Level question newbie

[CamReynolds]

first of all, I don't even know if your 2WD truck is set up like my 4WD.

You will have to look behind the front tires and tell me if it has coil springs in there, or torsion bars: It will be obvious. a guy at work told me that he has torsion bar on his NBS 2WD Tahoe, but who knows?? If you have coil spring in the front, that's a whole different animal.

Rebuilding the front steering/suspension as you have described is costly. Yes, hiring the labor/repairs out to some else either pro or novice will cost you plenty. Fortunately for you, there is a tutorial for everything on YouTube. All you need is the tools, space and patience. Even these things come at a cost, but still better doing it yourself and know what you have under there opposed to getting it shoved up your A...

personally, I would rather buy the tools and have someone threatening to call a tow truck as it sits somewhere in pieces before I would allow somebody else that I don't know to ****** my truck and then expect me to pay them for their time. If you go to a garage, refer to yelp or Google Reviews at the very least. There are some other boards I frequented in the past that share info & experience regarding auto garages in certain locals. Never contract with the cheapest bidder and research the most you possibly can. Its that important, as you have come to learn.

If you have a driveway and your truck needs work, you should start buying some tools: watch youTube videos to get an idea of what all you will need. I started doing my own automotive repairs after I moved to Dallas; I can't afford to pay $100/hour. I have the time and intelligence to get it done myself. Auto garages make a huge percentage of their income from parts alone. All you have to do is look at some of your old invoice and then search some online wholesalers to see that you are getting double-screwed between the charges for parts and THEN labor on top of that. F*** me...

or buy the parts yourself and have the shop put them on

 

[massivespl]

285/55/20 should fit no problem.

 

[tRidiot]

Got my truck on a lift yesterday with a guy who knows a good bit about suspension stuff. He checked, my ball joints are good, and I have torsion bars in the front. I see now how things all fit together, I think the plan is going to be the front lift with with the keys, replace shocks with Billstein 5100s (or something - got some research to do), and replace rear springs. He recommended Old Man Emu springs, as he has used them in the past, but a few quick Google searches reveals that they don't appear to make springs for Chevy trucks.

Rear springs actually look in pretty good shape, there is no sag in the rear end... so maybe just blocks for that. Got the new wheels on - I am not as happy with them as I thought I would be, but they are growing on me:



Going to be replacing the running boards with custom sliders my friend is going to make, as well as adding a grill guard - looking at Ranch Hand and some others as well. New tires next month after all these upgrades, want to get something a bit beefier to match the new look it will have. I do a LOT of driving, though, 3 hours round-trip for work each shift (3-5x/week), so I don't want a huge lift, and ride quality is important.

 

[Junior21]

Went on and put the tires on and they fit with out a problem no leveling keys needed I can turn full lock on them and they don’t rub oh and also the suspension is torsion keys. I forgot to mention that part but thanks for everyone’s input I will try to load some pictures later on today thanks to everyone

 

[tRidiot]

I got a small lift on mine today. Here's the before and after:



Wow, didn't realize how LOW mine looked before! lol

Tomorrow or the next day or sometime soon (this week, I hope!) I will be putting new tires on, probably 33", MAYBE 34". With the measurements we took today, 33s should probably fit with no trimming, 34s might require a little bit, I don't know.

This forum has been a great help, thanks everyone!