For those considering lowering struts, what you need to know

[Sweet_N_Low]

I lowered my Avalanche 2/4 as alot of members on here have. I was encouraged and it was HIGHLY recommended (by a well known vendor here)that I use the Belltech lowering struts up front. I asked all the standard questions, why struts vs spindles? OE struts are good for 30,0000, I was at 29000. Any geometry changes or issues? Nope! Just changing struts.

********!! I have put 3500 miles on this truck since I lowered it and accidently parked my truck with the front tires close to full lock right. Good F'in thing I did. The inside of both front tires is eaten to the warning strings. These wheels and tires have a total of 8000 miles on them and now the front tires are trashed. I took the truck to shop this morning and the lowering struts threw the camber out to the point they can't adjust enough to align, need a camber kit.

I know alot of people think highly of this vendor and I have high praises for his help also but warning......

DON'T RELY ON ONE PERSONS ADVISE

Ask others opinions and experiences. This isn't the first thread on here regarding this vendor holding out relevant information regarding lowering kits. Since you are reading this, if you lower the rear of your truck 4" you HAVE to do the free travel mod or you will be very unhappy(another bit of info left out by this vendor)

Damn am I pissed!!!

 

[THE YETI]

You lowered it without aligning it afterwards? Or am I missing something?

 

[sumo]

There is no way of camber of staying genomically true without a camber kit. Since the struts are shorter, it going to make the tires lean on the inside edge. Just think of it like a old bookcase. As the shelf bends in the middle because of the weight., the sides start to lean in. More at the top. Same idea of your tires. I suggest you get a camber kit if they make one or remove and sell it and get spindles

 

[NORCAL SS]

I lowered my Avalanche 2/4 as alot of members on here have. I was encouraged and it was HIGHLY recommended (by a well known vendor here)that I use the Belltech lowering struts up front. I asked all the standard questions, why struts vs spindles? OE struts are good for 30,0000, I was at 29000. Any geometry changes or issues? Nope! Just changing struts.

********!! I have put 3500 miles on this truck since I lowered it and accidently parked my truck with the front tires close to full lock right. Good F'in thing I did. The inside of both front tires is eaten to the warning strings. These wheels and tires have a total of 8000 miles on them and now the front tires are trashed. I took the truck to shop this morning and the lowering struts threw the camber out to the point they can't adjust enough to align, need a camber kit.

I know alot of people think highly of this vendor and I have high praises for his help also but warning......

DON'T RELY ON ONE PERSONS ADVISE

Ask others opinions and experiences. This isn't the first thread on here regarding this vendor holding out relevant information regarding lowering kits. Since you are reading this, if you lower the rear of your truck 4" you HAVE to do the free travel mod or you will be very unhappy(another bit of info left out by this vendor)

Damn am I pissed!!!

hold on ive used these many times and posted members truck and with 3500 miles there is no metal showing granted IF YOU DID ALIGNMENT. Anytime you do spindles/springs any front end lowering you need to align it. I had a customer that went thru front set of tires in 1200 miles after he put on the belltech spindles becuase he never aligned it.

Ss for free travel mod whenever I do 4 or more inches i always do it and said that here on the site many times but I will make sure to bring that up to the customers because I tell them take the truck for a ride if you dont like the ride then cut them off. Some people have done 4 inches and said its fine and other said ill drive it at 4 if i dont like it then ill cut the brackets off.

If you did a alignment at the shop and they said it went into spec there is NO WAY it should have gone out in 3500 miles. Also if your tires are worn out from camber and then they try to get it to align it with used trucks on the tires it throws it off even more. No camber kit is needed with the struts set at 2 inches. Just like springs at 2 inches still works.

I'm here 24/7 if you would have called me I could have gone over this thru the phone with you instead of not even giving me a chance to speak to you and throwing me under the bus. I've done more than enough of these truck to answer all the questions with you. Shoot me the name of the shop that did the original alignment on the truck I'd like to talk to them.

 

[soulsea]

I don't have any experience with this kit, but I'm surprised you didn't get the truck aligned right after you first installed it SnL. The day I picked up my truck after installing the more basic bt 2/3-4 kit I didn't have time to get it aligned ... in the two days that passed until I did the truck's steering was all over the place almost to the point of undrivable, it was certainly noticeable that it needed alignment.

Tbh, you should have been told by Tony that you would need a camber kit anyway, but at least if you had aligned as soon as you installed the lowering kit, the shop would have told you as much and it would have saved you the cost of two new tires.

 

[NORCAL SS]

I don't have any experience with this kit, but I'm surprised you didn't get the truck aligned right after you first installed it SnL. The day I picked up my truck after installing the more basic bt 2/3-4 kit I didn't have time to get it aligned ... in the two days that passed until I did the truck's steering was all over the place almost to the point of undrivable, it was certainly noticeable that it needed alignment.

Tbh, you should have been told by Tony that you would need a camber kit anyway, but at least if you had aligned as soon as you installed the lowering kit, the shop would have told you as much and it would have saved you the cost of two new tires.

with the struts set at 2 inches ive never needed a camber kit. When he first put the kit on and went to get it aligned if it was off they should have told him which would be a first. Right now with bald tires and trying to get it to align there is no way it will because tires are gone.

I posted a black truck not to long ago and did the same set up NO PROBLEMS at all at 2 inch level as others. If he needed a camber kit I would have told him.

When he first put the kit on going to the alignment shop if it was off like hes saying they are telling him now why did they align it and tell him its fine?? in 3500 miles tires gone I don't think he aligned it when the kit was put in and in turn killing the tires.

My number is here listed feel free to call me so we can go over this and get to the bottom.

 

[soulsea]

I see, so the difference in the inner tire wear is the reason he can't get it aligned now?
Can that little bit of tire wear make that much of a difference that the truck can be aligned when the tires are worn evenly but can't if they're worn on the inside?

 

[NORCAL SS]

I see, so the difference in the inner tire wear is the reason he can't get it aligned now?
Can that little bit of tire wear make that much of a difference that the truck can be aligned when the tires are worn evenly but can't if they're worn on the inside?

yes with inner tires gone it throws it off so much more it won't align because tire is not true. Its so worn on one side cambers even more. On all the 07 up trucks with 2 inch drop springs or struts at 2 inches ive never had one not align so hearing this is a first so I'm interested in getting the entire story down. I drop these trucks all the time I don't just sell parts so hearing after over 5 years of selling the drop struts for the 07 up trucks that one set at 2 inches doesn't align or has issues I want to find out the entire story.

also ive had shops say oh it cant align to sell a customer a camber kit to get more money then after I called them and talked to them suddenly it aligns fine.

 

[soulsea]

I see ... well it does make sense ...

I don't know what is the difference in camber effect between dropping the front 2 inches with spindles and doing it with lowering struts, but my own experience (for what it is worth) is that my truck aligned fine with the 2" spindles and evenly worn 295/35/24 tires.

 

[NORCAL SS]

I see ... well it does make sense ...

I don't know what is the difference in camber effect between dropping the front 2 inches with spindles and doing it with lowering struts, but my own experience (for what it is worth) is that my truck aligned fine with the 2" spindles and evenly worn 295/35/24 tires.

and in my case over 5 plus years drop struts and belltech spindles aligned perfectly fine at the 2 inch level.

I want to make this situation right and there is no way I can unless I know how the truck aligned when he first installed the kit and brought it to them. I have no camber numbers to go off of. How much was it off by when the tires were good?

I sent a pm to him also and put my number there. I'm trying to resolve this asap.