Lift Kit

A lift kit is an aftermarket package with the parts needed to raise a specific vehicle's ride height, usually with instructions. A lift gives steeper approach, departure, and breakover angles, more ground clearance, and room for bigger wheels and tires. The tradeoff is a higher center of gravity, which lowers the safe operating angles and often makes on-road handling noticeably worse. On newer vehicles, sensors and cameras for automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control may need to be recalibrated or moved.

Simple kits may include only blocks that sit between the axle and leaf springs, coil spring or strut spacers, and longer shocks. Bigger lifts need new control arms, trailing arms, custom four-link setups, and driveshafts, because raising a vehicle changes driveshaft length, steering geometry, and brake line reach. On leaf-spring trucks, lift blocks are common at the rear but a bad idea at the front, where braking forces can push the block out of place. An add-a-leaf, an extra leaf in the spring pack, is a more accepted option, and a new set of springs with the lift built in is the best one.

A leveling kit is the small version. Most trucks sit slightly lower in front to leave room for the rear to sag when the bed is loaded, and a leveling kit raises the front to match the rear. Laws on ride height and on where lights and bumpers sit vary by state and country, so a big lift can run into legal trouble. Some supercars, including the Ferrari 488, Lamborghini Huracán, McLaren 720S, and second-generation Ford GT, have a built-in nose lift to clear bumps and ramps.