romadrome

Hi,

I have an 05 silverado crew cab Z71 with over 100,000 miles and I'm wanting to lift the truck. I want to first say that this is my daily driver and I love to fish, hunt, basically anything outdoors. I'm wanting to make my truck look good (mall crawler) and performance wise I would like it to be decent on gas and handle similarly to what it is now, nothing crazy not bogging or climbing mountains, but I'm not afraid to give her some southern pin striping. I've got a couple of ideas in my head and was hoping I could get some input from seasoned chevy owners.

1. 4 inch rancho or BDS suspension with 33's

2. 6 inch rancho or BDS suspension with 35's

3. find aftermarket heavy duty torsion bars lift the front end, leaf in the rear, buy steel bumpers and winch, run 33's

I'm leaning more towards #3 but don't know if it's possible and/or if it's a good idea. I plan on running 18" wheels regardless of which direction I go.

I would like to know if you've had any issues with items breaking on your truck with a lift and if by raising it, would cause my higher mileage truck to die sooner? I really like this truck and would like to put some into it to make it "mine"
Lastly, my budget around 7k . This is for the lift, tires, bumpers, radio and 6.5 speakers, tint, exhaust, intake, bed liner and anything else you think is a must have/awesome accessory for this truck

Thanks for any input

country_09

Personally if you just want a good lift that'll do every thing you ask out of it that's not really big, get a smaller lift on 33s, especially if you do all that out of it. My truck is bigger now and it's kind of a pain to fish, hunt, or even load up the bed with stuff, for sure go with the rough country 6"(actually the same as a 4" but with a bigger block, both come with about 5" of lift and you crank the stock keys to get the 6" part) and run it on 33s. Don't run the shocks that come with it, run bilstein 5100 shocks all the way around for a good ride. I wouldn't do HD torsion bars, if you go offroad and use it to go down back roads when huntin and fishin, you'll get tired of the craptastic ride with em.

So rough country 6" with bilstein 5100 shocks on 33s(unless you want to regear) and 18x10s...it'll look awesome! Def do a bedliner(line-x is what I'm gettin), exhaust- just cut off the stock muffler and weld whatever you think sounds good after it and either dump it or have it run out the back with a tip, intake- save some money and do the airaid MIT kit with the filter, I recommend a corvette servo to give some added beef to the transmission as well, and a MUST is a custom tune. Blackbearperformance.com or gowheatley.com, give them a shout for a custom tune to wake your truck up and unleash what's hidden under the factory tune. Stereo wise I'd do a pioneer double din and 2 10s behind or under the back seat with a 1500 watt amp pushin em and some good quality speakers in the doors. Tint-go as dark as the law says, I kind of regret goin 5% all the way around because it's hard to back up at night with the windows up lol.

I lifted my truck at around 199k on it lol and it's doin just great. Actually gettin ready to go bigger on it. The only parts I've noticed that wear out faster are the idler arm, bigger tires tend to have that affect on it.

romadrome

Thanks for the tips country. I'm new to the whole lifting trucks thing so I really do appreciate the tips. Don't want the amps and 10's, been through the boom boom stage, lol. Going to google corvette servo since I don't know what that is. My buddy's working on a jeep project and his advice made me start doing more research. He's not knowledgable on chevy's, but he's thinking that a 6 inch is going to put too much angle on my cv joints and I'm going to put too much stress on my old truck parts.

country_09

Lol you said speakers so I was throwin that out there. And the vette servo is just goin to crispen up the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts. Make them just a tad more firm and have a better, quicker shift, that's all. And a lift will only add stress to the angles if you try to stretch it beyond it's capabilities. If you do a 6" and leave it completely decranked on stock keys, angles will be just like stock and no stress will be added to any of your components. The only other thing I could see wearin out faster is your hub because of the weight of the bigger rim/tire combo

romadrome

LOL should've been more specific. I'm not a teenager looking to romp and boom my truck through the woods, did that. Googled the servo and sounds like an interesting item, don't think I would like the harder shifting. I'm really wanting one of those nice steel bumpers, thinking Iron cross with push bar for the front and matching rear. How much do you think it'll lower the truck? Should I go with a 6 not touch the bars and run the 33's, or stick with 4 crank the torsion key and run 33's. Not a fan of lots O wheel space look. Appreciate the tips and I know you got a ton of posts but Country the only one with experience on this forum??
Not ******* you country Paleease keep the tips coming....., I was kinda hoping to get some other opinions/experiences as well.

country_09

Haha I see I see. And some ranch hand type bumpers front and back would look good. My bro has a frontier full replacement up front and it's built pretty dang good IMO. And it's not really a harder shift, just pulls the lag out of the shift if you get what I'm sayin. Makes it go into 2nd quicker than normal. Great mod, I do it to all mine and my buddies. And I'd do the 6" and leave it all the way decranked for sure. Better ride and your parts won't go out near as fast as with a levelin kit. I'd do the 6" decranked(more like 4.5-5") with the bumpers up front and you could do a 18x9 and a 34" type tall tire to fill in the gap a 33" would kind of leave.

romadrome

Awesome tips bro. Appreciate all the advice. Wife's water just broke so off to the hospital for kid número 3 and I will be working on this in march April. Pics to come.