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Need some input from those with level kits installed.

Dialn911

Full Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
112
Hey guys, I haven't spent much time on the forums, so I apologize for those who don't know me.

I have a 2003 Z71, I just put a 2" level kit on the truck and had an alignment done.

Immediately after the install and alignment,I noticed the handling to be very light in the steering, for lack of a better phrase, I would say a light on its feet.The truck seems a lot more rigid and you can feel every crevice and dip in the road through the steering, where as before the steering was a lot more tight and heavy and it absorbed up any imperfections in the road.

It feels less stable at highway speeds in turns.

When you hit the brakes, the steering wheel has a tendency to want to jerk to the right slightly as well, which is abnormal and unusual from before.

I'm really not liking the way its handling, and it seems strange to me that there would be this much of a difference and handling just from leveling it out. I'm gonna take it back and see if the shop can play with it and tighten the handling up.
I want to ask others who have a 2" level kit on their avalanches if they experienced similar issues? If so, what did you do to correct it if at all?

I can't  imagine this is "just how it is" when leveled out.

Doesnt seem  like a great trade off.

Some people told me the handling and ride should not be affected dramatically by a level kit, and perhaps the toe and camber need to be adjusted differently.

As of now, I much prefer the way the truck handled stock, but was never fan of the rake look and much prefer the  stance of a 2" level kit.

The tires I have on the truck are the stock 17" wheels, and are  285 70 R17 Nitto Terra grappler 2s.

I was thinking perhaps larger wheels and wider larger tires may help firm up the handling and make it more stable?

Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you..


 
It probably is important to know what exactly your leveling kit included such as shocks, springs etc. and did you make it level by raising the front or lowering the rear?
Some people who alter the suspension will put heavy duty sway bars on to help the AV corner better.
 
The Chevy avalanche only requires keys to level it out, so the typical level kit that I have found available for this vehicle is what I used, which was a rough country 2" level kit, where you only swap out the keys for the torsion bars.

The shocks I have are Bilstein 5100s, which can go from stock height all the way up to 2 1/2 inches, so I didn't have to worry about messing with my shocks at all.

According to everyone I spoke to before doing the install, all I needed with the Bilstein 5100s were new keys for the front to match the back, a new alignment  and done.

 
Sounds to me like the alignment might have been done wrong.

I have driven vehicles where the wheels both pointed in and pointed out when going straight ahead. Both handled horribly as the vehicle seemed to wander all over the place.

Also possible you have some weak components up front that you didn't notice before. How many miles on your truck? Have you done ball joint, tie rods etc?

I am noticing some odd behavior in my '03 with 270k miles and will be rebuilding the whole front end. Just not sure what I will end up using.

Rodney
 
It has a 140, 000 miles on it.

Right before the level kit was installed however, I had all my front end components checked out, the shop said everything was tight and nothing needed to be replaced.

I spoke to a shop today looking at it, and they said I should definitely take it back, because it looks like my torsion bars were cranked up too much and shouldn't have been cranked as much as they are, especially with replacing the keys.

Metaphorically speaking, it feels like I'm driving on my tippy toes, so I think they are right, I think the torsion bars are up way too much and need to be turned down.
Ill even drop  half an inch or drop it by a whole inch if I have to, to get enough travel back in the suspension to tighten up the steering so it handles better and compromise on the level height if need be.

It seems to me that something must have been done wrong though, because the Bilstein 5100s are designed to have an additional 2 and a 1/2 inches of travel for this sort of thing, so there should be enough extension.

Ive been wanting to go to some larger tires anyway, once i can get the handling figured out, and then go to some 305 12.5s , it may help with the height and handling.

The reason I put the level kit on, is I live in the mountains in a rural area, and my front end would dip too much at steep angles.
This  has helped as far as that goes, but now I need to figure out what's up with the handling.

It sucks because I live about 80 miles away from the shop that did all the work for me, so I really have to go out of my way to get it figured now.
 
Update:

I live up in the mountains, about 80 miles away from the shop that did the level kit and alignment. I was getting ready to go back, but the handling became so severe, I found a place locally to look at it. I wish I knew about these guys originally before doing the install. They really know their stuff.

They found that my front right camber bolts were completely loose, and the shop before them didn't tighten up my front suspension. This was causing the steering to be squirrely and the steering wheel would jerk the wheel to the right when braking or hitting a rut in the road. It felt like driving on your tippy toes, metaphorically speaking.

Of course, this caused the alignment to be totally out of whack again. They tightened everything up and re-aligned the truck, now it tight and handling like it should. It's night and day difference and better.

I'm really glad I bit the bullet and paid to have it all redone. This could have been very dangerous and bad had the bolt come off in the mountain pass.

I'm pretty frustrated and upset they didn't catch this and gave me back the truck like this and now having to pay another shop to correct their mistakes.

I'm going to request a refund from them.
 
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