5100s Leveling Pictures & Experience

I wanted to create a thread to post my experience 'leveling' my truck with bilsteins and give back a little info I've gathered from all the misc threads. If others want to post their pictures of similar 'stock + bilstein' setups...lets see them!

 

Here is my original set up.

2013 DCSB Trd Sport 4x4

Factory wheels: 17" trd sport wheels
Factory Tires: 265/70 17 Dunlop grandtrek a/t
Factory Suspension: Front Trd Bilsteins and 4 Leaf Pack rear

Leveling Experience:

After countless hours trolling the boards here, I settled on the new tires, wheels, and shocks; this is my entry step as I'm mostly using the truck as a commuter with the occasional weekend trek out in the southern California deserts or mountains.

The truck has a noticeable rake from the factory. Measured from hub centerline to the top of the fender (assuming the fenders are the same height) I got the following:

Front: 20"
Rear: 22"

Bilstein 5100s:

The product: The Bilsteins have a .85", 1.75" and 2.5" setting and are the recommended solution for leveling as it is configured for the best reliability and won't compromise the rest of the suspension performance.

Selecting height: This can be a very subjective topic, some folks definition of 'level' can vary. BUT generally, this is what I heard (please take this with a grain of salt, just my 2 cents)....

If you have the older non TSB 3 leaf pack in the rear - use the .85" setting.

If you DO have the newer TSB 4 leaf pack in the rear - use the 1.75" setting.

Also, if you have added weight in the bed, a cover, rack, storage or if you plan on towing, this can effect what setting to use up front. Again, just my 2 cents, you have to do you're hw....

My setting: I chose to do the 1.75" setting since I have the 4 leaf pack and no extra weight in the bed.

Supplier: I purchased the shocks through downsouthmotorsport, they we're very responsive and it ship within days. Also had the best price I could find.

Tires:

Without getting into tire reviews, the goal for my truck was to get a slightly larger, more aggressive tire that would work with the Bilsteins.

Size: Seems like the unanimous vote for largest tire size without a lift is 265/70r17...at least for 17" wheels.

Tires: pick your flavor!

My choice: 265/70r17 Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs Load Range C, Black Sidewalls

Wheels:

Again, pick your flavor...My choice was Stealth Custom Series, Stealth 6 Matte Gunmetal.

Size: 17"x8.5"

Backspacing: 4.3"

Excellent wheels, excellent company and customer service, would highly recommend.

RESULTS:

In my opinion the truck is freaking level. Others may argue but I everything turned out exactly how I had envisioned. Overall its not a dramatic mechanical change but if you're like me...the devil is in the details.

Level: The truck now measures level from hub to fender, both front and back. Depending on the ground and horizon sometimes it looks higher and sometimes lower in front; all depends on the environment, but on average it appears level, and others who see it for the first time see it as level.

Front: 22" (again, this is with the 1.75" setting, so I may have gotten actually 2" out of it)
Rear: 22"

Tire Clearance: The duratracs are wider at the shoulder so I did have to remove the front mud flaps. It rubbed pretty bad when cranked full, but with some light trimming I could put them back on. Once I removed them there is no rubbing at all.

Wheels: The wheels are designed to bring the tire out just slightly and give the truck a nice wide stance...they've done a good job.

In the end each case is unique but hopefully some of you can find this helpful.

 

Thank you for this. I just wanted to level out my truck for now and this is exactly what I wanted to see.

 

Nice. Did you replace the rear shocks?

 

Just a thought.............

Measuring from hub center to wheel well lip (straight up) is a good reference to check for before and after changes. It discounts any wheel/tire diameter changes, thus only making reference to the lift or lowering, between body and hub, for a given axle.

If you really want to check level, use a level on the frame while parked on a known level surface.

If the purpose of the lift is to gain terrain clearance, then it's better to measure from another reference point, like frame to ground. Of course that does include other changes like wheel/tire. But if you are going for terrain clearance, that is part of the equation. Used a marked point at the front behind the tire and the rear in front of the tire.

Using this method will allow a lift to be accomplished while retaining rake as well, which can be desirable. Rake compensates for load, and may well have a handling impact as well. I had a sports car that had about a 1/2" factory rake. When lowering it with adjustable competition suspension I made it level. And the handling was better, but not what was expected. I put the rake back into play, and boom, I was back in the game with a great handler.

Yea, these aren't sports cars. But most of them are more on the street more than in the woods, so handling really shouldn't be ignored either.

 

Kept the rear shocks stock...may put the bilsteins on the rear eventually.

 

Thank you.

 

Love all the pics, definitely gives a good idea of what someone who's thinking of going with Bilstein, is going to look like. To confirm all you did was change the front shocks?

 

Looks good. Check your numbers again in six months and let us know where it settles to.
AE

 

Looks good OP; clean truck. I have a question on the 5100s:

Do the higher settings (1.75" / 2.5") reduce the overall travel of the shock?

 

Overall, no. They only reduce down travel. The overall travel remains the same, although you're not going to be seeing the fully compressed part of that travel very much and if you do it's not going to be pleasant.

 

Your truck looks great. I'm considering doing the same thing. So you kept you factory springs? Now that you've driven it for a while do you think the Bilstein's work well with the factory coil springs? Thanks.

 

Like the OP I Just added 5100's set at 1.75 with duratracs 265-70-17 on ballistic 17-9" on my 2014 sport 4x4 leveled it perfect as far as I'm concerned as I had a good rub before the instal. rubs gone now and love the look. Ride is comparable to stock. Stock coils no change to the rear.

 

Nice stance!
Did you keep stock springs in the front?
Thanks.

 

Very nice truck you have there.


Be Safe...


Dan

 

Great post OP, truck looks bitchin!