He's right.

 

yeah this seems to get lost on a lot of people. 35s work only because the wheels are a high positive offset. It's they the raptor wheels work, too. But as soon as you hit +20 or less, your 35s don't work. Hell, even these tires at 34.8" on the stock wheels have less clearance to the crash bar than my 315/70/17s on raptor wheels, and the raptor wheels are wider with 10mm less offset.

 

Ill be doing the install myself. So the spacer you are talking about, it must go in between the coil and the upper or lower retainer?

 

If you're installing the BDS kit, there's are two spacers:

Pre-load spacer goes in between the coilover and the top had, requires disassembly of the coilover
Strut spacer that sits on top of the coilover assembly

Most 'spacer puck' leveling kits only have a the strut spacer (the ready lift 2.25 kit is this kind of kit), and so are easier to install. BDS thinks there's a benefit to splitting the lift up between the two different kinds of spacer, and there probably is. Moving the strut spacer down 2+ inches is what creates the opportunity for the UCA to impact the coil spring. If you do the lift with the spring pre-load, you remove some of that risk.

 

I havent decided on which kit yet, but if there is a better chance of getting the 35's under there by using one kit over another then I'd rather do that. If i could do it with another kit where i dont have to take the struts apart then that would be great but i also dont want to order $1600 in tires and then find out after the fact that they arent going to fit.

 

Your ability to fit 35s is dependent on your wheel choice, not your leveling kit choice. As long as go higher than 2" on the level kit, there are wheels that will fit 35s underneath that. You should be paying more attention to wheel width and offset. 2.5" seems to be the 'nobody has an issue' number. Lots of people at 2 or 2.25" also don't have any issues, although every now and then someone in the back of the room sticks their hand up and says they rubbed. I'm on raptor take offs and a 2.25" kit and I don't come anywhere close to rubbing.

It's one reason why people put raptor wheels on, or keep their stock wheels. The high positive offset on factory wheels is what prevents the tire from impacting crash bars on leveled trucks. It's difficult to find an aftermarket wheel that has the offset required to successfully fit 35s. Some people have luck with +20 offset wheels, but anything less than that is gonna be tough to stuff.

 

Would it make sense to combine a set of bilsteins with the BDS level kit? Not necessarily to get more height, just for the performance. Since im going to have to disassemble the coil overs to install the spacers i wonder if I could just do the 5100's at that time? And if so, could i set them to the 1st setting which they claim is a little over 3/4" of lift which would give me 3.25" of total lift? By the way, i really appreciate all the information. I realize some of my questions may sound ridiculous but im just trying to learn a little and in the end have a badass looking truck like the rest of y'all.

 

I would not do that. It'll actually hurt your performance. 3 1/4" of "leveling kit" is way too much. First, you'll be very nose high, which is a solvable problem with a taller lift block in the rear. But the biggest issues there are going to be your control arm/ball joint angles, and your CV angles. You'll have significantly reduced your available down travel because you ate all of it up with the 'level', so it'll ride terribly, you'll wreck your front end parts. If you intend on going over 3" you need a real lift kit with taller steering knuckles, tie rod ends, sway bar ends, brake line extenders, a drop kit for your differential, etc.. If you want to go with a 3" kit, rough country sells one but it has the extreme CV angles I'm talking about with your bds/bilstein 5100 baby. It does come with updated UCAs to help with your upper ball joint angles.

If you want to go with the BDS kit, it'd be a good idea to refresh your shocks at that time without getting a 'leveling' shock. Just get a high quality replacement/aftermarket.

 

Any recommendations on a quality aftermarket non adjustable strut that wont break the bank?

 

Fox. If you have trouble deciding which shock from them, call them, not text or email. They 'll help you out.