Suspension Help

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

Rocket Man

Mark
Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Posts
25,961
Reaction score
50,621
Location
Oregon
Thank you for the info.

Is there a way to check if the self leveling is even working?
Check the rubber bellows on the rear shocks and see if they’re firm and thus inflated, after driving. Another way to check is after the truck has sat overnight or all day, start it up and walk to the driver side rear and listen for the compressor to come on and look carefully at the fender to see if the rear of the truck lifts up a little and the compressor shuts off.
 
OP
OP
1

1xd5

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2023
Posts
37
Reaction score
18
Check the rubber bellows on the rear shocks and see if they’re firm and thus inflated, after driving. Another way to check is after the truck has sat overnight or all day, start it up and walk to the driver side rear and listen for the compressor to come on and look carefully at the fender to see if the rear of the truck lifts up a little and the compressor shuts off.
Thank you, will do.
 

adventurenali92

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2015
Posts
7,219
Reaction score
8,299
Location
Big Bear Lake, ca
Sorry for the lateness of my reply. Just now seeing that I was tagged after finishing giving my rig an oil change. @1xd5 Looking at the photo of that red Denali xl that you posted beside your truck and reading the thread that you linked, it appears that the owner of that truck didn’t just swap out the factory torsion keys for leveling keys to achieve enough lift to fit that tire setup. There’s mention of Z71 coil spring swap, which lifts the rear of the truck up for sure, from what I’ve read on others member’s lift threads here. The thread also mentions rough country shocks so I’m assuming longer shocks were necessary. Doesn’t say what shocks but I’m guessing he deleted the Z55 suspension setup with the rough country shocks.

So quite a bit more in depth since leveling keys alone won’t lift the truck enough to fit that big of a tire on stock suspension. To also add to the info in this thread the factory does setup a mild rake to the suspension. At least with the GMT800s they were definitely not level out of the factory. The front is set a tad bit lower than the rear, from what I understand to help with aerodynamics and fuel consumption. I can say for certain this is how my truck was setup on stock suspension.

The leveling keys will lift the front of the truck a tad bit higher,
I did that to my 2006 Denali xl. Not sure what brand keys were used but it brought up enough to fit a 275/65 Michelin LTX A/T2 tire on my truck a couple years ago. Running a different tire setup now but still have the leveling keys.
 
OP
OP
1

1xd5

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2023
Posts
37
Reaction score
18
Sorry for the lateness of my reply. Just now seeing that I was tagged after finishing giving my rig an oil change. @1xd5 Looking at the photo of that red Denali xl that you posted beside your truck and reading the thread that you linked, it appears that the owner of that truck didn’t just swap out the factory torsion keys for leveling keys to achieve enough lift to fit that tire setup. There’s mention of Z71 coil spring swap, which lifts the rear of the truck up for sure, from what I’ve read on others member’s lift threads here. The thread also mentions rough country shocks so I’m assuming longer shocks were necessary. Doesn’t say what shocks but I’m guessing he deleted the Z55 suspension setup with the rough country shocks.

So quite a bit more in depth since leveling keys alone won’t lift the truck enough to fit that big of a tire on stock suspension. To also add to the info in this thread the factory does setup a mild rake to the suspension. At least with the GMT800s they were definitely not level out of the factory. The front is set a tad bit lower than the rear, from what I understand to help with aerodynamics and fuel consumption. I can say for certain this is how my truck was setup on stock suspension.

The leveling keys will lift the front of the truck a tad bit higher,
I did that to my 2006 Denali xl. Not sure what brand keys were used but it brought up enough to fit a 275/65 Michelin LTX A/T2 tire on my truck a couple years ago. Running a different tire setup now but still have the leveling keys.
Thank you for your reply.

Do you happen to have any pictures of your setup with the Michelins, and now ? I’m curious to see. So all you did was the keys ? Did that affect anything ? And you didn’t do anything to the rear suspension ?
 

Forum statistics

Threads
128,791
Posts
1,805,520
Members
91,774
Latest member
jkavros
Top