My question is: How much heigth can you gain by cranking up the torsion bars? And what are the con's of doing this? And if there are any con's, is there a remedy? Thanks.

 

It depends on the truck but anywhere from 0-2". The cons are you are lowering the suspension to the lower end of the CV operation degree range. The largest one though will be a much stiffer rougher ride and there is no remedy for this. You are basically changing the spring rate of the torsion bars creating the stiff ride. This is the poor mans way to cut corners to lift so there are sacrifices to be made in ride quality.

 

Hey powerstroke, you're right it does depend on the truck, but do you know of any other alternative to leveling? Not everyone likes the looks of a lifted truck, rich or poor!

 

This is a poor man's lift, IF your doing it to give your truck that "lifted look". But the reason why most people do this is to level the truck, because, I think most people would agree, that the truck looks better leveled out. This is the only way to level the 4x4 from 97-03 that I know of. So I wouldn't think that everyone who does this is trying to get off by doing things the cheap way. Not everybody wants an actually "lifted" truck.

 

No there really isn't any other way to raise the front of the truck up. This is also not a good way to achieve any amount of lift even to level the truck IMO. I did this on my truck to clear tires, would I do it again if I still had the truck.......no. I wasn't too happy with the way it rode or the extra wear and tear that put on my suspension components. There is another way to level the truck, but that is to lower the back by ~1". You would remove the rear block and use an add-a-leaf to gain back 1" of the lost height from the 2" block leaving the truck level. For stability and performance this is the better setup since blocks aren't really all that good to begin with. This will also keep the ride like stock (much better than cranked torsion bars) and you will help avoid some of the added wear and tear on the suspension parts up front. The truck overall would be slightly shorter, but I learned the hard way with my F150, what looks good doesn't always perform the best. Take this how you want, but I've gone through all this first hand. This was one of the downfalls of the F150, suspension wise they are lacking on options.

 

what kind of wear on the suspesion does it create? how bad is it? how fast does it wear? thanks

 

The only real wear and tear is going to happen to the torsion bars. The will wear faster eventually causing the front to sag and bushings to wear out. It will take a long time for this to happen, your just speeding that process up by placing more pressure on them. As far as lowering the back, I think that is silly. Defeats the purpose of a 4x4 in my opinion. I'd take the faster wear and tear of the torsion bars any day considering the truck looks better and is more practical. It's not going to wear out that much faster. The ride is quite a bit stiffer (depending upon how much you crank up the torsion bars), but I like it that way. A truck is suppose to ride stiff in my opinion. If I wanted something to ride gentle I would of bought a Cadillac. If it was really bad for the truck it wouldn't be able to adjust that much.

 

Here's a wild thought...

Install a 4" kit and take some pre-load out of the bars. My Screw sits way high in the back - I need just over 3" of front lift to get it level. Nice cushy ride... A truck does not need to ride stiff, nor should it. That stiff ride puts more strain on everything. We learned that in desert racing back in the 80's - everything used to be "make it so stiff that you can't bottom the suspension" and it tore those trucks apart. Now it is "let the suspension move". When the suspension flexes, it is doing its job. Why do trucks have to be stiff? They don't - it is just an expectation that is left over from older generation trucks. There is nothing wrong with a truck that has a comfortable ride.

 

Does that mean that taking all of the load off the bars and letting it rest on the stops is OK? If it wasn't you wouldn't be able to do that, right? I guess on over vehicles with v-belts it is OK to really tighten those belts as much as you can, because the adjustment allows you to do it?

Just because the adjustment is there, does NOT mean that it is good to use it.

 

The front of my truck appears to slope down to the left side. I just changed all my front end components and shocks and it still looks the same.

Can I adjust the torsion bars to level the front end out?

 

I didn't necessarily mean that because it can be adjusted that it should be adjusted as far as it can go. I, by no means, adjusted my torsion bar bolts as far as they can go. But, it is an adjustable part for a reason. There is no harm in adjusting the bars to gain some lift for leveling. I don't think that the torsion bars should be adjusted just to clear a larger tire. That's what a lift kit is for. I apoligize for any confusion in my previous post.

 

Yes. It is not uncommon for bars to settle differently - that is one reason that they are adjustable.

 

so i bent this bar under my 2002 f150, i know its part of the lift kit but i just don't know what lift it is. my thought on what the part is, is either a torsion bar (but i don't think so) or a radius arm.... iv taken it to several places and I've come up with nothing further then but to try to figure out what lift kit it is.
Its a rod that is bolted into a metal bracket with a T joint that is welded to the frame of the truck and extends forward toward the A frame.
if anyone can help verify that would be great! thanks.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui...&sz=w1166-h502

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui...&sz=w1166-h502

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui...&sz=w1166-h502

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui...&sz=w1166-h502

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui...&sz=w1166-h502

 

How come nobody has mentioned torsion keys? If you are trying to level the truck with torsion bars this is the right way to do it. Torsion keys have the hexagonal shape cut at a different angle to raise the truck but not add preload to the bars so you don't get the stiff ride. Most suspension components have enough travel in them to allow 1-2 inches of lift without binding or stressing to the point of premature failure. I installed torsion keys in my Ranger after the previous owner cranked the torsion bars up and it kept the height but gave me the ride quality back.