dave91gt

Seems like there is a leveling thread constantly popping up. I read them and try to keep up but have determined Ford missed out on a golden opportunity to offer this as a factory option.
I have a dilemma. I purchased my FX4 a year ago. I am absolutely impressed with everything about the truck. Except the street sweeper stance. Good God does it sit low. Every truck or SUV I have ever owned has had some sort of small lift and larger tires. Two of them were diesels and larger tires were a programmer away from being a non issue. My old 5.4 2V's were such pigs that it didnt matter too much going up a tire size.
Now, I have this perfect driving truck. The 5.0 will spin the tires almost at will. Goes up interstate hills without downshifting. Gets excellent (for a truck) fuel mileage. I know going larger will affect it but I am truly stuck on what to do. I see all of your leveled / lifted trucks with gnarly rubber and love it. But then I struggle with what I want to do. I started thinking a 2" level, 3" block, and a solid 33"-34" tire. Then i worry the power and mileage loss will be too much. Frankly, I would rather lose the mileage than the power. So, therein lies my real question. For those of you that have done a level and larger tires, do any of you REGRET doing it? Was the power and mileage loss worth it?

Al Kohalic

I don't regret it one bit. The power was still there for me after I added the larger rubber but I have an Eco. I think if you add a good tune and don't go to big on the tires then you should be fine. I also thought I was going to loose the great handling this truck has with the leveling kit, but I didn't.

ludakrs

I have been wondering the same thing with leveling and or lifting! What is the trade off with the good looks of a leveled truck with some aggressive tires?
Some of my questions with what route to go is how do I keep the back end from squating when i put some weight in the bed or a trailer on it? Does that require an add-a-leaf??? There are too many threads to go thru to get answers.

DavidKR

OP I'm in the same boat as you, I have an Autospring 2.5" front spacer and 3" rear block on the way and plan on getting 275/65R20's (34.1") but I'm worried because my truck is a 5.4L with 3.55's and it's already slower than hell as it is. I'll order some custom tunes for the larger tires to adjust shift points and just hope the power loss isn't too bad.

eye.surgeon

They could call it the performance degradation package.

Al Kohalic

Some do not level their trucks and put aggressive rubber just for looks! A higher center than stock and aggressive tires are needed for places I take my truck and I have heard the same from others. Although I will agree with you that most do it for looks.

As far as the back squatting, there are a bunch of routes you can go depending on how much you want to spend and have to install/maintain said items. You can go with add-a-leafs, supper-springs, air bags, or a timbren kit. Each have their pros and cons which can be easily Googled or searched through this forum. My truck does not squat that much with towing anything under 5,000lbs. A properly hooked up weight distribution hitch will keep it from squatting on heavier loads which should be used on anything over 5,000 lbs anyways.

BTW, this is the squat when I had almost a ton of dirt in the back helping a friend with his back yard.


This is unloaded height.

Loggerhead

I too am facing the same dilemma. My truck is my work truck and daily driver. I don't want to lose a ton of mileage and it seems that with a 33 and 2" level everyone is losing 2 to 3 mpg. I plan to correct this with an SCT tuner and tunes from 5 Star Tuning. I spoke to them Friday and they told me I could possibly see 1.5-2 mpg gains from their tune. So I'm hoping this works.

JLonsinger2011

I regret not doing it sooner

HCFX2013

I am too...some days I really like the stance of the truck, other days it looks really low to me. I wouldn't mind going for a size larger profile (55 to 60) and keeping it stock height or even leveling it 1" or so. Then again, I hate road noise (Even the Pirelli's are almost too noisy for me) and I like having a tire that lasts a long time as well.

NASSTY

I don't regret getting rid of this stance and the crappy Pirellis.