If you've never bought a lift kit before the process can be pretty intimidating. There are just so many options between lift kits, shock choices. "Do I need the carrier bearing drop bracket? Why are all these people trying to contact me about my car's extended warranty and what the heck is a pitman arm?" Well, good news. We got you. And in this blog, we're going to be helping you out just a little bit and going over some of the rookie mistakes you can make when buying your lift kit.
We know a thing or two about lift kits because we've seen a thing or two with lift kits. There's over 8,300 different suspension kits and components on our website. So we know it can be a bit daunting when you're shopping, but obviously you've also stumbled upon our videos so you can see that we'll help you make the best choice. Now we've got pretty much everything from leveling kits all the way up to full on coil over conversion kits, which of course you can find on our website at autocraze.com.au
But anyway, one of the biggest rookie mistakes that we see when it comes to buying your very first lift kit is cheaping out on a few components. It's easy to hit up the old eBay, grab yourself a $50 leveling kit, but trust me when I say, "It's not worth it." Sure you can save some money by being a little frugal with your lift. But typically speaking when it comes to suspension components, you get what you pay for. Now more affordable lift kits are going to be made with lighter duty materials and oftentimes just machine with larger tolerances, meaning that your truck could have a bit more play in the suspension and you could sacrifice some ride quality.
Additionally, suppose you're just installing something like leveling keys without touching your control arms or ball joints. In that case, you could be in for a bad time as your suspension, geometry may change, which leads to quicker wear on things like ball joints, which might already be worn, wheel bearings and more front end components. On the other end of the spectrum here, another thing that many of us wish we would've known before buying our first kit is that you don't necessarily need every single option for your truck if you're just looking to build a nice daily driver.
If you're building a daily driver, oftentimes you can get away without committing to every single option available to you. Now, with that being said, one of the best bangs for your buck lift companies in terms of value right now is going to be Tough Dog. If you're trying to hold onto your cash, then it's going to be a great option that you can scoop up now and always piece together the upgrades that you want later down the road, like control arms or shock upgrades.
One of the biggest things I wish I could tell every single person before they buy their first lift kit through us is that buying a lift kit won't fix any underlying issues that you're currently facing with your truck suspension. So if you have a worn ball joint and it's chewing through tires left and right, getting a lift kit is not going to fix that problem. Okay? Lift kits are engineered and designed to lift your truck, and because of this, they aren't going to replace your factory components that they assume are good. In fact, if you have ball joints, tie rods, or even wheel bearings that are starting to show signs of wear, it's safe to assume that installing your lift kit will actually speed up that wear process because with a lift kit comes bigger wheels and tires, and that puts additional stress on your truck's factory suspension components.
Don't panic though, because when you're installing a lift kit, you're going to have a bunch of this stuff already out of the truck. And if you're installing anything more than a leveling kit, the chances are, you're already going to have the knuckle off of the truck since you're probably replacing it with a lift knuckle. And if that's the case, now is a great time to take a look at those ball joints. And if they show any signs of wear to spend the extra couple hundred bucks, get them replaced. Not only is this going to be pretty simple since you have everything else out of the way, but it's also going to save you time and money by doing it now versus later down the road and having to take your whole truck apart again and pay labour again.
CALL 1800 099 634 TO ORDER YOUR LIFT KIT TODAY!