So we've done specific videos on some of these questions
where you can find out more information
if you wanna go to our YouTube channel and do that,
but I just wanna kind of breeze over things
at a high level.
If you're new to lift kits or you're looking
for a new lift kit for your truck
and you're not quite sure what to get,
if maybe you're new to the whole lifted truck game
or just have some questions on it,
we wanted to kind of answer some of those
very vague or broad questions that we get all the time
and kind of combine all the little videos
that we've done and put it into one
without it being 30 minutes long.
We're trying to get this done it just a couple minutes here
so that you can quick watch this
and be kinda set with a little bit more knowledge
so you can make a educated decision
when you're out on the website
shopping for your lift kit.
So the first thing that we get asked all the time
is the difference between a leveling kit and a lift kit
or these things called level lifts.
So what is all of that?
Well, a lift kit does level your vehicle
in 99% of cases, so typically on a lift kit
what you're gonna get is components
for both the front and the rear.
So that means if you lift the front of your truck
up six inches, you're also going to lift the back,
but typically because trucks come with rake,
which is where the back of the truck
sits higher than the front of the truck,
you lift the front up six inches
and then you only need to lift the back four inches
and then it sits perfectly level,
so that's why you'll see a lot of times
a six inch lift kit might come with
a four or five inch rear blocks, so keep that in mind.
Now a leveling kit is just the front end component,
so that's taking your truck that sits with rake,
where the back end is taller than the front end
and you're just installing maybe a two,
two and a half inch leveling kit in the front
to make that truck sit level.
So those are the difference between
the leveling kit and the lift kit.
So the next thing I wanted to cover,
when I'm talking about all these numbers is
when it comes to lift kits, it's really just simple math.
So I had a guy message me on Instagram and he asked,
"I already have a lift kit on my truck.
"I like the way it sits.
"I'm going to add a leveling kit to get more lift out of it"
which is kind of a common thing that people do.
They'll stack a leveling kit on top of a lift kit.
We can't personally recommend that,
I'd always just go with the correct size lift kit
right off the bat, but if it's something
that you're going to do,
here's how to figure out what to do.
So this guy says he's got a four inch lift kit
and he has a two inch block in the back right now.
So if he's adding a two inch level to the front,
what size block does he need in the rear
and really, it's quite simple to figure that out.
So if you're adding two inches in the front,
you're gonna also add two inches to the back.
So all that means is if you have
a two inch block on the back and you need it
to be two inches taller,
you're just gonna wanna go with a four inch block
in the rear and that will then keep the same stance
you have on your truck
as far as how the front sits relative to the rear.
So then next on the list, there's a couple different kinds
of lift kits, and if you've out there shopping
you probably have seen these.
So you have your standard knuckle lift kit,
or some people call it the spindle kit
if it's for a two-wheel drive truck.
So the knuckle lift kit, a bracket lift kit
and then coilover kit.
So, very quickly, the differences between the two.
A knuckle lift kit uses new knuckles
to basically create that lift for your truck,
so you're taking off your stock knuckles,
replacing them with a larger lifted knuckle.
This also means that in a lot of kits
you're going to get new upper control arms.
Now on a bracket lift kit, this is reusing all of your,
not all, but almost all of your stock front end components;
the knuckles and everything like that,
where... (dog's collar rattling)
Wow, dog.
You're kinda being a little loud.
So it's gonna use your stock knuckles,
it's going to relocate your upper control arms,
so basically it has brackets
so that you can lower down the front end components
on your truck, which then in turn
gives you the lift that you're looking for.
Benefit of that is if you wanted to run stock wheels,
you could because you're still using a stock knuckle,
whereas a lot of times on the knuckle lift kits
you can't fit stock wheels anymore
because those knuckles are larger
and you need to have the correct offset
or more back spacing so that is doesn't rub on there.
The lastly is gonna be the coilover kits.
Now this is designed more so
for the guys with performance in mind,
so a little bit more expensive,
but they also deliver a lot more adjustability
as far as fine tuning the ride of your truck
and how it handles, and they're also just better suited
for off-road use as well.
So that's very high level.
We can dive into that and spend 30 minutes talking about it,
but we're just gonna kinda go over this,
like I said, high level stuff.
Super common question is,
"Can I still tow with my lifted truck?"
And in short, the answer is yes.
You can definitely still tow with your lifted truck.
Now if you go out there and you put
a 15 inch FTS lift kit on your truck,
is that going to be practical to tow with?
No, not necessarily, but you could still do it
if you had the correct droppage.
And that's the important part here,
is if you do lift your truck,
make sure if you're towing all the time,
you do get the correct droppage.
Like we use the Gen Y hitches on both the F350.
I know Rainey's got on one on his Cummins
because you want your trailer to still be loaded properly
and have it all sit nice and level,
but you can still tow with a lifted truck.
Even an eight inch coilover lift
is still fine to tow with.
So next on the list is regearing.
Now this is a super common question,
we get this one all the time.
"If I install a six inch lift kit,
"do I need to regear my truck?"
I think where a lot of the confusion comes in here
with regearing is that the lift kit affects it somehow,
and realistically, the lift kit itself
is not affecting your final drive ratio at all.
It's not changing any of that.
Now it allows you to run larger wheels and tires
and that's going to affect your final drive ratio,
so you may wanna consider regearing,
but the lift kit itself does not have a impact
on whether you should regear or not.
And additionally, regearing is referring
to the differentials.
Regearing is not changing something
inside your transmission.
Just wanna get that out there.
So regearing is your front and rear differentials
if you have a four-wheel drive truck.
If it's two-wheel drive, it's just your rear end,
and that comes into play when you increase your tire size,
not your lift size.
So if you're running, we usually say 38s and bigger,
you might wanna consider regearing,
but at the same time we've got 40s on the power stroke
and that's not regeared.
I think the tires on CO2 are 325 or 345
or something like that.
That's still on stock gearing.
Banker's seven and a half inch lifted Silverado
is still on stock gearing, he's running 35s.
So don't think that if you get 35s or 37s
you have to regear.
You'll have a small, noticeable amount of power loss
because you're changing that final drive ratio,
but it is not required.
You should do it if you wanna keep
your same acceleration and all that stuff.
It's gonna affect your top end,
but it's not required, so you don't have to do it right away
and save up all this money to do the lift,
the wheels, the tires, regear, do everything at once.
You can kinda do it segments if you want.
Also, lifting your truck.
Yes, it does require cutting it
if you're going to install a true lift kit.
Now, there are some companies out there,
like ReadyLIFT makes what's called an SST lift kit.
I think the biggest you can get is about four inch
and you can get away without cutting up your truck.
And when people say cutting up your truck
in terms of lift kits, what they mean is
cutting out that front crossmember
because you need to cut it
so you can install a new drop crossmember
to lower down your front differential
or your front steering rack
and change basically the mount points
of your lower control arms
so that you can accommodate the larger knuckles
that I talked about before.
So yes, you do have to cut your truck.
And that also means that you can't return
that truck back to stock.
You could go with a smaller lift kit
as long as it still has drop crossmembers,
but it can't go back to stock.
You can't just uninstall a lift kit
'cause you'll be missing the stock part
of the, essentially, frame that you cut out.
Another common one what we get which might surprise you
is that your two-wheel drive lift kit
will not work on a four-wheel drive truck.
So you can't just say, "Oh, well I'll never
"put it in four-wheel drive,
"I only use two-wheel drive."
It doesn't actually have to do
with the drive mode of your truck,
what it has to do with is the fact that
the two-wheel drive kits don't include things like
front differential drops,
because a two-wheel drive truck
doesn't have a front differential.
So when you're shopping for lift kits,
whether you're buying brand new from us on the website
or you're trying to find something used,
I just wanna help you in general,
don't buy somebody's old two-wheel drive lift kit
and try to install it on your four-wheel drive truck.
You're gonna have too many headaches
and it's just not gonna be worth it.
The last thing I wanted to touch on briefly is shocks.
Now, there's a whole bunch of different kinds of shocks
and we made videos specifically about that,
but in general, an important thing to know
before you purchase your lift kit
is that you can upgrade your shocks later.
So if you buy a lift kit and you just get
the basic kit with the basic shocks,
don't be disheartened by that
'cause you can still just by the shocks later.
A lot of companies, like Rough Country's really good at
just putting out there, "This shock is for
"a six inch lifted truck.
"This shock is for a four inch lifted truck."
But if you can't find the company that makes that,
you really just go by extended length and collapsed length.
So it's pretty easy to just kind of figure out
what shock you need and it doesn't have to be
exact measurements, you can kinda ball park it.
That's the beauty of the shock
is that it's a fluid piece.
It can kind of adapt to the space that you put it in,
so don't be too worried about getting shocks
right off the bat.
Now, if you want to do it the easiest way,
it would just be to select the upgraded shock
whenever you purchase the lift kit.
If you're getting the BDS kit,
a lot of them have the Fox shocks standard,
some of them are Fox upgrades.
Zone has nice Fox upgrades,
Rough Country, you can get their N3 shocks
or go to Vertex shocks.
There's a whole bunch of options out there.
If you want to do it the easiest way,
just get the upgraded shocks right off the bat,
but don't be worried if later down the line
you wanna still add 'em.
It's definitely something that we can help you out with.
So that should cover it.
Those are the very common questions
that we get when it comes to lift kits.
Those are the things you kinda wanna keep in mind
before you buy, so now you're probably a little bit
more educated, or at least you know
what to search on the YouTube channel
to get more information to all this stuff.
So if you wanna check that out,
it's youtube.com/customoffsetstv.
If you've already made up your mind
and you think you know what you wanna buy,
you can head over to customoffsets.com.
We got a giant selection of lift from,
I don't know, 15 different brands probably.
So head on out there, check it out,
enter your make and model, we'll have everything that fits.
You don't have to dig through millions of pages of stuff,
we just search by your truck specifically
and we'll get you taken care of.
Peace.
(upbeat music)