How much lift should I go with?
 

I've got a stock 1995 Chevy 4-door 4x4 Blazer and just moved to Colorado. I want to start doing some of the trails out here and slowly build the thing up properly as I become more comfortable with off-roading.

I would eventually like to hit trails about as rocky as this: (skip to 10s)

and about the worst rock climbing I'd like to knowingly get into is something like this: (skip to 5:17)

I've been looking at 5" BDS suspension lift kit with a 3" body lift kit. Most of this work would take place over the next couple years.

If my end goal is to have a Blazer capable of running trails like the ones show in the first few seconds of both those videos would that kind of lift along with the other necessities that comes along with lifting a vehicle be overkill/underkill/about right?

If your not gonna do something like https://blazerforum.com/forum/builds...r-build-66048/ , maybe you should buy a jeep.

I mean that's actually what I'd love to wind up with in a few years and that's pretty much the thread that made me really fall in love with my Blazer.

Well I was going to point you towards my build specifically the SFA part but 10-78 beat me to it lol! The BDS kit is nice but wouldn't serve you well for what you want to do. You will gain a bit of height but no strength anywhere in your driveline. I have a friend and member here okiedoak that has the BDS kit and hasn't had issues that I'm aware of but I don't know how much time he's spent offroad with it. A body lift will only make room for larger tires but without upgrading your driveline bigger tires are just going to start breaking things. A few people have had luck running 33-35s and not breaking axles so I'm not saying it can't be done but if your spending that kind of money why not just get it right the first time. If your patient and persistent you can do a SAS for the same or even less than an ifs lift and will be much more capable than you would need. If fab and welding is a no go for you look into the ORD kit that makes a SAS 100% bolt on. To give you an idea of height and clearance I have a full 24" of belly clearance from frame to ground which is more than most jeeps running 35-37" tires. If you have any questions please feel free to ask and I'll help in any way I can as will many of the much more knowledgable than me minds around the forum:)

body lift, slight crank & Shackles and some trimming running 33's and you could do everything in those videos once you get some offroading experience.


or if you do the bds lift, don't bother with any body lift and run 33's and you'll be good too.


In my experience having a good locker and good tires makes more of a difference than lift.


Upgrade your rear axle to a ZR2 one, get a good locker for it then start thinking about lift and bigger tires.

Stick with the advice above about doing it right the first time. Doing stuff twice is expensive...much more than what you thought was the first time.

I'd much rather spend more time/money doing things right the first time compared to coming back in a year or two to redo/replace something. If a SAS is going to be better than a suspension lift although probably pretty over my head right now I'd rather spend the extra time researching and making myself comfortable with being able to pull that off.

^i don't think you could take a better approach that that!^. I spent a solid year in the research stage of my SAS.

So for a start would it be worthwhile to throw on some rear lift shackles and do a t-bar crank, a body lift and break out the sawzall to fit some 33's (probably 31's...) pretty much like Jamaroon said? Also, would or should I need to do new torsion keys? I don't have the Blazer with me right now and haven't looked but I highly doubt they've been cranked at all so I'd imagine there would be room to crank.

Then later on down the road I can worry about doing a SAS without having hacked up the Blazer too much already.

Just a heads up, I put lift shackles on my blazer and they were a pain in the butt to get the old shackles out. They were all kinds of seized up. Have some sort of torch handy when you go to replace them.