Ball Joints and CV angles

[Holgrinator]

I'm new to the site but have been lurking for the last week or so. I'm going to be picking up an 04 Yukon SLE 4x4 with 50,000 miles on it next week. I want to put a leveling kit, some 17x9s and 295/70R17s. From everything I've read this is totally doable. My question is, how much stress to the aftermarket keys put on the ball joints and CVs. Picking up such a low mileage Yukon I don't want to be wearing out the BJs and CVs. My currrent truck is a 99 Sonoma Highrider and I know cranking the torsion bars on those is a big no-no due to the stress it puts on the components. Looks like tons of people here are cranking with aftermarket keys up to 3 inches.

I don't care as much about getting height out of it as I do just getting the 295s not to rub. As long as they don't rub I don't need any more height on top of that.

I'm also open to going with Atomic's coilover conversion to maintain a good ride. But in the end my concern is BJs and CVs lasting. I plan to keep this Yukon a long time and want reliability out of it.

 

[MadDogDelpho]

You can go up to 3 inches higher up front without stressing your front end components too much, and since you'll be running basically 33's, you can get away with about 2 inches without rubbing, depending on your backspacing. I'll be lifting my truck at some point this summer, and there are plenty of more knowledgeable buys on here, but you should be fine.

 

[4WDTRK]

Not to threadjack...but hopefully related. I'm keyed running 33's, but I've been considering cranking my bars just a bit more since it seems to sit a hair lower in the front than I like. Where can I measure to know I'm not going too far as far as angles? Thanks.

 

[slow4dr]

Not to threadjack...but hopefully related. I'm keyed running 33's, but I've been considering cranking my bars just a bit more since it seems to sit a hair lower in the front than I like. Where can I measure to know I'm not going too far as far as angles? Thanks.

As a point of reference I have mine cranked roughly 2.5-3" and my CV's are angled down at 6 degrees. It's been like that for roughly 2 years and 10K miles.

 

[02_Tahoe]

I'm new to the site but have been lurking for the last week or so. I'm going to be picking up an 04 Yukon SLE 4x4 with 50,000 miles on it next week. I want to put a leveling kit, some 17x9s and 295/70R17s. From everything I've read this is totally doable. My question is, how much stress to the aftermarket keys put on the ball joints and CVs. Picking up such a low mileage Yukon I don't want to be wearing out the BJs and CVs. My currrent truck is a 99 Sonoma Highrider and I know cranking the torsion bars on those is a big no-no due to the stress it puts on the components. Looks like tons of people here are cranking with aftermarket keys up to 3 inches.

I don't care as much about getting height out of it as I do just getting the 295s not to rub. As long as they don't rub I don't need any more height on top of that.

I'm also open to going with Atomic's coilover conversion to maintain a good ride. But in the end my concern is BJs and CVs lasting. I plan to keep this Yukon a long time and want reliability out of it.

I've got mine maxed out in the front, been that way for 7 months and 7k miles and no problems, and I have used 4wd many times. My components are good and my truck has 236k miles