Plz help.

[Family rig]

I'm new here and I've been searching and searching this forum plus Google I can not find any lifts for awd tahoes. I have a 2004 tahoe LT awd. I bought it for my wife 50,000 miles ago. Now she has a 2013 passat tdi. So I'm taking over on the tahoe. It's finally paid off and 100% stock. Going though the lift options I'm struggling to find one that fits with out issues.
Rockymountainsuspension.com

Rough country: Important Notes
Will work with Autotrac. If equipped with factory 17" wheels, then 17" or larger aftermarket wheels must be used. It also says rear lift used blocks. But the picture shows could??? Mine is a coil spring rear suspension

Super lift requires cutting and welding. I don't own a welder.
The bracket lift doesn't fit stabilitrac

Zone doesn't fit awd

Fab tech doesn't fit awd

Sky jacker this is the only kit that seems to fit. Expensive 2149 with the cheapest shock option

I hope I'm over looking something and would like to get pointed in the right direction. I have installed leaf spring lifts on older vehicles but never ifs. I have the tools a space to do the work my self. I live in a small town in montana so there isn't a local shop I can drop it off at and tell them to lift it 6" and pick it up next week. I don't mind spending the money to do it right. So if the cognito,fts or any other would be better for my application I would be interested in them. I've tried to contact different businesses (cpl hrs drive from home) with this question. No answers yet

 

[hoss08]

Your cheapest route (free) would be cranking up the torsion bars. That would give you about 1" to 1.5" of lift in the front. That would level the truck out.

The next route would be a new set of keys and spacers. Ebay has a ton of kits to pick from. They would give you 2'' to 2.5'' of lift up front and up to 3" in the rear. If you go that route you should really get new extended length shocks all the way around. You could just get shock extenders but that really is not a good idea. Being AWD doesn't really matter, your suspension is the same as a selectable 4wd truck so you don't need to worry about fitment issues. Now if you have autoride GMs version of rear air ride then you'll need to make some changes. If that's the case just pull the air ride set up out of the truck and replace it with a static setup, use Tahoe Z71 rear coil springs with your choice of coil spacers and extended length shocks. It would all be a direct bolt on and straight forward. The front would consist of changing out the torsion indexing keys which require you to use a torsion bar unloader. Don't try to use a C-clamp because you don't have the unloader, they are not strong enough and you could potentially kill yourself when it breaks. Those torsion bars have an incredible amount of force stored in them. I've seen a broken torsion bar blow through a floorboard before so that should give you an idea of what kind of energy youll be playing with when you go work on those. With this setup you should be able to run 33s. This setup is also by far the most common and can be done yourself for around $500 not including tires obviously. I would recommend you look for a local mom and pop kind garage to do this for you, its not a super hard job but its definitely not beginner level not to mention potentially dangerous. You can forget about taking it to a dealer, or pepboys ect. because I can pretty much guarantee they wont even consider it.


If you want to go big, like 6" you can make those kits work on your truck but I REALLY suggest you have someone that knows what they are doing do that for you even if you have to drive hours to get it to a shop that would be willing to install one. Plan on spending some big time $ for this by the way.

The final option is a 3" body lift. If you don't have a welder and good metal fabrication skills this one is not a good idea. Odds are the body hardware on your truck is going to be pretty rusty and odds are you"ll break one if not more. I've been there done that and trust me its a huge headache. I am not 100% sure about the Tahoe body lifts but a majority if not all the body lifts I have seen and used requires you to make your own bumper brackets to relocate your bumpers back up to the height of the body. Also be aware you'll have to do things like modify your fuel filler neck and probably a few other things.

One more thing you should address before lifting is your front end. These trucks eat up front end parts and if you have some mileage on your truck and you haven't serviced the front end before odds are it could use a rebuild. Any of these lifts besides the body lift are going to put even more stress on those parts and ware them out faster, so be aware of that. If you do ANYTHING to the torsion bars like crank them up or get new keys get a front end alignment ASAP.

Finally search the forum and do some reading on this stuff, most of it has been answered a million times. The search button will give you a ton more insight on everything about these trucks.