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Will the 2" level kit damage my CV and/or Ball joints without adding other parts

2" level effect on CV and Ball Joints - 2017 Z71

11K views 40 replies 15 participants last post by  Hunter62 
#1 ·
So I am new to modifying trucks but I have a mechanical and engineering background. I am looking at adding a 2" RC spacer leveling kit to my 2017 z71 and a 1" block in the rear to lift the truck but not totally eliminate the rake. My Dad has about 20+ years working on vehicles and he's under the impression that this lift could reduce the life of the CV and ball joints. I don't really want to move to fully new struts as my current shocks have a lot of life left in them and my understanding is that the Eibach and Bilstein options really stiffen the ride which I don't want. I realize that adding the lower spacer on the front level will change the coil preload and marginally stiffen the ride.

My questions are:
1) Whether this level of lift adversely affects the CV or Ball joints or whether the change in angles is within the tolerance of the OEM parts?
2) Do I need to change my rear shocks to add a 1" Block?
3) What affect would a diff Drop have and is it significant?
 
#2 ·
I can only say from my 2019 Colorado 4x4 LT crew cab. I had the RC 2" shock/strut combination put on by my suspension shop to make truck level (which it did, perfectly level now). I asked if differential drop necessary and he said no that as long as not over 2" change is not enough to cause problems. I also talked to the parts and service guys I know at my dealership and they said as long as not over 2" would be ok without differential drop. And the parts guy has had the same RC set up on his 4x4 truck for 42,000 miles with no differential drop and never a problem. That being said there are some on here that will say you need to do the differential drop because you've changed the OEM angle. They may be right I don't know only that's what I was told and didn't do a differential drop. As far as the adding the 1" block in rear I don't know anything about that and if affects not doing the differential drop on the front.
 
#4 ·
I am reasonably certain the rear block wouldn't have any effect on the front of the vehicle unless you went with a significant enough rear lift to cause the loading of the front shock to change but you would have to have a rake of multiple feet before that happens.
 
#3 ·
yes - it could reduce the life. Taking it off-road will also reduce the life. These are wear items, I expect they both may wear out slightly faster due to an increased angle - they will also wear out faster if you drive on curvy or bumpy roads vs. all highway driving. I don't think these are very expensive or hard to replace parts, so if it reduces the service life from 100K miles to 75K miles, do you really care?

I don't

I have a 2" lift - no diff drop, 20K miles so far no issues - I did relocate the sway bar but I am not sure that is really necessary.

I have a 1" block in the back on mine as well, but I am using the 5100 shocks and those are built for up to 1" lift maybe even 1.5". The stock shocks are not - it will put them out of the sweet spot in the travel so it may impact ride although it will likely work.

I went with the Eibach springs to raise 2" - I didn't like the idea of pre-loading the suspension and reducing spring and shock travel for this much lift - maybe for 1". But yes, the ride is stiffer with that spring even on the lowest notch and the Bilstein shocks are firm too. I like it - but it does make the truck ride stiffer. I drove a 2021 Trail Boss recently and back to back with my truck it felt so cushy and wishy washy that I just didn't like it - I guess I have grown used to the suspension in my truck which is more of a sporting feel.

Now - if you go with some of the aftermarket coilover shock set-ups, I bet those are similar to stock ride quality - so that may be an option. I may even go that route in the future, if I did I would probably go with a 2.5" front lift and 1.5" rear block.

I dunno - there is no one answer or one size fits all with this platform, but thankfully there are a lot of options and what seems to be a vibrant vendor base building things for them - which is a great thing. It's not quite where the Tacos are but honestly it's getting there.

Let us know what you end up doing and post up some pics of course!

here is a pic of my CCLB with the 2"/1" combo - I had a pretty good rake on mine, it's still a .5" rake which I think is perfect and gives me a better ability to handle loads since I do tow a reasonable sized trailer with this truck.

Untitled by C4RACER, on Flickr
 
#5 ·
yes - it could reduce the life. Taking it off-road will also reduce the life. These are wear items, I expect they both may wear out slightly faster due to an increased angle - they will also wear out faster if you drive on curvy or bumpy roads vs. all highway driving. I don't think these are very expensive or hard to replace parts, so if it reduces the service life from 100K miles to 75K miles, do you really care?

I don't

I have a 2" lift - no diff drop, 20K miles so far no issues - I did relocate the sway bar but I am not sure that is really necessary.

I have a 1" block in the back on mine as well, but I am using the 5100 shocks and those are built for up to 1" lift maybe even 1.5". The stock shocks are not - it will put them out of the sweet spot in the travel so it may impact ride although it will likely work.

I went with the Eibach springs to raise 2" - I didn't like the idea of pre-loading the suspension and reducing spring and shock travel for this much lift - maybe for 1". But yes, the ride is stiffer with that spring even on the lowest notch and the Bilstein shocks are firm too. I like it - but it does make the truck ride stiffer. I drove a 2021 Trail Boss recently and back to back with my truck it felt so cushy and wishy washy that I just didn't like it - I guess I have grown used to the suspension in my truck which is more of a sporting feel.

Now - if you go with some of the aftermarket coilover shock set-ups, I bet those are similar to stock ride quality - so that may be an option. I may even go that route in the future, if I did I would probably go with a 2.5" front lift and 1.5" rear block.

I dunno - there is no one answer or one size fits all with this platform, but thankfully there are a lot of options and what seems to be a vibrant vendor base building things for them - which is a great thing. It's not quite where the Tacos are but honestly it's getting there.

Let us know what you end up doing and post up some pics of course!

here is a pic of my CCLB with the 2"/1" combo - I had a pretty good rake on mine, it's still a .5" rake which I think is perfect and gives me a better ability to handle loads since I do tow a reasonable sized trailer with this truck.

Untitled by C4RACER, on Flickr
Thanks for the info. I will probably end up doing the spacer lift as I don't mind taking apart the strut. How does the RC level reduce travel in the strut? it's my understanding that the travel of the shock should be the same its just going to be stiffer due to the increased coil preload. That being said the travel of the shock itself shouldn't change as the spacer effectively decreases the sag and the spring should compress proportionately with the shock. Only thing I can think of is that the downward movement of the wheel would be more violent due to the increased force from the spring preload.
 
#8 ·
Sorry reduced travel of the spring is what I meant
But maybe that’s not really true either. It does preload the spring seems that must impact the ride somewhat. But maybe the ride is mostly the shocks.
the 5100 shocks firm up the ride for sure. I ran just the shocks for 15K miles on my 2016 Colorado and the ride was firmer than oem. I can’t say how much the spring did - probably 25pct of the ride quality be 75pct to the shocks if I had to put a guesstimate on it.
 
#9 ·
Adding a spacer above the shock will make the control arms & CV's travel further (down) than OEM. Although I do not have any experience yet from putting a lift on my Canyon, I did put a 2" front spacer lift on a 2003 Envoy 4WD I once owned. When the front suspension extended, it put added stress on the brake lines going to the calipers. It also made the CV's and front disconnect go bad much faster due to the longer reach. I simply disconnected one of the body clips that held the brake lines to free them up a bit and simply dealt with the cv's and forward disconnect as they were.

There was a kit that installed spacers within the springs of the front strut's, but I did not have a spring compressor at the time so I went cheap with spacers over the struts.
 
#11 ·
If the CVs go bad, are there replacements that can handle the 2" lift? I would rather get the 2" lift, and then replace both CV's when they go out instead of replacing them early or doing a diff drop. The skid plates don't work with a diff drop AFAIK.
 
#14 ·
The lift will increase the angle of the CV Joints which will cause undo stress and premature wear on the joints. The diff drop can help flatten the angles out, which could help.
 
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#20 ·
I’m well aware that lifting might increase wear on the CV joints. I get what a diff drop offers but the point of this thread was for me to gauge the best approach to mitigate problems down the road and whether certain parts or methods are even necessary. I’m more interested in peoples practical experiences and observations. I know what COULD happen hence why I am investigating people’s experiences and relevant opinions to determine what I think a likely result would be and the most effective approach.
 
#17 ·
Sometimes modifications seem like a good idea, until it’s done and problems arise that were self inflicted. Seen this happen many times.
 
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#18 ·
I attempted The Rough Country 2" today. It is the same 5/8" top spacer that just goes between the strut and strut model that the 1" kit has. But it also includes a 5/8" spacer that goes between the top hat and the shock, so you have to disassembled the strut to do it. This is never fun, but especially not when you have to get the spring compressed over a 1/2" . The spring ends up so compressed, it is barely a spring anymore once uncompressed. It is also under extreme force and it bent both the top on the shocks after I released it. I would stick with the 1" kit which does not require the disassembly of strut unless you have a shop with a hydraulic press that plans to do it for you....And then I should be really worried about the ride because you spring will be almost full compressed. I was pretty disappointed in the kit, they tried to squeeze about 1/2" too much lift out of the stock strut.
 
#23 ·
Your CV joints are always spinning if the front wheels are in motion, regardless of if you are in 4WD or not. I broke a CV joint with 30k miles on it and no lift, stock tires, so they are certainly a weak link to begin with. MY boot was not cracked or anything, and it broke trying to go over a rock. If not under warranty, they are a $160 part and $200 in labor at the stealership. People have said only use the GM OEM CV joint as the others are crap, but I would certainly be willing to spend more for something better than the dealerships.
 
#28 ·
Having just installed a 1.5" level I can tell you that there was almost no change to my CV or ball joint angles at rest. I wish I had gone with the 2" level bc of this. As most have pointed out and you are likely aware, the stress will come more when down travel of the suspension is occurring. If you suspect a lot of driving that would require down travel (off road, bumpy roads) and/or flexing (curves) the benefit of doing the diff drop definitely outweighs the risk of not doing it IMO. The CVs seem to be crap on these trucks so at 2" I would do the diff drop just for the peace of mind. The ball joint is the least of your worries bc its a cheap easy replacement anyway.
 
#30 ·
The answer is...maybe. The CV’s have a certain amount of set travel engineered into them to handle the suspension drop maxing out. If you’ve ever gone off road and were at a severe angle with one wheel and suspension fully dropped, you know what I’m talking about. The axle joints are designed to move within a certain range at certain angles and still maintain performance. Now take those engineered dimensions and alter them, like adding two inches of lift, and those at rest angles change. Will it wear the joints faster? Again...maybe. If the two inches leaves the axles and joints within their designed tolerances than no, no additional modifications outside an alignment should be needed. The caveat here is that if you add those two inches and then push those axles to their design limits, like extreme off road angles, you can destroy the joints in very short order. I’ve seen it and had it happen to me personally But not on a Colorado. CV axles, well most OEMs anyways, are crap not made for serious abuse or modification and are pretty weak. From what I understand there are a few options: One, drop the diff. On IFS vehicles it’s not terribly hard. Two, purchase axles designed for lifted applications. Finally, you could say to hell with it especially if it’s an asphalt queen. So far as I know, no current manufacturers make extended axles for a Colorado. Finally, the diff drop might cause more issues if you just left it alone. The front drive shaft on the Colorado doesn’t have conventional universal joints but instead has slip yoke joints bolted to the diff and t-case. This type is a notoriously weak design compared to “normal” u joints. Mess with those angles and the CV Axles might be the least of your worries. In short, two inches probably won’t be significant enough to cause issues. The “fix” might wind up causing more issues. Ive added the RC spacers with two inches on Colorado’s for others and have had zero issues on street trucks to guys that are doing stuff off road that LTs and Z71s have no business doing. Ive had two guys insist on a diff drop but also had me fabricate a new front driveshaft. Very likely wasn’t necessary but disposable income is nice to have.
 
#35 ·
I just did my lift tonight. It was the Eibach 2.0 Coilver kit. I went with how they shipped, which appears to be 60% of max. It lifted my truck 2.25" inches in front. I kept the stock rims (18") and stock tire size (265/60/18), but got real tires for it (Duratracs). Before the lift they actually rubbed, despite being stock size.
411415
 
#36 ·
I did not know and I googled and could not find a Rough Country 2 inch spacer.

They do have the 5/8th thick spacer that they say raises truck 2 inches but in reality it only raises it about 1.125 to 1.25ish

47,000 miles on my truck with the RC level with no diff drop, no extra front end hardware added and with no issues

I just drive washboard roads at high speed all the time, no mall or rock crawling
 
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#37 ·
Spacers raise the truck at a 2:1 ratio, so 5/8 should offer roughly 1 inch of lift. The RC 2 inch level is a spacer and preload spacer combo. Both off which are a little over 1 inch combined but offer 2 inches of lift. At least it gave me a true 2”. However, it did sag over time. I probably lost an inch of lift in the front over the 10k miles that I had the kit on.


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#41 ·
47,000 miles with my 5/8 rc spacer's on my ZR2 and no issues at all.
 
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