Hello, I am looking to level my '03 f150 4x4. The only kits i have found are the ones adjusting the torsion bars. I am hesitant to use this style because i hear they really stiffen up your ride. Does anyone know if this is true or if there is an alternative option here?

Thanks
Bruce

 

I just had the factory torsion adjusted on mine today, and it levelled it out! I cannot tell a difference in the ride, and the alignment specs are well within standards. Big O tire did mine. hope this helps.

 

I would just turn up the stock torsion bars.... thats what I did to mine and it looks good and I haven't had any problems. keys allow you to turn up the torsion bars to much and puts too much stress on your ball joints and cv axle shafts. The ride of the truck is going to get a little stiffer in the front either way...

 

I installed a leveling kit on my 2000 F150 and am happy with it. it brought it up almost 4 inches in the front and about 2.5 in the rear. the new torsion bar keys were pretty tricky "scary" to install but after i figured it out it was nice to see the difference. "I bought mine off from Ebay" The ride isn't too much stiffer over the stock ride.

 

The ride should not change at all from cranking your tortion bars unless you bottom them out completely. By design the tortion bar is a spring that holds a static shape at rest and twists under force, either up or down. When you turn the adjusters you are not putting more twist into the bar, you are simply changing the location in the travel path the spring rests at. If you bottom the tortion bar out completely you will see a difference in ride quality because you are essentially moving the bar to the top of the travel path and taking away your trucks ability for downward travel, at least for the front. I don't recommend cranking torsion bars until they stop, but you can get away with it for a couple of inches of lift. Remember to jack the truck up off the ground so you are not fighting the weight of the truck while you are pushing the tires down with the tb's.

I hope that makes sense.
-j

 

Have you installed new tortion bar keys or adjusted yours in any way??

In theory your example is great but its not entirely true.

Think about a coilover spring.. with the collar just snug up against the spring it is not preloading the spring in any way. but as soon as you preload or crank the collar up tighter against the spring it doesn't change the spring rate but does change the way or force that is pushed back by the spring.

A Anti Sway bar is another great example. as soon as you preload the bar it changes how the suspension handles.

So... Yes this may not be the greatest way to increase the height of the front end but its not a horrible way either. there are def limits on how far is too far. if you replace the tortion bar keys you will lift the front end off the ground and preload the tortion bars much more than factory set it from the factory.

This will change the ride.

This will limit wheel travel.

This will make your truck drive and look 100% better.

not all good not all bad but worth it in the end.

Best of luck.


Not the best pic but it gives you the idea. tires are 33's

 

I have never done tortion bars on an F150, but I have built several trucks and do know a little bit about suspensions. Here is my trooper that I did, there are no aftermarket support parts for Isuzu Troopers of this body style so everthing on there was done custom or made to work. There is a lot of tb crank on this one, but also not bottomed out.



That's about 7" of lift and clearing 35's

 

WoW looks great! What did it take to raise it eh full 7".. Spindles and TB or just TB?

How tricky was that to get aligned after it was setting this high?

 

Took top mounted ball joints and flipped them to mount under the control arm with fabbed spacers to get the angle back in spec, tb crank and made a body lift fit w/ custom bumper brackets. Welded in racecar coil spring spacers in the rear with lift springs to make up the difference. All in a day's work. I still think it is one of the best looking trucks I have ever built.

 

Does anyone know if you can do a 3" body lift and a leveling kit together?