Best way to measure lift height

What is the best way to measure lift height on our trucks? At which points do you measure?

 

From the center of the hub to the bottom of the fender for suspension lift.

From the ground to the bottom of the fender for tire and suspension total lift.

From the ground to same point the lowest object object for over all ground clearance.

Making sure you use the same spots for before and after measurements gives yo the best info.

 

Got it thanks! I got 24" from hub to fender. Should've measured before doing the lift. Do you happen to know what the specs are on stock suspension w/ stock wheels?

 

Was it 24 inches on all four tires??

 

I only measured the drivers side. Tomorrow I'm swapping out my RevTek spacer lift for Bilies and OME's.

 

::nods:: I got about 19-20 inches in front and about 22 in the rear pre lift...

 

This is a bad way to measure. Your bodywork (fender) can be off by as much as 1”.
Best bet is your axle, where the spring mounts, to the bottom of the frame.

 

Eric at Archive Garage always recommends measuring like this for the rear, so consider this your starting point:

taking a measurement to get your actual ride height, measure from the top of the axle tube up to the bottom of frame rails, stock is 8.25"​

 

So, that's a body lift?

 

Not sure if that tire will rub... but I probably will...

 

I prefer the method of measuring from the shock's top hat to the lower bolt. This measurement would be consistent time and time again.

 

This is helpful for comparing one setup to another for yourself but it doesn't actually give you the amount of lift relative to what people talk about 99% of the time. 1" of lift at the coilover is roughly 2" of actual lift if measuring the hub center vs body. Same way that a 1" spacer will give you 2" of lift.

 

With a tape measure.

 

That's 100% of my point. If you're measuring lift at all, it's typically to compare one set up to another. Beyond that, just use your eyes and determine what "lift" looks good. The only way my measurement wouldn't be an accurate comparison between trucks, is if one of the trucks is LT, or running a DB.

 

It's just completely useless for most people when they're looking online at pics and buying products - 100% of which will reference "lift" as based on hub center vs body. Once you're concerned with only your truck, tweaking your setup, sure use that method. But if you want to compare to anyone and everyone else then you'll want to stick with the actual lift amount rather than the change in coilover length. I personally don't have any trouble measuring hub to fender, sure, there's a little variation from person to person, but it's pretty minor. And that 1" difference someone else mentioned is phooey. The only time one person's fender is gonna be 1" different from someone elses s if it's an aftermarket flare or the flares were cut.

 

I've seen people measure hub to center and get measurements that were 1/2 inch off because their eyecrometer wasn't calibrated and couldn't pick out the center of the hub.

 

I’ve been off 1/2” when measuring in low light.

 

Yup, it's definitely not an exact science. Personally, I find it's easiest to first measure your ground to hub center and record that measurement. Then, take all your other measurements from ground to fender and subtract the ground to hub measurement. Takes a little variance out of the measurements and means you can measure and remeasure faster.
(Note that, depending on your tires and tire pressures you may have different ground to hub measurements front and rear.)

 

I thought i had a 6" lift until i figured out the measuring tape i used came out of my tackle box.