Zone 3.5" combo lift for 2006 Chevy Silverado

bpitre8 · May 21, 2014

Hey guys, I finally got a little more ground clearance for my Z71. I ended up going with the 3.5" combo kit from Zone Offroad which includes new torsion keys and a 1.5" body lift. I also added a 3" lift block for the rear in place of the factory 2" one. The truck came out looking better than I thought it would. I also put on some 33 x 12.50 Dick Cepek Mud Country tires with some 17" DC gunmetal 7 wheels.

Now for some reason I got more than 2" of lift from the new torsion keys. I think I really got at least 3" from them. Is this going to be a problem? Do I need to lower the front? The CV axle shafts don't seem to be much steeper of an angle compared to stock. Also, to combat the stiffer ride, would going with some longer shocks help smooth out the ride?

dirtfan21 · May 23, 2014

Looks good! Longer shocks will help, but I would crank down a touch. Your UCA's are almost sitting on the drop stoops and that will cause the truck to ride harsh because it will bottom out when cycling through the suspension travel.

bpitre8 · June 9, 2014

So I've been told by others that I should lower the front a little. I'd like to just lower it 0.5", hoping that would give a better ride on bumps. Then I'm hoping I wouldn't need to drop another $90-100 on an alignment. Anyone know if that 0.5" would help much, knowing that I'd be at probably 2.5" higher from the new keys? How many turns on the bolt should that be?

TooTall1 · June 10, 2014

Contrary to popular belief, longer shocks won't help. Your front suspension is still within it's stock travel parameters. When you crank on your torsion bars with stock or leveling keys, you just add preload to them. This moves the control arms in a downward direction towards and sometimes onto the droop stops. But you don't change the amount of travel! So longer shocks don't help anything.

00Silverado4x4 · June 10, 2014

So I've been told by others that I should lower the front a little. I'd like to just lower it 0.5", hoping that would give a better ride on bumps. Then I'm hoping I wouldn't need to drop another $90-100 on an alignment. Anyone know if that 0.5" would help much, knowing that I'd be at probably 2.5" higher from the new keys? How many turns on the bolt should that be?

If I recall from my leveling kit instructions, 1/4" of bolt thread = 1" lift/lower. So if you want to lower the front a 1/2" then you will need to back the bolts out ~1/8".