pheiser12
New Member
This is my personal review on the rough country 6" lift I installed on my 2002 Avalanche and this is also my first post on this site!(I'm not affiliated with rough country in anyway i just like to give credit where its due.)
Before I purchased this lift kit i remember spending hours looking for anyone who had a review on lifting an avalanche with this kit. Anything i found was typically for later model avalanches and or silverados. all the reviews i saw were unrelated to the actual lift and more just people butting heads and brand bashing because they spent $1,500-3,000 more on a similar size different brand lift and want to call you cheap for getting it done the economical way and Its for this very reason i'm taking the time to write up on my thoughts on the rough country lift!
What I've observed is that most people who are interested in this lift are most concerned about the ride quality post-lift being that it is the cheapest lift kit on the market. Let me tell you first hand, if anything my ride quality actually improved! Being that i bought the avy with 209,000 on her, the struts were getting a little old but even so the ride quality (pre-lift) was already nice and smoother and more comfortable than my brothers silverado (2004) and my parents H2 (2005). The ride with the lift met exceeded and continues to preform way better than i expected it to. As for gas mileage i didn't see any difference at all when i kept my same tires on that i had on pre-lift. However once i switched out to 33's the mileage suffered a little and so did acceleration but anyone couldve told you that who knows math. I now run 35x12.50x20's (with some moderate wheel well cutting) and the gas mileage isnt the worst but if your concerned about gas mileage you wouldn't be reading this in the first place . All in all for me it felt as if it freshened up my suspension which is to be expected considering this kit maintains all the factory angles just six inches higher which means you keep that same ride but 6" higher in the sky.
The next most frequent concern i've found is difficulty of installation. I installed this lift with my father who's pretty car knowledgeable, over the weekend in about 11-12hrs with the truck on jack stands on the driveway. Not the ideal way to be working on your truck for extended time but its completely do-able and i've done it that way again after that when we lifted my brother silverado with the same lift kit. The instructions are pretty straight forward pictures guiding you along the way with only minor modifications needed: Trimming front differential mount to install new provided hanger, shaving down front differential cooling fins, and drilling holes in the lower a-arm for the new torsion bar mounts. But as long as you have basic tool knowledge, 5th grade reading level and some helpful tools such as a jack, jack stands, breaker bars, and air impact drills and sockets this job is completely do able with two average people with an open weekend. Doing it yourself will save you on average anywhere from $1000-1800 in installation fees and its a great learning experience plus you get the pride behind saying "I installed myself".
Looking back on this lift I have no regrets and i only ran into one problem and that was that the new torsion bar brackets were a little to snug and we had to file them out to fit however i feel as if this was just a coincidence because we didnt have to modify it at all on my brothers 2004 silverado lift (they utilize the exact same front lift kit only the rears are different due to the avys using a semi trailing arm and the rados having leaf springs in the back). My baby looks, and rides fantastically i couldn't be more pleased and i would recommend this lift kit to anybody.
Paul H.
http://s1097.photobucket.com/user/paulheiser/media/IMG_3904_zpsvv5di7ct.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1
Before I purchased this lift kit i remember spending hours looking for anyone who had a review on lifting an avalanche with this kit. Anything i found was typically for later model avalanches and or silverados. all the reviews i saw were unrelated to the actual lift and more just people butting heads and brand bashing because they spent $1,500-3,000 more on a similar size different brand lift and want to call you cheap for getting it done the economical way and Its for this very reason i'm taking the time to write up on my thoughts on the rough country lift!
What I've observed is that most people who are interested in this lift are most concerned about the ride quality post-lift being that it is the cheapest lift kit on the market. Let me tell you first hand, if anything my ride quality actually improved! Being that i bought the avy with 209,000 on her, the struts were getting a little old but even so the ride quality (pre-lift) was already nice and smoother and more comfortable than my brothers silverado (2004) and my parents H2 (2005). The ride with the lift met exceeded and continues to preform way better than i expected it to. As for gas mileage i didn't see any difference at all when i kept my same tires on that i had on pre-lift. However once i switched out to 33's the mileage suffered a little and so did acceleration but anyone couldve told you that who knows math. I now run 35x12.50x20's (with some moderate wheel well cutting) and the gas mileage isnt the worst but if your concerned about gas mileage you wouldn't be reading this in the first place . All in all for me it felt as if it freshened up my suspension which is to be expected considering this kit maintains all the factory angles just six inches higher which means you keep that same ride but 6" higher in the sky.
The next most frequent concern i've found is difficulty of installation. I installed this lift with my father who's pretty car knowledgeable, over the weekend in about 11-12hrs with the truck on jack stands on the driveway. Not the ideal way to be working on your truck for extended time but its completely do-able and i've done it that way again after that when we lifted my brother silverado with the same lift kit. The instructions are pretty straight forward pictures guiding you along the way with only minor modifications needed: Trimming front differential mount to install new provided hanger, shaving down front differential cooling fins, and drilling holes in the lower a-arm for the new torsion bar mounts. But as long as you have basic tool knowledge, 5th grade reading level and some helpful tools such as a jack, jack stands, breaker bars, and air impact drills and sockets this job is completely do able with two average people with an open weekend. Doing it yourself will save you on average anywhere from $1000-1800 in installation fees and its a great learning experience plus you get the pride behind saying "I installed myself".
Looking back on this lift I have no regrets and i only ran into one problem and that was that the new torsion bar brackets were a little to snug and we had to file them out to fit however i feel as if this was just a coincidence because we didnt have to modify it at all on my brothers 2004 silverado lift (they utilize the exact same front lift kit only the rears are different due to the avys using a semi trailing arm and the rados having leaf springs in the back). My baby looks, and rides fantastically i couldn't be more pleased and i would recommend this lift kit to anybody.
Paul H.
http://s1097.photobucket.com/user/paulheiser/media/IMG_3904_zpsvv5di7ct.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1