Recommended leveling kits

Hello everyone! I just bought an 03 xtracab and I want to turn this thing into a tank eventually but to start everything in and on it is stock besides my stereo and the light bar I added to the bumper. I wanted to start by leveling the front to sit at the same height as the rear or even sit just a bit higher than the rear. I’m new to the upgrades side of vehicles so I was wondering what would be the best choice for this. Any recommendations or parts I should stay away from?

 

Why not save your money until you can do a proper suspension upgrade?

 

I thought about that, but I think I want to do this first and see if I want to even do a full suspension upgrade

 

Just get some bilstein 5100s and set then on the middle clip in the front.

 

Wouldn’t I still need a level kit if I only replace the strut?

 

Not with the 5100's. The shock (not a strut, btw) is adjustable, so you can lift the front end by moving where the coil spring sits on the shock body.

 

if that’s the case, would I need to get new coil springs as well?

 

New shocks can drive old coils. What coils are you running now and how many miles are on them?

 

I have the original stock coils. I’m at 147K miles

 

Yikes. Yeah you might want to consider waiting a little bit and buying a whole kit.

 

You can use your old coils. I did that several years ago as essentially a bandaid fix for what I assumed were worn out coils. I needed new shocks as they were definitely worn out, but didn't want to go with new coils just yet. I used the adjustable 5100s to lift the front a little bit and used a longer rear shackle to do the same in the back. I ran it this way for ~6 years. I've since upgraded the front to Kings, but still running the rear that way (but will be replacing the leafs very soon).

If you want to get new coils AND give it a bit of a lift, I would go for something like the OME coils (there are a few different ones depending on how much lift and how heavy your front end is). If that's the case, let the coils do the lifting, and leave the 5100's on the bottom ("stock height") setting.

Honestly, though, I'd just do the 5100s on the middle setting. If that still doesn't give you the ride you want, new springs might be warranted, but that would also about double the cost.

 

Great, thank you for your advise