I have thrown away a small fortune, in exchange for personal gratification.

I think that the time to put money into any car, is when the car is new. Stupid to supercharge a 15 year old Mustang with over 100,000 miles. Might as well do all of your mods on a new car, with new parts. Lift the truck when it's new. Because after you do all of the suspension stuff, you'll also want to consider adding a little more power to turn those wheels. You're not going to start modding the engine for power on a 10+ year old truck with over 100,000 miles. You will enjoy every car or truck more when you fix up a new car or truck.

Other people will tell you not to do anything to a new car or truck, because you'll void the warranty.

There's another school of thought where the best cars to fix up are old cars. It makes perfect sense. Look at how many hobbyist collect old cars, get them at a good price, and then resto-mod them into being better than when they left the factory. Look at all of those great Fox Body Mustangs with the 5.0 engine. In theory, you could do that with your truck. No reason why you can't over-engineer your truck into a better truck.

Now is the perfect time. Start working on it, little by little. Start with the engine. Add on all of those little things like intake, exhaust, underdrive pulleys, et cetera. Get a programmer. Do that 1st, and enjoy it while you're saving up for the next phase. Some things make sense; if you already have to drop the pan for a transmission fluid exchange, you may as well add a shift kit and aftermarket pan for more capacity. Your truck is due for the gear oil to be changed; regear and add an aftermarket diff cover. Eventually, you'll get around to whatever extras you think fit your needs. From a high end entertainment system, onboard WiFi, a cabover camper shell, fancy paint job, tinted windows, spray in bedliner.......whatever! Just consider what you can actually use and will benefit you immediately, vs what can wait a little longer. Maybe that camper shell will give you immediate enjoyment. Or you would rather have a nice head unit for playing videos and making hands free calls.