03 Sierra Leveling Kit ?

I think Fabtech makes a set of control arms that will lift it a few inches.

KB

Cheep way to go is to Replace the rear leaf spring shackles to some longer ones to lower the rear about a Inch and a Half. That should about level it out, and ride the same. Trying to raise the front on a 4X4 is going to cost quite a bit more depending on how much you go, and which way you go about doing it. I don't think your truck is 3" higher in back! That's quite a bit, better measure it. Replacing leaf spring shackles in the back is a 30 minute job at most! Takes me longer to get out the tools and raise the truck up then swapping the shackles. If you have a hitch, it'll take a couple minutes longer to drop the back of it down so you can get the bottom shackle bolts out. The Shackle bolts and hitch bolts should all be 21mm.

Trucks are up higher in the back so that when you carry a load back there the back is not sagging down. But it you don't use your truck to carry any loads, or small loads that leveling it out is fine. If you carry a Heavy load once in a while, then something like Air Shocks may be something to look into adding to keep the back from sagging.

Doesnt this truck have torque rods on the front? Check it out, it is a rod that goes from the lower control arm to about a few feet back to the frame. If so you can crank them up as far as you want, very easy. You need to have it aligned after its done so you could just have an alignment shop do it. You can probably get about an inch out of it. (2-3 inches difference doesnt seem right, you sure its not just about an inch higher in the rear?)

OK, I put a tape to it. On level ground. Front measures 36" from ground to wheel flare, Rear measures 38" from ground to wheel flare. So, it looks like I need about 2"'s in the front. It sure looks like more when just looking at it. Yes, it does have torque rods and it looks like the bolts have about 1-1.5" left on them, so that will be my starting point. Just crank these down all the way and then have it aligned. Thanks for the help.

And be prepared for a shitty ride and possible damage to the front suspension. Just cranking the torsion bars is a BAD idea. But it's your truck and your life...

I think a saw an add that replaced the part that the torsion bar goes into. It was called a dog leg or something like that. It was at Central 4wheel drive. Claims to lift your front by 2inch's and no damage. I would not crank up the torsion bars, although the guy down the street had it done to his 03 2500HD by the dealer.

photography

It's been real interesting reading this thread on how you are going to screw up a brand new truck. Kind of funny and I need the humor.

I wish someone that thinks this will screw up the truck would tell us EXACTLY what will get screwed up. It would be interesting to me.

well for one, your ball joints will be forced to operate at a larger angle than intended (the larger an angle they're forced to operate at, the weaker they get), 2 you will lose down travel in your suspension.

-Bret

Think about this...The ball joints will still be within there operating range, just a little higher in that range. You wont loose down travel because you are not stiffening the suspension, you are only changing the starting point of the ride hight.

Yes, but.....You said you would lose *down* travel. Not so, as you said you gain down travel. If you are that worried about loosing an inch of up travel and hitting the bump-stops on the up travel because you are boony- bouncing the truck then maybe you better do some major, expensive mods. For normal use it wont hurt a thing. We can agree to disagree if you like, It really doesnt matter to me. :)

Doesnt even look like the bumps have been touched.............

You're right, and they are called Keys or something. They have different color codes that correspond to how they adjust the ride height. I think I saw alot of discussion on it over at

in the forums. Perhaps he should check there first. I seem to remember someone giving part numbers as well as installation instructions, but it was a while ago, di didn't pay much attention to it then.

Later

Tony

If you have not seen the damage caused by the lack of travel in a vehicle that has limited down travel maybe you need to LOOK. It causes ball joint/tie rod end failures. Damages the control arm bushings and also bends frames if the blow is hard enough. As for your contradiction, there are stops on both sided of the suspension, one set controls the uptravel (mounted on the horn over the shock/knuckle mount) the other set is mounted on the frame below the lower control mount. They are what stops the suspension when you jack up the truck. If you have now cut the downtravel those stops start hitting a lot more on rough terrain than they did.

That 8" is TOTAL travel measured from the top stop to the bottom stop. If the factory setup has the A-arm centered with 4" up and 4" down. By raising the front of the truck 2 " you now have 6" of uptravel and ONLY 2" of downtravel.

I know for a fact that all these terible things wont happen, Ive seen at least 6 T-blazers that were ABUSED (used as police vehicles, with very high mileage) with the front raised up this way, NO damage. Ive seen a 00 K2500that was used off road ALOT for search and rescue(was by no means babied, but not abused). Also a 02 k2500 that has ALOT of off road oil field driving on it. That is just off the top of my head---No Damage- If you are telling me that you have witnessed these things yourself, and not just telling me what you think might happen, no offense but, I simply dont believe you. If you are driving the truck in a way that will do the damage you discribe it will happen at the stock setting too.

absolutly, did this to my 03 2500hd, works great!