I want to lift my 03 4dr 4x4 blazer but honestly have no idea where to start... I don't want a ridiculous 7 or 8 inch lift more like 2 or maybe 2.5... I want to lift the front and back (none of that ugly squatting crap)... I am not sure where to begin or what I need... Which would be better a lift or leveling kit?

Disclaimer... If you like the squatting then that is your preference and it isn't my intention to offend anyone...

thank you...

 

Me personally I would go with the 2.5 rough country lift kit. If you want to just level it, christine_208 did a mild front end lift to level it out with just the control arms and torsion adjustment I believe.

 

One more thing... How hard is it to do a lift? As in what kind of tools or any specialty tools do i need?

 

Sawsall or grinder, impact would be really useful but not necessarily needed to do it... I did mine with hand tools and jack stands in my driveway.

I have before and after pictures in my thread of me doing mine... mine has the "drag car look" at the moment. I also have an add a leaf kit that give me another 2"-3" on the rear above the lift kit. I plan on removing the longer shackles and installing stock shackles to level it back out.

if you get the lift kit from rough country, it comes with all parts needed.

It took me a weekend to install by myself.

 

Just to be clear, do you want a suspension lift or a body lift?

As DonL noted, I did do a suspension lift using the Rough Country upper control arms, a pair a longer rear shackles, and a torsion bar lift. I then added 30x9.5R15 tires. This is an "in-between" lift; not the full 2.5" lift the Rough Country kit would have you do that requires modification of the front axle attachments and a bit better than relying on the stock upper control arms that would put the upper ball joints at a poor angle when lifted. With the RC UCAs, the angle for the upper ball joints is better. I went with these upper control arms because they did not require any fabrication to the truck frame and they came with ball joints for the 1/2 chevy trucks.

Many will go with a bit larger tire, 31x10.5R15s but they were test fit to my truck and were just wide enough that they would rub the frame when the steering was full over. Also some bending of the inner fender well lip is often necessary.

Looking at my truck, a person would likely not notice I did a suspension lift but I did not do it for looks but rather because I wanted a bit more peace of mind when I was off-pavement. From what I've seen, going with the 31's really seems to make a visual difference. I might go with the larger tires when these need to be replaced. We'll see.

I also got longer shocks for the front as one of the old ones was in need of replacement. I think I could have used the originals though. Because of a special OE rear suspension (see my thread), I decided to go with shock spacers instead of longer shocks in the back. Again, I might have been able to go with the old shocks but the spacers were not that expensive.

Everything was bolt-on but I did have a hell of a time getting the rear shackle bolts out. It took lots of penetrant and time and twisting of the bolts back and forth with the wrench to work them loose, and I live in an area that hardly uses any salt at all! (Oh yeah, it took a good amount of swearing too. LOL)

Finally, I'm pretty sure that the 30x9.5R15 tire won't fit under the back bumper where the stock tire would go. So if you need your spare and it is stored there, you will ideally have to put it on the front and drive slow so to minimize and strain of the driveline components. I've purchased a rear tire carrier that would eliminate this as an issue although getting it was more about having easier access to my spare than any worries about the size difference.

Here's my original post on my lift. https://blazerforum.com/forum/builds...on-lift-95744/

Hope this helps.

 

I guess the next question i have is should i do a body or suspension lift... What is the differences? As in what would handle better and what would be better for towing... I read somewhere that a leveling kit is better for towing but as i said I'm not too sure what it is... I have mechanical knowledge but it is mostly limited to engine and electrical... I'm ignorant when it comes to body but I can take any engine apart and put it back together... Well except for newer vehicles where everything is ran by computer... Honestly it will be a while before I'll have the money to do it but i want to get all the info before I do... Thanks for all your help and all to come...

 

This is my understanding:
A body lift kit, raises the body relative to the frame by the installation of larger spacers between the frame and the underside of the body. The reason to do this is to increase clearance of fender well that will allow the installation of larger tires which can add a little bit to the clearance of the undercarriage. This also raises the driver up a bit more which could help with a better view of the trail but it also raises the center of mass of the vehicle a bit. But, most of the time when I hear about body lifts, it is done for looks.

A suspension lift reconfigures the suspension components so that there is more clearance under the vehicle and also to allow larger tires to be installed which add to the clearance of the undercarriage. With larger shackles and a lifted front axle achieved by a torsion bar adjustment, there is more clearance under the body, frame and front axle. At the rear axle, the only extra clearance is from the larger tires.

As for towing, I don't think either of these is considered good or bad or necessarily helpful. If you want to be nit-picky, I could see arguing that raising the center of mass the the vehicle, which either approach would do, would not help and perhaps add a bit more instability than one would want.

A "leveling" kit might be what you need since your primary concern seems to be about towing. I would recommend not towing anything much larger than about half of the curb weight of the truck, i.e. ~2,250 lbs = (4,500 lbs)/2. (And if you do, never use overdrive/4th and be sure to install a extra transmission cooler.) At that total trailer weight, the tongue weight applied at the ball will be about 10% of that, or about 225 lbs. This is not all that much extra weight unless you are also packing the cargo area with lots of heavy stuff. If that later situation is the case, then perhaps a set of helper springs might be in order.

 

Thanks I now have a pretty good idea... I don't plan on towing anything heavy just want to tow a trailer for stuff I'd regularly would use a pickup bed for... It would be primarily for looks and slightly bigger tires... Does anyone know which is easiest to install?

 

Of the suspension lift options, the easiest is to do what I did. If you use the 2.5" Rough Country suspension lift, you have to drop the front axle, cut off a mounting tab and then bolt on a new longer mounting tab.

I don't know about the relative difficulty of doing the body lift.

[edit] If you don't add the new upper control arms, the upper ball joints will likely wear out faster.

 

The info was very helpful... I'm going to look more into it from a price and longevity... I noticed the cheapest way to lift it will result in replacing several components do to wear... I might look into a body lift but again still a ways off... Thanks...