Lift/Level with just Coil spacers?

Black Front 3.5" Rear 2" Lift Kit _ Ram 1500 09+ 4WD _ Free Shipping

I don't drive off-road much besides a logging road to get to my tree-stand 10ish times a year. What are the negatives or dangers I need to look at before installing something like this? I don't see any other kits to achieve this size lift / level. I also cannot spend 1000$ on something like this. Whats everyone doing?

You don't want to lift the front end of a Ram 1500 more than 2.5" (2.8" with Bilsteins) without doing a full lift kit that will lower your front diff, A-arms, etc. Doing so will put your CV shaft and A-arm angles too steep which will likely give you issues getting the truck aligned and with give you vibration issues in 4wd and likely break your CV shafts if you ever put them to good use.
Not to mention that those spacers will pop your upper ball joints out of the stock A-arms.

If you want to lift the front end without doing a full lift kit then Bilsteins at 2.8" are the way to go. If needed you can easily throw a rear coil spacer in there as well to gain some extra height. Take a look at the Guide to Leveling linked in my signature for more information.

brandonjansen said:

You don't want to lift the front end of a Ram 1500 more than 2.5" (2.8" with Bilsteins) without doing a full lift kit that will lower your front diff, A-arms, etc. Doing so will put your CV shaft and A-arm angles too steep which will likely give you issues getting the truck aligned and with give you vibration issues in 4wd and likely break your CV shafts if you ever put them to good use.
Not to mention that those spacers will pop your upper ball joints out of the stock A-arms.

If you want to lift the front end without doing a full lift kit then Bilsteins at 2.8" are the way to go. If needed you can easily throw a rear coil spacer in there as well to gain some extra height. Take a look at the Guide to Leveling linked in my signature for more information.

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Your suggested Bilsteins do not give me the ending result I'm looking for. I'm looking for a 3.5" front, 2" rear. Is there any other way to achieve this without a "full lift kit"?

theres a sticky at the top of this section of the forum with all the answers your looking for. that kit you posted is junk.

mpicc84 said:

Your suggested Bilsteins do not give me the ending result I'm looking for. I'm looking for a 3.5" front, 2" rear. Is there any other way to achieve this without a "full lift kit"?

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no.

DannyMK2 said:

theres a sticky at the top of this section of the forum with all the answers your looking for. that kit you posted is junk.

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It is 80$, its obviously junk lol

mpicc84 said:

It is 80$, its obviously junk lol

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then why post it? theres a reason no reputable company offers a 3.5" leveling kit for these trucks.

DannyMK2 said:

then why post it? theres a reason no reputable company offers a 3.5" leveling kit for these trucks.

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Because I do not know this.... Why don't they? I don't know this information. I also did not look at the thread you guys mentioned because it is called a "Leveling guide" which is not, in essences what I'm looking for. Knowing everyone here uses Bilstein's, knowing they max a 2.8" and knowing I want to go 3.5", I did not even think that would have answers for me.

After reviewing that post, it still had no answers for me really...

2.8" is the max you can go before you have issues. past that your not going to be able to align the truck within spec, you would be stressing the ball joints, and your likely to run into issues with using 4wd. hence why the biggest spacer youll find is 2.5", or 2.8" for bilsteins. 2" in the rear is pushing it as well.

you either need a combo level kit and body lift or buy a 4" lift kit.

mpicc84 said:

Your suggested Bilsteins do not give me the ending result I'm looking for. I'm looking for a 3.5" front, 2" rear. Is there any other way to achieve this without a "full lift kit"?

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No. As I posted above that's an option without going to a full lift kit. Bilsteins at 2.8" are the highest you can go without going to a full lift kit. If you want that much lift you'll need to look at a 4" lift kit as DannyMK2, the Guide to Leveling, and a handful of other threads on this forum will tell you.

Can we revist this please? I need to learn abit more here.

It sounds to me like the big issues with this kit is the CV's wearing fast due to their angle, and the ball joints. Are there different style parts I can add-on as I can to correct or mediate these issues? extended CV's or extended ball joints or something like that?

The truth is I cannot afford a 4" suspension lift kit. No way, no how. but I'd like to enjoy the truck the most I can without breaking everything. Help me figure out how to do this the cheap, and okay way. I understand the "Right" way of doing things, but I just cannot do that.

EDIT: Doing some reading on the forums here, people appear to be upgrading to the Zone Offroad UCA's (Way out of my price range) Or Mevotech's. Appears as though the Mevotech's are much stronger then stock, and may be all I really need.
So now, what about the CV's?

As a relatively new guy here without much experience I can also safely say when you try to cut corners to achieve something to save money, your asking for a lot of trouble and a sure fire way to making your truck a yard ornament. I'd say if you can't afford the 4 inch lift and the Blistin shock 2.8 inch won't get you where you want to be, then you really won't want to try to lift it because you won't be able to afford the repair bill to fix your truck after trying to Ghetto lift your truck. Sorry that sounds harsh but I'd say common sense should be your guide in this situation. Leave your truck as is and save up to do it right. You'll thank everyone later for steering you right.


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Hemiluv said:

As a relatively new guy here without much experience I can also safely say when you try to cut corners to achieve something to save money, your asking for a lot of trouble and a sure fire way to making your truck a yard ornament. I'd say if you can't afford the 4 inch lift and the Blistin shock 2.8 inch won't get you where you want to be, then you really won't want to try to lift it because you won't be able to afford the repair bill to fix your truck after trying to Ghetto lift your truck. Sorry that sounds harsh but I'd say common sense should be your guide in this situation. Leave your truck as is and save up to do it right. You'll thank everyone later for steering you right.


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I already thank you all for trying to steer me the right way. It is... well the right thing to do. And I'm not tying to do the "Wrong way" or a "Ghetto Lift", I'm trying to find a cheaper solution to this issue.

Mentioning Bilstein's. The "MegaThread" states something along the lines of "no no no no no no no no no no no no no" to adding coil spacers to a level w/ bilstein's. Why is this, and what can be added / changed to alter these negative effects causing people to shy away from this as well? Or is it the exact situation as using just big coil spacers?

If you want for now you can do the Bilsteins, and level it. Or Maxtrac has a 4.5" /1.5" lift which has a new spindle.

Do the bilsteins and a 1.5" body lift and you'll achieve the height you want and your vehicle will be safe and not tearing parts up by the ghetto lift.

blackbeautyhemi said:

Do the bilsteins and a 1.5" body lift and you'll achieve the height you want and your vehicle will be safe and not tearing parts up by the ghetto lift.

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This is an idea... I'm abit worried about the appearence of the hitch slot on a body lift though, It may not be a big deal with only a 1.5" body lift.... hm....

GreyGoose: Can you link me to this kit? I'm struggling to find it on their website here... Everything looks to be 2WD stuff

Again, thank you all for giving me the time here...

The CV shafts and ball joints are not the only issue with this kit. It's the entire geometry of the front suspension. It will ride terribly because of the extreme angle of the A-arms, and an alignment probably won't be able to be completed properly as everything will be too far out of spec along with the issues mentioned above. At the end of the day it would cost you far more money to try to "make" this kit work then it would to just buy a 4" lift. It's always cheaper to buy something that's mass produced than it is to try to custom piece that together.
Buying new upper A-arms, differential drop brackets, steering knuckles, etc. (all the components of a lift kit) separately will cost you far more money than buying a box kit.

As you've stated, a 4" lift isn't within your budget so the option you should be looking at is Bilstein 5100 adjustable front struts and set them to 2.8". If you want to go higher than that you can add a body lift as well. But I'll add that a body lift becomes quite expensive if you have to pay someone else to do it as they're quite extensive to install. So then Bilsteins by themselves may be the best way to go or wait and save up until you can afford a full 4" lift kit.

Graygoose said:

If you want for now you can do the Bilsteins, and level it. Or Maxtrac has a 4.5" /1.5" lift which has a new spindle.

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A Maxtrack lift isn't applicable for a 4wd Ram; they only make products for 2wd's.

I do all my own major work, I let people do oil changes and tires, but I won't let anyone do a lift kit on my truck...

So I'm looking at under 500$ for the look I want with Bilstein's (~3-350) and say a... Zone Offroad 1.5" body lift (150$ ish).

Still half the price of a full 4" lift kit... that makes me abit happier.

That's definitely do-able then if you complete the work yourself. Given your budget I think that is the best option for you as well.

If you want a quote for the Bilsteins and 1.5" Zone body lift together shoot me an email at [email protected] and we'll see what we can do for you on a package deal.

doh, sorry, wasn't paying attention to 4x4.