Hey, guys, Adam here with americantrucks.com and today we're taking a closer look at and
installing the Mammoth 2.5-inch Front Leveling Kit available for the 2015 and newer F150s,
excluding the Raptor model.
You should be checking out the Mammoth 2.5-inch kit I have here if you're looking to add bigger
wheels and tires to the front end of your F150 without any rubbing issues, if you're
looking for added ground clearance at the front end, and, of course, if you're looking
to level out your truck, getting rid of the factory rake.
Now, let's start there with the factory rake.
Now, from the factory, the front end of your truck dips down a little bit lower than the
rear, which is specifically built for towing applications.
So if you're towing a heavier load at the rear end, your truck squats down and levels
out, helping the suspension.
If you wanna get rid of that factory rig to add an even look, a leveling kit like the
2.5-inch from Mammoth will do the trick.
When it also comes to adding larger wheels and tires, whether it be 33-inch tires or
35s, adding a leveling kit will get rid of all of your clearance issues.
If you added those bigger wheels and tires without a leveling kit, when you go to turn
the wheel, there will be some rubbing, sometimes even very severe, meaning you can't drive
on the road like that.
So adding the 2.5-inch gives you enough clearance to run those bigger tires without needing
any modifications and without clearance issues.
If you are taking your truck off-road to hit some of the fire trails and those light obstacles,
having that 2.5 inches at the front end of additional ground clearance can clear some
of those smaller obstacles.
Now, this isn't an off-road lift kit here, so don't expect to be hauling over some huge
rocks or logs or anything like that off-road, but it does help with a little bit extra space
at the front.
Mainly, this is used for the guys looking to fit some tires.
Now, when it comes to this specific kit here, it's two and a half inches of laser cut steel
finished in a hammertone powder coating.
Now the hammertone powder coating and does look really cool, but, guys, keep in mind,
you're not gonna see this whatsoever once it's installed.
Really what that finish is for is to protect against corrosion and rust, which is definitely
gonna go a long way when it comes to suspension components.
So the build here from Mammoth is really top quality.
Now, the price comes in at a pretty budget-friendly point, right around 100 bucks.
That means for 100 bucks you're fitting larger wheels and tires, up to 35s and saving some
money for your wallet.
Now, the install for this guy is gonna come in right around two out of three wrenches
on our difficulty meter.
It is a little bit more involved than some of the other bolt-on mods here, but it does
not require any cutting, drilling, or otherwise, permanent modification.
I'm gonna take you through every single step of the process.
It'll take you about two, maybe three hours from start to finish.
I'm gonna show you everything.
Let's get started.
All right.
The tools used in this install include an impact gun.
I also used a half-inch and a 3/8 ratchet, an extension, 10, 15, 18, and 21-millimeter
deep sockets along with a 27-millimeter 0.5-inch deep socket.
A swivel socket is recommended, a hammer, variety of pry bars, torque wrench, PB B'laster
or something similar, 13-millimeter ratcheting wrench and an 18-millimeter ratcheting wrench
are definitely recommended but not required along with a pry bar.
Additionally, you'll need a hydraulic floor jack and jack stands or a pole jack if you're
working on a lift.
All right, guys.
To kick off the uninstall, we do have to remove our factory strut.
In order to do so, I'm gonna start off by using an impact gun and a 10-millimeter socket.
We're gonna disconnect the brake line brackets that are holding it to the spindle and to
the frame itself, that way we can relieve some of the tension on the brake lines.
So let's tackle that first and then we'll move onto our sway bar end link.
First bracket is gonna be right here on the side of our spindle.
Now, what I like to do is just disconnect that and so I don't lose the bolt, I'm just
gonna throw that guy back in by hand.
Second one up here on our frame, another 10-millimeter, and I'm gonna do the exact same thing.
I'm gonna disconnect this and thread that bolt back through.
Now, the next step, we're gonna disconnect and remove the upper bolt on our sway bar
end link.
We don't have to remove the bottom, we just have to get it disconnected from the sway
bar itself.
Now, in order to do that, you're gonna need an 18-millimeter socket or wrench.
Now, the hard part is sometimes when you're removing this nut, the whole thing will start
to spin, in which case, you can't remove it.
Now, if that happens, you can grab an 8-millimeter wrench and you can hold the top of this just
like that, in which case you will need a regular wrench.
Now, we're gonna try it without doing that method and in order to do it with an impact
gun, I'm gonna use an extension, a swivel, and an 18-millimeter deep socket.
I'm gonna go right through our brake line onto that nut and see if it comes free.
Luckily, it did not start spinning, so that was an easy method.
Now, if you do try the 8-millimeter method up top and that doesn't work, you may need
to hold the bottom here with some vise grips to keep it from spinning.
For this next step, we're gonna remove the two bottom nuts holding on the bottom of your
strut body to the lower control arm.
Now, before you do this, make sure you have a pole jack, if you're working on a lift,
supporting the lower control arm or if you're working on the ground, have a hydraulic floor
jack supporting this as well.
Now, I'm gonna use this back bar on our lower control arm to support it since we're gonna
next remove the two sides of the lower control arm.
So let's put the support up first and remove these two nuts.
Perfect.
The next step of the uninstall, like I said, is to remove the bolts on both sides of the
lower control arm holding it to the frame.
Unfortunately, the normal method of removing the upper control arm bolt from the spindle
is not gonna do the trick.
There isn't gonna be enough clearance to remove these pressed in studs from the strut and
the lower control arm, so we won't be able to do it that way.
We have to do it this more complicated way, which is annoying, I will admit, but it's
doable.
We're gonna grab a 27-millimeter socket for the nut side.
I'm using a pry bar to get more leverage and you're gonna use a 21-millimeter socket for
the bolt head side, which is on the inside here.
So I'm gonna put those up and I'm gonna break this guy loose first.
You're definitely gonna want more leverage with something like a pry bar.
All right.
So once that's broken loose, I'm gonna switch over to 0.5-inch ratchet and finish the job.
So now I'm just gonna relieve a little bit of pressure off of that guy and you can see,
slides right out.
Let's repeat that on the other side.
All right, so again, just doing that on the opposite side here and I'm switching back
on over to the pry bar to make life a little easier.
All right, so now I'm gonna switch back over to the ratchet.
All right, so now we can remove some of that tension and slide our bolt out.
Looks like I might need to grab a hammer to knock it loose.
Now, if you're working on the ground with a hydraulic jack, at this point, you can go
straight for attacking the top three bolts holding on your entire strut assembly and
remove it after that.
Because we're working in the air and we have a pole jack, I'm gonna have to lower this
truck down in order to access it, so I'm gonna lower the pole jack and get that out of the
way first.
So what we're gonna do is just start working this thing down.
You'll see the lower control arm swing out.
We're just gonna make sure that's not fumbling around anywhere.
I'm gonna slowly get that down and then we'll work on the top bolts
Now, for the final three bolts at the top of our strut tower, you can see it hidden
a little bit under this splash shield or under this wheel well liner.
There's gonna be one right in the front and then two closer to the back.
Three in total.
Eighteen-millimeter wrench is the way to go.
I'm using a ratcheting wrench.
I think this is gonna make life so much easier.
Definitely recommend picking these up, but it's not required.
So I'm just gonna start working these three guys off.
All right.
Once we have that last guy off, I'm just gonna gently guide this down.
We're gonna have to hammer out the studs from the bottom just to get it to break loose and
then we'll be able to lift this guy and take her out.
All right, so now we're back on the table here to assemble the top spacer.
Now, assembling the top spacer is very simple, but there's two very specific things you wanna
keep in mind when doing so.
On the spacer itself, at the top stud, there is a little notch sticking out.
Now, it's only on one of the three studs.
That little notch is going to be facing your tire, facing the outside of the vehicle.
That way you can get your orientation properly.
You'll also notice that in each spacer kit, there are six total nuts.
Three nuts are silver and three are gold.
The three gold nuts are going to attach the spacer to the strut assembly and the three
silver nuts are going to attach the strut assembly to the vehicle.
We're no longer going to be using the three factory nuts, the 18 millimeters, that we
removed from the top of the strut tower.
Those are replaced by the silvers.
So what we're gonna do is take our strut assembly and line up our spacer, dropping the studs
through the open holes.
Now, it only goes on one way.
Once you have that on, find your notch, that's gonna be facing your tire.
Now, in order to attach this, what you're going to do is just lift the spacer up a little
bit and thread the gold nut through the stud to hold it on.
Now, you don't wanna thread it all the way down just yet.
You wanna get all of them in place in order to have enough clearance to do so.
I'm just gonna keep rotating until all three are on.
All right, so at this point, you can thread it all the way down by hand and I'm gonna
grab my 15-millimeter socket and my impact gun and I'm gonna tighten these guys down.
I'm gonna lay this back down on the table to do so.
Now, there's just enough room to get your socket on here, so I'm gonna tighten these
guys down.
Perfect.
Now, when we throw this back in the vehicle, the silver nuts are gonna go up top.
So what do you say we head back there and get it installed?
All right, so when starting off the assembly, again, guys, remember that notch there on
your spacer is gonna be out facing the tire.
I'm gonna feed this guy into place and get to work on assembling.
All right, so once we have that in place, I'm gonna thread the back nut onto the stud.
Remember the silver nut is what you're gonna be threading on here.
Perfect.
So that'll hold it in place.
All right, so at this point, we're gonna swing our lower control arm down and pop the studs
back into their factory location.
All right.
Now what I'm gonna do is actually lower the vehicle down a little bit like I have and
I'm gonna put this hydraulic jack underneath of it.
I find it easiest to raise up the lower control arm from the bottom here by pushing up on
it with our jack.
Now, as you do this, you wanna make sure you're also paying attention to the sway bar end
link, making sure you're guiding that in.
And there you have it, our stud's seated in the back of our lower control arm.
We can put our factory nuts back through and then start reassembling everything.
All right, so I have those factory nuts.
I'm just gonna thread these guys back into place.
You don't have to worry about tightening them down all the way just yet, we just wanna make
sure everything's reconnected.
At this point, I'm gonna jack up our lower control arm and try to seek these bolts on
the sides back into their place.
All right, so the right bolt looks like it's gonna line up.
So we'll slide that guy through and then we'll work on the left.
All right, so now I'm just gonna slide this bolt back through and if it doesn't line up,
we can just either raise or lower the jack as needed.
So we've got it through here.
It looks like we have to lower it down to get it to line up on the other side.
All right, so now we're just gonna thread the nut on the opposite end.
We're not gonna tighten it down just yet.
I'm just gonna put it on by hand.
Let's work on the other side.
All right, so we basically got our left side lined up here and we're gonna do the same
thing.
Just slide our bolt through.
That went through pretty perfectly.
Tighten down our nut by hand.
Now, let's grab our ratchets and tighten these guys down.
All right, so now we're gonna go back to our 27-millimeter socket along with our 0.5-inch
ratchet, our 21-millimeter socket, and our 3/8 ratchet and tighten down the lower control
arm bolts.
All right.
Get it as tight as you can by hand because then we're gonna torque it down to a really
high foot-pound rating.
All right, repeat that on the other side.
All right, now let's grab our torque wrench.
Now what we're gonna do is grab our 27 socket for the nut and we're gonna torque this down
to 223-pound-feet using our torque wrench.
It's a lot, so it's gonna be a little tough here, but wanna make sure we're torquing it
down properly.
There we go.
Repeat that on the other side.
Now we can tighten down our lower strut bolts.
All right, so now we can tighten up the two bottom strut bolts underneath the lower control
arm with our 18-millimeter socket.
I'm gonna use my impact gun, just tighten them down.
Now let's move on to the upper strut bolts.
All right.
So if you remember, we put one of our nuts up to the top here, but we have two left.
So ust gonna thread that front guy on by hand all the way down to the bottom.
Do the same thing for the other one.
Now I'm gonna use, again, a 15-millimeter ratcheting wrench to get these tightened down,
but, of course, you can use a regular wrench if you can get that through there.
So just gonna tighten these guys down.
All right, so now we can focus on our sway bar end link.
I'm gonna thread our factory nut back in place here.
I sprayed the threading with PB B'laster.
I think that can help break up some of the crud.
That's obviously optional.
So now I'm gonna tighten this guy down with my extension, swivel, and 18-millimeter.
Perfect.
All right, so now we can focus on our brake line brackets as our last step.
I'm gonna do the top one first and then move on to our bottom one.
And if you remember, I put the factory nuts through the threaded holes, just for safekeeping.
So I'm gonna take those off.
Pop the brake line bracket back into place.
There's a little notch that helps relocate it.
Then I'm gonna thread them back down.
All right, same thing down here.
With that tightened down, throw your wheels back on, and you're good to go.
Well, guys, that's gonna wrap up my review and install for the Mammoth 2.5-inch Front
Leveling Kit for all '15 and newer F150s, excluding the Raptor.
You can pick this up right here at americantrucks.com.