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LukeTwodoor

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quick intro. I’m Luke, I’ve had one 94 two door Blazer and two 2 door tahoes. My previous 94 & 97 I knew for a fact to both be factory ride height suspension. The 94 was bought new by my godfather and my 97 I bought from the original owner. My current 98 on the other hand, has had multiple pervious owners and I have no records of work or upgrades done other than what I can see. (Alarm stereo and air horn).

The question is how can I confirm one way or the other if the 98 has a lift or leveling kit? It has no lift blocks in the rear BUT it is sitting on 285/75/17 mud terrain tires. And they do not rub at all. Is there a way to measure the rear leaf springs to check if they’re re-arced or lift springs? Forgive my ignorance I have no experience at all with lifted trucks or lift kits pics of my three 2 doors for attention. Any help is appreciated (98 is solid black 97 has the cowl hood 94 has the push bar and red emergency lights)
 

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Trey Hardy

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quick intro. I’m Luke, I’ve had one 94 two door Blazer and two 2 door tahoes. My previous 94 & 97 I knew for a fact to both be factory ride height suspension. The 94 was bought new by my godfather and my 97 I bought from the original owner. My current 98 on the other hand, has had multiple pervious owners and I have no records of work or upgrades done other than what I can see. (Alarm stereo and air horn).

The question is how can I confirm one way or the other if the 98 has a lift or leveling kit? It has no lift blocks in the rear BUT it is sitting on 285/75/17 mud terrain tires. And they do not rub at all. Is there a way to measure the rear leaf springs to check if they’re re-arced or lift springs? Forgive my ignorance I have no experience at all with lifted trucks or lift kits pics of my three 2 doors for attention. Any help is appreciated (98 is solid black 97 has the cowl hood 94 has the push bar and red emergency lights)
Looks like it has a set of leveling torsion keys in it and if no block possibly an add a leaf in the rear?
 
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LukeTwodoor

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It is possible. How could I tell if it had leveling keys or an add a leaf? And the picture of the 98 the driveway isn’t level (if that makes a difference) so I’ll include a shot of the 98 on level ground.
 

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Trey Hardy

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To be honest unless it’s a nice set of torsion keys “cam max reds” there usually black and look similar to the stock ones unless the powder coat is a lot cleaner and in better shape then everything else around it then I’m not sure how you could tell other then measuring the height difference from your stock vs your leveled truck.

Most keys are 2”-3” of lift
Back in the day us broke guys would go to the scrap yard and get torsion keys out a ford truck as they would lift our chevys 3”-4” over aftermarket keys

As for the add a leaf I guess your best bet would be to just count the number of leaf springs you got in the lifted one vs the stock one
(4 springs on one but 5 on the other)
Would tell you that you probably have a add a leaf thrown in there
 

Trey Hardy

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Love the blacked out blazer by the way! I’ve contemplated on painting my rig black but I’m probably going with the seafoam green like my original truck in highschool
001B81FF-DD1F-4EDF-8B7F-CF23D79DCF50.jpegA80822DB-78A8-4355-8E57-DC2295C3A38F.jpeg
 
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LukeTwodoor

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To be honest unless it’s a nice set of torsion keys “cam max reds” there usually black and look similar to the stock ones unless the powder coat is a lot cleaner and in better shape then everything else around it then I’m not sure how you could tell other then measuring the height difference from your stock vs your leveled truck.

Most keys are 2”-3” of lift
Back in the day us broke guys would go to the scrap yard and get torsion keys out a ford truck as they would lift our chevys 3”-4” over aftermarket keys

As for the add a leaf I guess your best bet would be to just count the number of leaf springs you got in the lifted one vs the stock one
(4 springs on one but 5 on the other)
Would tell you that you probably have a add a leaf thrown in there
The trucks been under coated front to back so it’s all uniform color lol and as far as the leaf springs go.m, there’s 5 in there. But judging by the where the bottom of the wheel wells end on the tire from the 97 compared to the 98 the 98 definitely has some sort of lift to it.

Personally black/gunmetal grey and chrome is the way to go on these era trucks. But I’m biased lol. I grew up in my the 94 blazer and when I got my hands on it I drove it into the ground. And when I found the 97 I swore I’d never get rid of it. Until I did. So now I’m out to recreate my dream build for the third time lol. I’d stick with the black you got goin now if you’re looking for my opinion your truck is nasty lookin as it sits!
 

Trey Hardy

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The trucks been under coated front to back so it’s all uniform color lol and as far as the leaf springs go.m, there’s 5 in there. But judging by the where the bottom of the wheel wells end on the tire from the 97 compared to the 98 the 98 definitely has some sort of lift to it.

Personally black/gunmetal grey and chrome is the way to go on these era trucks. But I’m biased lol. I grew up in my the 94 blazer and when I got my hands on it I drove it into the ground. And when I found the 97 I swore I’d never get rid of it. Until I did. So now I’m out to recreate my dream build for the third time lol. I’d stick with the black you got goin now if you’re looking for my opinion your truck is nasty lookin as it sits!
Ha great minds think alike check out my buddy’s drag truck to wanchese! I met the guy riding around after work and I seen the truck in the yard and the lsx on it so I had to stop and get a couple pics
She was clean but I think a billet bow tie and emblem and the black/chrome headlights over the solid chrome ones would help break it up some.
she’s nice though and fast as hell
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^is my most recent addition/project

Back to the lift lol unless there’s a brand/marking on the torsion keys it’ll be hard to tell I’ve never personally done but a couple set of torsion keys 5-10 years ago the only thing I remember is that it was a total PITA on our trucks trying to get the torsion bars out and would always be breaking the torsion bar unloading tool.

For the springs if the leaf packs are identical to the stock truck you have and they both have the same amount of springs in them and there is not a block under it then check the leaf spring shackle see if it is longer then your stock tahoe

I remember scrounging up 40$ back in highschool to get adjustable rear shackles for my old truck to lift or lower it from the leaf spring

Not the cab side bracket but the one on the rear of the truck

In the pic above i diddnt see any shackle or bracket hooked to your leaf spring im guessing your working on that one?

Also the tire size make a big difference also! A lot more then you would think!
I’ll post a couple pics of my white truck as a comparison on how high it sits on 33s vs 35s
 
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LukeTwodoor

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In the picture of the spring it’s disconnected because we were patching the frame repairing the only bad rot on the truck (exactly where the rear spring hanger bolts to the frame was shot to shit) and as far as comparing goes if I still had either of the stock trucks I’d compare the two. But the trans in the 94 took a shit and we let that go after I got the 97 and the 97 was sold to get the 98 with half the mileage lol. Was hoping someone would give insight into how to measure the leaf springs or ID the keys. But really it’s for my own curiosity. My 97 had 265/75/16 BFG all terrains and they’d rub ever so slightly. The 98 is running 285/70/17 BFG Mud terrains and has no issues rubbing at all. But it definitely doesn’t have a body lift. And on the 97 I could never dream of getting a tire this size under it without cutting lifting or both. As well as being curious if I got go bigger and fit a 305 or 315/75/16 under it as it sits lol (I want my chrome Denali 16” wheels back lol)
 
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LukeTwodoor

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View attachment 39347935/12.50View attachment 39348033/12.50
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2” difference makes a huge difference
And as far as ground clearance goes yea 3” goes a long way. But I was referring to how far down the tire the body reaches. On your truck between the 33’s 35’s and 37’s the body (or wheel well) reaches about the same spot on the tires across the three. Where between my old 97 and the 98, the wheel well on the 97 goes about half way down the tire. Where the 98 reaches about the 1/4 mark (ish)

And your buddies race truck there is ****** nasty lookin. And I agree with ya it needs a touch more chrome to break it up a bit.
 

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