Daystar leveling kit is an inexpensive and easy way to run taller tires under late-model GM 1500s
Plus-sizing, going to a 1″- to 2″ larger diameter tire, is a common occurrence on 1/2-ton pickups used around road construction where the extra ground clearance is a nice benefit.
But doing so can create clearance issues at the back of the truck’s front fender wells.
One of the simplest, least expensive, and most practical suspension upgrades to increase clearance for taller treads is to install a leveling kit to raise the front suspension up a couple inches.
Leveling kits, for the most part, are very easy to install. The don’t affect the handling or ride quality of the truck. And the additional couple inches of front-end lift solves tire clearance issues.
We saw this first hand when the installation of a Daystar Chevy/GMC Quiet Ride Leveling Kit (KG09105BK) was domes on a 2011 GMC Sierra Crew Cab 4Ă—4 that was getting a set of LT285/70R17s s in place of the smaller LT265/70R17s OEM tires it was running.
The inch-taller and wider replacement tires would rub the back of the GM 1500’s front fenderwell under full-lock and when the suspension was compressed.
So the owner turned to the Daystar lift/leveling kit.
Daystar was the first to enter the leveling kit market in 1995. Though there have been many companies that have entered the market since, Daystar claims their leveling kits offer many advantages that the others can not claim:
- No Metal-On-Metal Contact – Daystar uses Polyurethane material in its Leveling Kits for a reason: It’s an insulator. It absorbs the Noise, Vibration, and Harmonics (NVH) that come from the suspension and avoids transmitting them to the passenger compartment. All competitors use steel or aluminum in their Leveling Kits.
- Lifetime Warranty – All of Daystar’s Leveling Kits are backed by a Lifetime Warranty. In the unlikely event you experience a problem with a Daystar product, we’ll take care of it.
- Made in the U.S.A. – All of our leveling kits are manufactured at our plant located in Phoenix, Arizona. In-house manufacturing ensures a level of quality control that no one else can match….and we have the ISO9001 certification to prove it.
- Top-Mount Easy-Install Design – Most late-model vehicles have gone to a strut type of front suspension. Most of Daystar’s strut applications are a Top-Mount design, meaning that our components bolt to the top of the factory strut assembly. This type of leveling kit does not preload the factory coil spring, so factory ride quality is maintained and installation requires only simple hand tools.
We had our friends at Truck Supply & Outfitters in Tuscaloosa, AL, handle the installation. They are experts at it, having installed countless numbers of lift and leveling kits on contractor and landscaping customer’s pickups over the years.
The addition of the Daystar GM leveling kit paved the way for us to run the LT285/70R17s on the truck, giving it another inch of ground clearance over the stock tires. A win win in our book. — Bruce W. Smith