It depends on what you're planning on doing. I lifted my first truck because I thought it'd look cool. The purpose wasn't to go off roading so I bought the cheap Rough Country lift. If I where you, I'd steer clear of Rough Country, or at least throw away all the stuff for the rear end of the lift because it's garbage. I hear a lot of positive feedback from Zone, and of course Sky Jacker if you got deep enough pockets for that.

I'd recommend reading through THIS THREAD to get an idea of what you're getting yourself into.

002 wrote It depends on what you're planning on doing. I lifted my first truck because I thought it'd look cool. The purpose wasn't to go off roading so I bought the cheap Rough Country lift. If I where you, I'd steer clear of Rough Country, or at least throw away all the stuff for the rear end of the lift because it's garbage. I hear a lot of positive feedback from Zone, and of course Sky Jacker if you got deep enough pockets for that.

I'd recommend reading through THIS THREAD to get an idea of what you're getting yourself into.

You have replied to some of my posts and I do appreciate the response. Although after reading the thread you linked.. Have you thought maybe things on your truck wore out quicker because your truck was a 97? When you think about it it doesn't seem like a big difference but thats 7 years between a 97 and 04. I also have an 04 Silverado and I feel like the parts would last longer than the ones on a 97. I'm not trying to deny the facts that lifts cause more problems than stock although maybe yours had more issues because of it being a older.

Naxek wrote

002 wrote It depends on what you're planning on doing. I lifted my first truck because I thought it'd look cool. The purpose wasn't to go off roading so I bought the cheap Rough Country lift. If I where you, I'd steer clear of Rough Country, or at least throw away all the stuff for the rear end of the lift because it's garbage. I hear a lot of positive feedback from Zone, and of course Sky Jacker if you got deep enough pockets for that.

I'd recommend reading through THIS THREAD to get an idea of what you're getting yourself into.

You have replied to some of my posts and I do appreciate the response. Although after reading the thread you linked.. Have you thought maybe things on your truck wore out quicker because your truck was a 97? When you think about it it doesn't seem like a big difference but thats 7 years between a 97 and 04. I also have an 04 Silverado and I feel like the parts would last longer than the ones on a 97. I'm not trying to deny the facts that lifts cause more problems than stock although maybe yours had more issues because of it being a older.

I kinda agree with you because my friend has a 96 Chevy stock and it has a ton of problems compared to my vehicle. And my buddies that have lifts on my year model and newer don't really have that many problems.

Not at all. Lifts and big tires put a lot of tress on components. Specifically wheel bearings, ball joints, and ti-rods. I've replaced both wheel bearings 3 times in the past 2 years. That's a tire issue though. My tires are 10 ply 35" tires so they're pretty heavy. If I went down to a 33 I wouldn't be going through them as much, but when you get a big lift you need big tires and you'll be buying wheel bearings like crazy lol. I've replaced my CV's I don't even know how many times lol, I imagine somewhere around 5 times. Once was my fault having the front end too high, and once was bad parts, but the others where just killed by the lift. Ti-rods I have to replace about ever 6 months, and upper ball joints are about the same. I replaced the lowers twice so I guess you could say once a year.

These are brand new parts going bad, not 19 year old parts. It's just due to the fact that they where designed to work at X angle and now the lift changes that. Also, I'm not using cheap parts, any suspension product like ball joints I always go Moog, and wheel bearings are only Timken wheel bearings.


EDIT:
This is my experience with the cheap lift, probably like what you're going to buy. Unless you're spending 10k+ on say a Kelderman lift where the whole suspension is replaced with lift pieces and air bags, not just the crucial parts to get your truck higher like the cheaper lifts do.

When I did my lift I figured "hey, no body else seems to have a lot of issues". Boy was I wrong lol. These new trucks don't have as much of a problem, but they will. I'd encourage you to look under your truck, specifically the front. Look how everything is held together, you're on an independent front suspension. Those components where built to be riding with a stock tire. My stock (spare) tire weighs 52 lbs. That's with the original factory steel wheel too. My 35's weigh 114 LBS with an alloy wheel. Over double the weight what the factory components where built to handle, they will have problems. What I have found is some places offer a "beefier" what ever (ball joint, CV, what have you) but it's a bunch of garbage that lasts as long as the generic stock part.

Naxek wrote

002 wrote It depends on what you're planning on doing. I lifted my first truck because I thought it'd look cool. The purpose wasn't to go off roading so I bought the cheap Rough Country lift. If I where you, I'd steer clear of Rough Country, or at least throw away all the stuff for the rear end of the lift because it's garbage. I hear a lot of positive feedback from Zone, and of course Sky Jacker if you got deep enough pockets for that.

I'd recommend reading through THIS THREAD to get an idea of what you're getting yourself into.

You have replied to some of my posts and I do appreciate the response. Although after reading the thread you linked.. Have you thought maybe things on your truck wore out quicker because your truck was a 97? When you think about it it doesn't seem like a big difference but thats 7 years between a 97 and 04. I also have an 04 Silverado and I feel like the parts would last longer than the ones on a 97. I'm not trying to deny the facts that lifts cause more problems than stock although maybe yours had more issues because of it being a older.

It can/will make the parts wear out differently. My dad swears by this since it changes the geometry of the vehicle lol

As 002 said, stay away from rough country. It's just simply not a quality product. I had heard good things from zone, buddy has a 05 duramax with a 6" lift and she's bad. As with any lift you should upgrade your shocks, King shocks are recommend.

As for a company I would recommend for a quality lift kit. BDS suspension.

Remember the lift kit itself will be one of the cheaper purchases, i.e. Wheels and tires

Accounting for labor unless you are doing the work yourself. Lifting a truck is a very expensive venture if done right.

Lic wrote As 002 said, stay away from rough country. It's just simply not a quality product. I had heard good things from zone, buddy has a 05 duramax with a 6" lift and she's bad. As with any lift you should upgrade your shocks, King shocks are recommend.

As for a company I would recommend for a quality lift kit. BDS suspension.

Remember the lift kit itself will be one of the cheaper purchases, i.e. Wheels and tires

Accounting for labor unless you are doing the work yourself. Lifting a truck is a very expensive venture if done right.

You always have to replace your shocks when you do a suspension lift lol, but usually the shocks come with the kit. I'd recommend Bilstein 5100 series over king shocks though, my friend runs King shocks and I personally like my Rough country shocks over the King ones.


OP, as far as brand, my top two would be Zone and Skyjacker. BDS has good reviews but they are slowly getting faded out.