DyLivn

Front shock tower spacer (seem to be most common)

• Pro's - Cheap - what else?
• Con's - Stock struts don't have ideal amount of travel now?

Front Struts

• Pro's - Still cheap, travel matched to extra height, better ride
• Con's - Still using stock spring, what downsides does this have? Also, still using OEM rear shock

Front Struts and rear shocks

• Same as above but upgraded rear matches changed out front struts, so overall improved ride from ****ty OEM shocks
• Still cheap

Front adjustable coil over and rear shocks

• Pro's - complete spring strut combo for overall better ride and rear shocks to match.
• Con's - this is where things start getting expensive

What affect does raising the front 2 inches have on the stock suspension components?

Mb1500

SPOAT

When my truck was new, my 4x4 guy just put RC 2.5 strut extensions (spacers) to level my FX4 RCSB. I was willing to pay for new adjustable struts but he declined. He said it was a waste of money because the truck was new (speaking of the struts). He does a lot of vehicles.

My dealership says the same thing. They do a lot of leveling.

I'm perfectly satisfied with my setup. The ride is better than stock. No concerns. No problems. I just went with what the expert said, and he was right.

Check out Stage 3's budget build here......

https://www.stage3motorsports.com/St...et-Build.html#

You will get a lot of different opinions if you do a search on this forum.

Best of luck!

irish26

In all of those scenarios you listed there will be more stress on the control arms and the CV axle. But how much stress is where its hard to exactly quantify. I've seen many guys say they have gone 100,000 miles with no issues. A lot will depend on how you drive i.e. pavement princess vs. farm truck

m3zumm

Here's my actual experience and I can only speak to using Bilstein 5100's. My truck is a 2018 XLT SE Sport 4x4 - SCAB - 5.0. First I installed Readylift 2.25" strut top spacers the OEM struts. This made the ride height go from stock height of 37.75" drivers side and 37.50" passenger side to 40.25" DS and 40" PS. I liked the front height, because my rear height was 40.50", but it looked just a tad high in the front. After a month I just could no longer tolerate the weeble wobbling of the front and the bouncing Betty rear end, so I installed Bilstein 5100's front and rear. I set the front 5100 struts at the stock ride height and installed the Readylift 2.25". The front ride height stayed the same as with the OEM struts with the Readylift. The weeble wobble front was slightly better than OEM, but not much. The rear end was 100% improved over OEM shocks......no more bouncing Betty and side stepping when hitting sharp bumps and potholes. So, I removed the front struts again (UGH) and set the 5100 height at the 1.75" setting and did not install the 2.25" Readylift strut spacers. The ride height is now at 39.75" DS and 39.50" PS. This ride height looks perfect in relationship to the rear ride height now in my opinion. With the 5100's set at the 1.75" setting it preloads the springs enough to eliminate the weeble wobbling front end. The ride is stiffer, but at a perfect balance IMO. I think the OEM front springs work fine once they are preloaded on the 5100's. After having the front struts off 3 times, I finally have everything perfect for my likes. I think for the money it's hard to beat the Bilstein 5100's. If money isn't a factor then you can go whole hog for the big buck suspensions. There are plenty of guys on here running them and they can give you their thoughts.

kennyday

I have a 2008 RCSB 4x4 so I can't say how it compares to the new models but will give you some feedback from my experience.

I had the Rancho Quicklift installed on the front and the matched rears, installed around 100,000 miles. The ride was improved greatly but did get a little stiffer. I use my truck as my daily driver with a 70 mile round trip to and from work 5 days a week as well as hauling dirt, rock, firewood, take it on long vacation trips and off-road hunting and fishing. I now have 269,000 miles on my truck and the only issue that I have had is that I have split the rubber boots on the front axles a few times.

shortride

iTrader: (1)

A Rough Country 2" leveling kit for $99 and the cost of a front-end alignment. I couldn't be happier.

hambonerz

+1 Adjustable Struts

I had the 5100s at highest setting on my 04 and 08 Tundras, and I loved them. Also on my bros 16 SCrew Platinum. No issues to report.

That being said, I decided to give Eibach Adjustables a try on my 2018 XLT SCrew, and they seem relatively the same. Definitely doing rear shocks soon though.

Viventius

On my 2015 XLT 5.0 I had used the Rancho Quicklift adjustable struts. Will do the same on the new 2018 Lariat.

GMC to Ford

I ran a ReadyLift spacer in my last truck. I installed 5100s this time around. The ride quality is much better than my spacer kit, but it was installed on a different truck. The up travel is the issue with spacers. Here is some good information from Bilstein: