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Looking for a leveling kit (maybe?)

9K views 82 replies 13 participants last post by  countryboyloaded 
#1 ·
So I just got a 2013 Ram 1500 Tradesman/Express 4x4 crew cab (5'7" bed) and I LOVE it. Holy crap, I drove it about 100 feet before I knew it was mine...seriously and upgrading from a 2003 Dakota 4x4 it's a LOT bigger too. (Love that as well).

The only thing I've noticed about it is that the front end clearance is about 8.5"... The big thing is that stupid air dam they stick under the front bumper, I know it helps with fuel economy and such but I've read somewhere that it also helps a good deal with truck stability.

Has anyone just straight up removed the air dam? I'm kind of tempted to...I occasionally have to visit construction sites for work, and while I try to avoid doing stupid stuff with my truck it's kinda scary to see me clear a curb by less than 2 inches (some curb is 8" so it's even worse).

I'll be honest I'm not crazy about the way the truck LOOKS even with the air dam, I feel like the older models had the air dam too, but it was much smaller...somewhere around 2" instead of 6" and I'd be OK swapping one of those onto my truck if it could be adapted.

The above being said, I'm leaning towards a 2.5" leveling kit for the front that will lift the front even with the rear if I'm not mistaken. I've been told (by the Chrysler salesman that I bought the vehicle from) that most leveling kits do not void the warranty (I'm under the assumption this is correct since it came from the dealer) as long as they are not TOO high, and that whatever mechanic I had do it would be able to tell me if it did. I'm NOT doing it at the dealer as they wanted $800 to do so...within a week of me buying a brand new truck from them...no thanks. I'd do it myself, but I don't really have the tools or access to a shop, I have some of the know-how, but would just as soon have it done at one of the offroad shops in the area. I figure it's gonna run me about ~$350-$400 all said and done.

I have a BUNCH of questions...

Does this change how the vehicle rides significantly? I'd like to hear from someone who has one and didn't have the leveling kit to start.

Does it butcher fuel efficiency? (If I was going for fuel efficient I wouldn't have bought a truck, but if all of a sudden I'm getting 5mpg the wife's gonna kill me).

Is there something other than a leveling kit (cheaper but still reliable) that I can do to increase ground clearance in the front?

If I remove the air dam will that also cause my belt to slip in rain? It appears as though it may cover against water splashing up and under...so I'm not sure.

Was wondering if anyone else had the same problem with the low ground clearance on the 2013 Ram (or any from 2009-2013 really) and what they did about it. I figure this is an offroad topic cause it kinda fits the bill, but I'm also gonna post something like this in general 2013 Ram forum as well.
 
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#38 ·
Yes, the picture you posted a link to there (same one as above) is when I had the 2.5" level on it. At that time I used the Hell Bent Steel leveling spacer. But I highly recommend going with the Bilsteins. I'm now using them with my lift and love the ride quality.

Oops accidently posted on your tire page lol, but yeah, looks great with even just the 2.5" level on front.

You answered my question as I was typing!

Did you end up going with 2.8" right off the bat for yours?

Exactly where am I measuring and what should I be looking for?
As stated above it was a solid 2.5" spacer, not Bilsteins. But the Bilsteins at 2.8" will settle slightly to about 2.6" so essentially the same.

Measure from the ground to the top of each wheel well. You're looking for the difference in height from front to back.
 
#36 ·
Nope, it won't look ridiculous at all. But what you should do before deciding what height to go with is measure your fender heights now. Not all trucks come exactly the same from the factory. Once you find out how much rake you have you can determine what to set the Bilsteins at to sit level. Keep in mind you want to retain at least 0.5" of rake to avoid looking nose high. You'll be setting the Bilsteins at either 2.1" or 2.8"

Definitely go for the full height right off the bat. It will look fine and to lift them later is a bit of a pain. They have to be completely disassembled to change it. The struts have to come out of the truck, spring compressed, top retainer taken off, spring taken off, bottom retainer taken off, and then you can change the height of the snap ring that adjusts the height.

Here's a picture of my truck with just the 2.5" level and the stock 17's with 31" tires:

 
#40 ·
Just a quick note regarding belts. A true good quality rubber belt will not slip when wet, as opposed to the cheaper composite belts. A good test is to pour some water over the belt while the engine is idling, if it squeals like a pig, its not a quality rubber belt.

Good luck on the leveling, I'm going the other way and lowering my rear.

:smiley_thumbs_up:
 
#41 ·
Good to know on the belts.

So measuring from the outside fender to the ground it's 36" in the front and 38.75" in the back, you said I want about 0.5" rake still so I'd want the Bilsteins set to 2.25" then? Or maybe 2.35-2.40 because it will settle?
 
#45 · (Edited)
Oh man, it's on now. Planning on getting the Bilsteins ASAP, will include before and after pics. Note: ASAP means sometime around December...yeah unfortunately I have other stuff to pay for like bills and stuff. I also may pick up a used '09-'13 air dam from the used auto place nearby to I can try to mod it like SFVDOC said rather than just remove it. Will try to include pics of that as well (gonna need a new jigsaw blade as I managed to break my last one helping the missus).

Tires will be a ways out yet, but I think I'll start saving for them and maybe try to find a good deal. Leaning towards a pair of 315/70/17 Nitto Dune Grappler tires like

http://rimzoneonline.com/media/cata...8d27136e95/n/i/nitto_dunegrappler_Full_60.jpg

because I still like the look (I mean, come on it's flames) and obviously 1" spacers. If I can gather the time and tools to do it myself I will post some pics, if not just before and after shots.
 
#46 ·
Sounds good man! I've probably told you before but I don't feel like looking through all the posts again.... Talk to Andrew or Jeremiah at Bully's Performance for all those parts. Just mention that you're a forum member and that I sent you and they'll hook you up with the best pricing on all of it. Shoot them an email at sales@bullysperformance.com
 
#50 ·
thats really cheap.

usually it should take a ~2 hours give or take for a pro shop to install those. and most shops charge ~$80-100 an hour for labor. so that's a steal....


unless they think they are the bees knees and gonna have two guys knock it out, each to a side and do it super fast. haha
 
#51 · (Edited)
No, they were saying it's only $20 a shock if I buy them from the shop...that sounds wrong man, but if they can do it for that I'll be all over it.

I know the place is a good business, they've been in town for as long as I've lived here and you just don't stay in the auto business like that for 14 years doing sub-par work.

Note: I was planning on ordering mine from Bully's.
 
#52 ·
well i see no reason not too. as long as you know they are a reputable shop. i mean in the end it really is an easy job and $50 is all you really should pay. no way Id paid anywhere from $250-400 for them to do that.
 
#54 ·
its less work to install a spacer leveling kit...so probably not. you don't have to disassemble the shock/spring to install the level kit. much easier.

but still that is cheap. interesting.
 
#55 ·
Yeah, I don't know man, the guy at the 4x4 place was gonna call me back on an overall price (if they ordered them there; I don't think the shocks will be cheaper than Bully's TBH) and still hasn't, so maybe he ran into a snag, there anything special about the shocks that I should be telling these guys when I ask them things like this? I mean, I'm saying "they are Bilstein 5100 series adjustable shocks." At Pep-Boys they said it'd be $90 if it was the strut too, but if I'm not mistaken that's not the case with the Bilsteins?

I wish I knew a little bit more about all this stuff, being able to put my actual 2 cents in would be nice, but it's a little out of my league. Best I can do is probably keep my truck running through the zombie apocalypse with duct tape and WD40.
 
#56 ·
Haha, well, so I called back the off road place and said some of the things you were saying, and it finally clicked with the guy that there was more work involved, we're no longer at $25 a shock, it's up to ~3-4 hours which is ~$300. Now things are making more sense.

Still looks pretty good if it's $90 a pop at Pep-Boys. I've had some work done on my old OLD Dakota there, they did pretty good, had a leaking manifold gasket and eventually a cracked manifold, they put two new (well, used but in good shape) ones on for me (figured I might as well do both sides) pretty quick and I drove that truck for a good 50k miles after that with zero problems.

Like I said, it's something I'd love to do myself because I enjoy this kind of stuff, but there's a limit to how long I can spend with my truck apart (I know this would be a Saturday kinda job, but it'd probably take me longer what with screwing things up and all) and there's a limit to my automotive knowledge. I'm probably gonna order the shocks now-ish and wait a bit before I get the install done.

If I have them sitting in the garage I may get adventurous one Saturday and rent me a spring compressor and give it a shot.
 
#57 ·
on a brand new truck, it'd be an easy install. ESP with a buddy. I wouldn't be hesitant to try it. just follow the directions and hit me up for a bunch of how tos
 
#58 ·
I may very well do that, my dad loves tackling this kind of stuff with me, and it's a lot cheaper to just buy the shocks :) The reason we had so much trouble doing things ourselves on my old truck was that it was so rusted, so every bolt we couldn't torch out was break and tap...got real old real fast.

Do you know of any tutorials on YouTube or anything for doing this? It's always easier with a video (for me). This would be a cool one to do myself if I could pull it off.
 
#60 ·
you'd have to look. I just had a few write ups that talk about removing the OEM strut CAP to get the spring seat off (you have to reuse that).

stuff like that, that usually stumps people sometimes. they do have pictures as well.
 
#59 ·
Looks like Kyle has helped you out with most of this stuff.

The $90 a side a Pep-Boys sounds very reasonable to me. IMO it's about an hours worth of work each side so that makes sense. The other thing you need to remember is that you'll need a front end alignment after these are installed. So that cost would be on top of that....

To do the install yourself would not be hard to complete on a Saturday at all. Even if you do mess a few things up and take your time. As Kyle said, with your truck being as new as it is everything should come apart really easy. The worst part of the job is getting the bolt off the top of the stock strut. There's a couple tricks I learned with that one to make it easier 1) Spray it with some penetrating oil and let it sit for a while 2) Don't compress the spring very much when you take it off. The tension from the spring will stop the shock from spinning 3) Use and impact gun to take it off. Other than that it's not too hard of a job at all. Just take your time and make sure you're doing it all properly.

And again, as Kyle said there's tons of us on the board here that have done it so you can always ask anything you're unsure about and will get an answer fairly quick. Or if needed I could write up a fully detailed instructional post on the full install.
 
#61 ·
I'll be honest, and this is kind of a "duh" thing, if the shocks come with any decent set of instructions I'll probably try to do it myself. Not sure why, but it's one of those I never thought they did moments. Makes sense though that it would come with instructions as you said earlier. Looking more and more like something I'm gonna try to do myself.

What should I plan for in terms of an alignment? $50-$100? That's kinda what Google tells me and I'm OK with that.
 
#62 ·
yeah. places like merchants wanted $116 (stupid)

my buddy owns a shop with a brand new machine and they did it for $60 (no discount)

so ya between 50-100 is good. dont pay more than 100
 
#63 ·
The Bilsteins come with instructions on how to assemble them... but nothing on the removal or install of the strut. That is fairly straight forward though. You could even download the instructions off a site like Hell Bent Steel for their spacer install... it would essentially be the same thing.

For an alignment I'd expect to pay around $100, but check out your local shops and see what they quote you. I paid $140 for mine, but that's in Canada and they were the only shop that could do it that day so I had no choice.
 
#66 ·
Sweet. Ya I recommend a friend/your dad. Helps to have an extra pair of hands, plus an extra brain for the moments where you are scratching your head. Plus safety reasons as well. Spring compressors, jacks, jackstands...no joke so an extra person around is a good idea.

And its just like any other install. The first side will take you 1.5 hours. Then the second side you'll get done in 30 minutes. Just how it goes.
 
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