2" Leveling kit and Add-a-leafs

[mjalstad]

I started installing my leveling kit today. I got the rear done but did not have time to do the front. I got a Tuff Country kit from suspensionconnection which included torsion bar keys for the front and an add-a-leaf for the rear for just under $200 after shipping. I figured I better start in the rear since if I didn't have time to finish, it would look a lot better to have a jacked up rear than a jacked up front. It was a little bit of a hassle and required a lot of elbow grease but I got it done in abut 3.5 hours in my garage. I made the mistake of thinking I could do it one side at a time, so I jacked up the passenger side and disconnected the rear U-bolts, got the leaf pack loosed up and started clamping the leaf pack with the new leaf back down when I realized there would not be clearance to put the aligning bolt in from underneath without doing the other side at the same time. So I wasted about a half hour trying to make it work because I only had one jack but I ended up using a big block of wood as a small jackstand while I moved the jack around and got the other side going. I only had one other hang up and that was removing the bolt from the driver's side shock, but after hammering, heating, PB blastering and wrenching I got it out after about a half hour. Afterwards, it looks awesome, I cannot wait to get the front done! It went from looking like a normal everyday half ton truck to looking like a manly heavy duty truck, well the rear half anyways. I have some before and after pics that I will have to get posted up and will add some more when I get the front done. I luckily had sme 6" C-clamps which I thought would be excessively big because the stock leaf pack is only a few inches thick but when you add the curve from the new leaf, a 6 inch is neccessary to get it in to place. I would definitely recommend this to anybody looking for a little more agressive stance, I think it's by far the best bang for the buck for $250 (after cost of parts and alignment), even better than an intake or programmer.

[Pete95Sierra]

nothing ever seems to go perfect while wrenching haha, be sure to post pics!

[mjalstad]

Well here is before and after the Add-a-leafs. Hopefully I will have time tomorrow to get the front done. I must say that driving to and from work tonight, the add-a-leafs themselves definitely tightened up the suspension a little bit. I wouldn't say the ride is too hard though, I like it a lot more, there's not as much body roll now. I do kind of fell like I am riding at an angle though, I almost had to recline my seat back another notch.

Update, I added the third pic here of the AALs and the keys on. 1st pic is stock, second pic is only the AALs, and the 3rd pic if the AALs and the Keys.

[adampaul1964]

looks awesome, can't wait to see the front, I'm especially interested to hear how the installation went since I have a set of keys that I'm going to put on my truck. :great:

[TRPLXL2]

Looking good, now your starting to look like a 2500HD!

[mjalstad]

Well, I tried to get the keys in today and I failed. Autozone didn't have a 2 jaw puller so I went to Sears and got a 7 ton 2 jaw puller for only $40 so I thought things were going my way since I figured it would be a lot more than that. Unfortunately when I got to the step of "tap the torsion bar forward so the key drops out, it would not slide forward. I looked at where it connects to my lower control arm and it is twisted in the socket so it won't move freely (kind of like when you use a socket that is just a hair too big for the bolt and it twists in there just a bit and the bolt gets stuck in the socket). So I think I am going to have to remove the crossmember and hopefully that will do it but I didn't have the right size wrench to get the crossmember off so it will have to wait until another day.

[MWright936]

It's never as easy as it sounds, lol! I know that from experience (installing coil spring spacers). Good luck getting it finished up!!

[TRPLXL2]

That sucks, I can't even count on all my fingers and toes how many things I have bought that supposedly "bolt right on" But you will get it working I know it, your ambition to finish the truck will help you a lot. Either that or your going to have to ride with the seat leaned back all the time!

[adampaul1964]

You're not exactly filling me with confidence.....:lol: I have read that you can tap the torsion bar towards the rear of the truck in order to free it up, maybe thats worth a try, good luck I'm sure it will all come together!

[CarpenterGuy]

i've been wanting to do what your doing. i've been looking at 2" leveling keys in the front and add a leafs in the back. make sure to put up some pics after you've got the full thing put togather!

[mjalstad]

You're not exactly filling me with confidence.....:lol: I have read that you can tap the torsion bar towards the rear of the truck in order to free it up, maybe thats worth a try, good luck I'm sure it will all come together!


Haha, Yeah I tried hitting it the other way and tried standing on the tire and jumping with the truck on jackstands to try to get it to get unstuck but I don't think there is going to be any way to budge them after 10 years of Minnesota salt has gotten to them. And of course the torsion bar is round so I can't get a big wrench to try to twist it back.

[adampaul1964]

Haha, Yeah I tried hitting it the other way and tried standing on the tire and jumping with the truck on jackstands to try to get it to get unstuck but I don't think there is going to be any way to budge them after 10 years of Minnesota salt has gotten to them. And of course the torsion bar is round so I can't get a big wrench to try to twist it back.


how about a large pipe wrench?

[bry2500]

Truck looks great with the leafs. It will be worth all the headaches once you get it done. I have been debating over a 4" lift or a leveling kit with add aleafs and this is swaying me towards the later. Price is a big factor in these tight times.

[mjalstad]

Well it turned out I did have the right wrench to get the crossmember off, I just was putting it on the nut that is welded on to the crossmember which did not work too well. Hard to tell between rust and weld sometimes. Anyways, I tried to take the crossmember out but I couldn't really get it off with the torsion bars still in it but it did enable me to get a little better angle at beating the torsion keys. I ended up getting them loosened from the lower control arm fairly easily but then I could not get the torsion bar keys off the other end for the life of me. I tried PB blaster, a torch, and a BFH and couldn't get it out. When I was just about ready to give up, I got a great idea. I took the puller and put it around the crossmember with the big bolt pushing on the end of the torsion bar and started cranking. I thought this was probably a bad idea but it was my last shot, and what do you know, it worked pretty damn well. I don't know why there is nothing about using the puller on the internet anywhere because I think that probably worked better than an air hammer would have. I got the new keys in but I noticed that they don't really seem to have lifted the truck as much as I thought it would. I cranked the adjustment bolt up till it got bottomed out and then loosened it back up a couple of turns so it would have a little room in there and it only lifted the front end up about 1.9 inches. I thought just putting the adjustment bolt at the stock spot would lift the front up 2 inches and if you went further you could go up even more than 2. The truck looks really nice and I am very happy it is all done now. I will have to try to get some pictures tomorrow and post them up with it all done.

[drumm14]

You're not exactly filling me with confidence.....:lol: I have read that you can tap the torsion bar towards the rear of the truck in order to free it up, maybe thats worth a try, good luck I'm sure it will all come together!

I did the leveling kit on my truck about two weeks ago, I also installed 2" blocks in the rear. The adjustment bolt is barely in half way and my truck came up 2.25 " in the front and rides like stock. Big C clamps ratchet straps and a two jaw puller helped a lot. Of course a supposedly one hour job took three. Still wondering If I can fit 34" tired on 17" wheel if i raise the fron up to an even three inches though. I'm riding stock 265/75/16. Any questions let me know.Oh and the torsion bars for me tapped out with a ball pene hammer.

[brownpridex111]

looks like ur having a hard timewith the installion good luck truck look good!!

[adampaul1964]

Congrats on gettin' it done, sounds like you had loads of fun! It never goes as easy as it's supposed to! Can't wait to see the finished result! :great:

[Jimmiee]

I'm going to add the front 2" keys when I purchase my new tires in a month or 2. I'm still on the fence about adding the rear leaves to my 2500. Any comments on the 2500 rear leaves?

[rockytop]

Sounds like it was a bit of pita, but great work!! I just bought my used 99 last week and can't wait to do this same lift or just the keys in the front. I was wondering if your truck sits level with the add a spring and the keys or if because of the rear spring height you are unable to crank the torsion keys to level? Can't wait to see the pics!

[mjalstad]

So I got some pictures today. Also I remeasured and after it's settled in, I only got 1.25 inches of lift in the front with the adjustment bolt up all of the way. Tuff Country is supposed to be calling me about the issue. I almost think the previous owner of the truck already put leveling keys in it, haha. I added a 3 picture to my post on the 1st page so you can compare the full kit to stock and to just the add a leafs. Here's some more pics and some pics of the keys I took out.

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w73/mjalstad0318/AfterAALandKeys.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w73/mjalstad0318/Before1.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w73/mjalstad0318/P1030309.jpg

[TRPLXL2]

Well it looks like you got an extra 2-3" for some bigger tires, it is a subtle change but a nice one. I am curious about something, is the way your truck sits now as high as a 2500HD stock? The only reason I ask is the torsion keys, I wondered if the 2500HD keys would give you any kind of a lift if they would even fit? Just curious about the height, and I have no clue about this subject so please correct me if I'm wrong :lol:

[Project Reaper]

thats actually one of the first things im doin to my 95 silverado project because it still has that stock lower in the front stance... and man do i hate it haha!

[mjalstad]

Well it looks like you got an extra 2-3" for some bigger tires, it is a subtle change but a nice one. I am curious about something, is the way your truck sits now as high as a 2500HD stock? The only reason I ask is the torsion keys, I wondered if the 2500HD keys would give you any kind of a lift if they would even fit? Just curious about the height, and I have no clue about this subject so please correct me if I'm wrong :lol:


Yeah, when these tires burn up, which won't be too long, I am going to look for a set of 33's. It is a subtle change but definitely a lot nicer than stock, it looks much more beefy. I think the 2500HD get their added height from different torsion bars, but I may be wrong on that.

[adampaul1964]

Judging by the indexing of those keys(and the rust!) I'd say they were stock. I posted a pic of the Pro Comp keys I'm going to be installing, I tried to get the hex in the same position as in your pic so you can see the "clocking" . BTW I cranked up my torsion bars today because I wanted to see if there's any difference in ride between this method and the keys, mjalstad has inspired me so i'm going to do the keys on wednesday. I could only get 1 inch of lift cranking the bars because the passenger side adjuster is all but bottomed out! But I can tell there is a difference visually, so far the ride seems the same.

[mjalstad]

Well I guess Tuff Country said they had some bad ones go out that were not machined with the proper indexing so they are going to warranty the ones I got and send me a new pair. Hopefully that works out. I wish I would've taken a pic of the new keys next to the old keys. I set them up and looked at the difference before I put them in and I don't remember there being too much of a difference at all.

[mjalstad]

I got a little bored today and put a photoshop lift kit on my truck. I just sent my girlfriend an email with the picture saying that is what I did to my truck today. I should be getting a phone call about spending engagement ring money pretty soon.

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w73/mjalstad0318/BigLift.jpg

[MWright936]

:lol: Get ready for a "what the #%$@ did you do??" phone call!

[johnny_ringo]

looks badass

[silveradotrailblazer]

Truck looks good. If you have no luck with new keys, you can try differant torsen bars. I know its more money but some trucks just dont seem to respond to the keys. Ive used torsen bars #157124117, drivers side and 15712412, passenger side. These are GM part #s and are 3/4 ton bars. What I mean by trucks responding to keys is that some truck torsen bars are softer than others , even on the same models.

[Pete95Sierra]

have fun with that phone call hahahaha. and the truck looks good man, now you just need some 33's

[trikelife]

well i attempted to put new keys on my truck today. i will have to agree and say that easy is never easy. i followed all instructions for the leveling kit but it did not work out. we used a long piece of square stock and used it w/ a sledge hammer to knock keys backwards to loosen them. then we removed the bolts that hold the crossmember to the frame. (alreay had the torsion keys unloaded) then remove the bolts on ouside of frame the holds abs cluster? to allow for more room. than take the crossmember and bars out as one unit. this way you can get them on the ground and work with it easier. my truck is an 01' 2500 HD and i live in ohio so it had rust holding these parts together. we tried tapping them out w/ a sledge for a while w/ no sucess. so i broke out the torches and cut them off.
then reinstalled crossmember and bars and keys. we tried every thing we could think of to get the keys torqued up in w/ no sucess even w/ special c-clamp and extra c- clamp. that is all the help i can give so if anyone cold help me to finish it up that would be great. thanks

[mjalstad]

we tried every thing we could think of to get the keys torqued up in w/ no sucess even w/ special c-clamp and extra c- clamp. that is all the help i can give so if anyone cold help me to finish it up that would be great. thanks


So you're having problems getting the new keys to twist up far enough to get the block and adjuster bolt back in? Have you tried using a puller? They recommend using a torsion bar unloading tool but I used a 2 jaw 7-ton puller that I got at Sears for $40. I just tightened the puller up until the keys were up high enough that I could get the block and adjuster bolt in, then took the puller off and tightened the adjuster bolt the rest of the way.

[trailshredder]

On my 2500, I cranked the stock keys all the way and gained almost 2". I am hoping to do the same on my burban now. Can the add a leaf be bought seperate? Does adding the leaf help on squatting with a heavy load on?

[mjalstad]

Can the add a leaf be bought seperate? Does adding the leaf help on squatting with a heavy load on?

Yes, it can be bought seperate. They do help payload capacity, not by a lot but I think they are supposed to add around 10%.

[mjalstad]

Well I got my replacement keys today, I don't think they really look any different but we will see when I put them on tomorrow. I was looking at the keys I have in there and noticed that my torsion bars are loose one both ends, in the lower control arm and in the key, so they have a little more room to twist in there. Is that normal?

[mjalstad]

Well, the new keys were not any different so I think I am going to buy some different keys. Anybody else have any experience with the Tuff Country keys? Their tech support is pretty stumped and said they'll give me a refund but they don't know why I am only getting 1.25 inches of lift with the adjuster bolt bottomed out.