Learning About Automotive Parts
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Learning About Automotive Parts

Hello, my name is Talon. Welcome to my site about automotive parts. After 15 years of driving, I still have my very first car. For a long time, this cherished vehicle sat under a car cover in the garage. Now that I have the time and funds available, I started slowly restoring the car from the bottom up. I used a mix of original equipment and aftermarket parts to renew the vehicle’s suspension, brakes, engine, transmission and other important components. I will use this site to explore all of the parts you may need to buy or rebuild to restore your own vehicle. Thanks for visiting.

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Learning About Automotive Parts

Body Lifts Versus Suspension Lifts: Which Lift Kit Is Right For Your Truck?

Paula Shaw

An aftermarket lift kit can completely transform the look of your truck while offering numerous performance improvements, especially when you're off-roading. The two different types of lift kits are body lifts and suspension lifts. While suspension lift kits offer far more performance benefits, body lift kits have a few advantages as well.

Body Lift Kits — Perfect for Daily Drivers

Body lift kits consist of spacers that you install between your truck's upper body and lower frame. Generally, you stack the spacers on top of your truck's factory body mount bushings. That raises your truck's cab and bed relative to the wheels, giving you more clearance to install bigger tires for an even more aggressive look.

Body lift kits are generally much simpler and cheaper than full suspension kits. They allow you to achieve a raised height while retaining your factory suspension. Most aftermarket suspension systems ride rougher than factory units, so using a body lift kit to retain your stock suspension is a good idea if your truck is your daily driver.

The downside of body lift kits is that they offer no performance improvements other than giving you the ability to install larger, more aggressive tires. Your chassis and suspension system will remain at the same height they were from the factory. That's not an issue if you only use your truck for commuting. However, if you're an off-roading enthusiast looking to improve your truck's ground clearance, a suspension lift kit is the way to go.

Suspension Lift Kits — A Must-Have for Hardcore Off-Roaders

Like body lift kits, suspension lift kits raise the body of your truck and give you more clearance for installing larger tires. The difference is that suspension kits raise your truck by replacing your factory suspension system rather than simply jacking up your truck's body.

Typically, suspension lift kits will include longer coil springs or thicker leaf springs along with spring spacers. To compensate for the larger springs, many kits also include aftermarket shocks. Installing larger springs and spacers changes the geometry of numerous suspension components. To compensate for the modified geometry, many lift kits also include a number of other aftermarket components such as control arms, subframe relocators, and link kits.

Suspension lift kits are generally more expensive and harder to install than body lift kits. The aftermarket springs and shocks also typically give your truck a rougher, more uncomfortable ride. However, unlike body lifts, suspension lifts drastically increase the ground clearance of your truck by raising the entire chassis and suspension system. Because of that, they're ideal if you often take your truck off road or rock crawling.

For more information, contact a provider of custom truck parts in your area.


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