Whether you want a truck lift to provide better off-road capability or you just like the aesthetics of a lifted truck, you’re probably trying to figure out what’s involved in a lift and what it’s going to cost. Pickups like the RAM 1500, Ford F-250, and Toyota Tacoma, SUVs like the Chevrolet Tahoe and Jeep Wrangler, and even crossovers like the Subaru Outback and Toyota RAV-4 can benefit from a few more inches of ground clearance, saving you from getting hung up on the rocks and roots as you head out to your most remote locations. But what you'll pay for that extra off-roading potential depends on the type of kit and the type of lift you're looking for.
A few glossary terms to cover first:
Ground Clearance – The distance between the ground and the lowest part of your vehicle. Sometimes that’s a suspension component, but it can also be a crossmember, the exhaust, or a skid plate. When installing a lift, you’re generally trying to increase your vehicle’s ground clearance.
Approach Angle – The maximum angle at which your vehicle can approach an obstacle from level ground without touching the front bumper, or any lower-hanging component up front, such as a winch.
Departure Angle – The maximum angle at which your vehicle can descend an obstacle back onto level ground without touching the rear bumper, or any lower-hanging component in the rear, such as a trailer hitch receiver or a tailpipe.
Breakover Angle – The maximum angle at which your vehicle can drive over an obstacle without touching any point other than the tires. For example, with your front and rear wheels on level ground, the breakover angle measures the apex of the tallest point of a rock on the trail that doesn’t touch any component under your vehicle.
There are a few different categories of lift kits to explore.
Leveling Kits
Best For: Leveling the body to compensate for load-carrying in a pickup
If you look at any current pickup truck from the side, the rear tends to sit a couple of inches higher than the front, mostly because the bed is supposed to be used for carrying heavy items. Load 500 pounds of bark mulch back there and the rear suspension will squat level with the front, without bottoming out over road irregularities.
A leveling kit will add a slight lift to the front suspension in order to compensate for that, typically increasing the distance between the upper control arm and the strut.
Pros: A leveling kit is the cheapest way to achieve a lift, and it's also the easiest to install. Unlike a body lift or a suspension lift, a leveling kit only modifies the front suspension, and it usually doesn’t impact things like steering alignment or ride quality. It can also provide just enough lift to make more room for larger tires.
Cons: A leveling kit doesn’t increase ground clearance or approach, departure, or breakover angles. Leveling kits are typically just a two-inch spacer attached with a few bolts, so they’re not going to improve handling or provide better off-road performance.
Leveling Kit Costs
Rough Country 2-inch Leveling Kit – F-150: Including two strut extensions and a hardware kit, the Rough Country 2-inch Leveling Kit for the F-150 can apply to both 2WD and 4WD pickups. List price is $49.95.
MotoFab 2.5-inch Front Leveling Kit – RAM 1500: This kit includes two lift spacers and mounting hardware. These kits only apply to trucks WITHOUT the air ride suspension. List price is $68.99.
Body Lift Kits
Best For: Providing an extra inch of clearance for larger tires
A body lift is just a thicker rubber or urethane body bushing or spacer which, along with extended bolts, is used to mount the body to the chassis on a body-on-frame vehicle like most pickup trucks (including the Ford Ranger and GMC Canyon) and some SUVs (including the Jeep Wrangler and Toyota 4Runner).
Pros: Body kits are by far the least affordable options to get additional clearance for larger tires. They’re also relatively easy to install. Just remove the bolts holding the body to the frame, raise the body and remove the original body bushings. The taller body bushings slip in place, and longer bolts then attach the body to the frame.
Cons: While a body lift will provide some additional room for bigger tires, you really gain no additional ground clearance. The frame, axle tubes, differential pumpkins, shock mounts and exhaust systems are all going to be just as low as they were before the body lift, with the exception of any clearance gained by the larger diameter of the tires. A body lift can also adversely effect things like your center of gravity, causing the vehicle to be more top-heavy. Finally, you can’t lift the body on something like the Honda CR-V or Subaru Forester because there’s no frame to put a spacer between. Most crossovers are unibody construction, meaning that the body itself comprises the frame.
Body Lift Costs
TeraFlex 1.25-inch Body Lift Kit for the JK-era Jeep Wrangler: This is your basic body lift for a Wrangler, including a full set of body spacers, bolts and washers. List price is $227.95.
Daystar 1-inch Body Lift Kit for the Toyota Tacoma: This kit includes polyurethane lift blocks and the complete hardware kit. List price is $232.99.
Suspension Lift Kits
Best For: Providing better ground clearance, approach, departure and breakover angles
A suspension lift replaces your stock suspension components, and raises the entire vehicle structure, not just the body.
Pros: If you want to increase your ground clearance, approach, departure and breakover angles, a suspension lift is the way to get it done. Suspension lifts of exceptional quality will also dramatically improve the performance of your suspension off-road, often providing better suspension articulation, better shock absorbers and provide a less jarring ride over rough terrain.
It's also important to note that while most shoppers are going to be looking to the aftermarket for a lift kit, there are some OEM lift kits available that offer significant advantages. First, you can have them installed at the dealership when you're buying a new vehicle. Often, these types of OEM lift kits are also protected by your factory warranty, and may have less of an impact on resale value at trade-in time.
Cons: A suspension lift is going to be more expensive than a body lift. The cost can range anywhere from $500 for a lift in something like a Jeep CJ-7 to thousands for a better quality, more complicated lift in a vehicle like a Chevrolet Tahoe.
Suspension Lift Costs
There are a ton of variables with a suspension lift, and about half of the show floor at the annual Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas is taken up with lift kit suppliers, so we can’t possibly list all the costs here. But we’ll try to break some things into categories of vehicle and lift kit types so you have an idea of what to expect.
Leaf Spring Lift Kits
There are no vehicles currently being produced in the United States with leaf spring suspensions both front and rear, but vehicles with this type of suspension are still common and still heavily modified by off-roaders. Examples include all of the Jeep CJ-Series, the YJ-era Jeep Wrangler, the K5 Blazer and GMC Jimmy, Squarebody Chevrolet pickups, and early Dodge pickups.
Leaf spring kits can range from small lifts of two inches all the way up to larger versions that lift a truck six inches or more. In general, the taller the lift, the more expensive the kit.
Rough Country 2.5-inch Jeep YJ (1987 to 1995) Wrangler Lift Kit: This lift kit includes four new leaf springs, four shocks, longer u-bolts, and hardware. List price is $499.95.
Skyjacker 2.5-inch Sport Series Suspension Lift for the Chevrolet K5 Blazer: This kit includes four leaf springs with urethane bushings, four Hydro shocks, u-bolts, and hardware. The list price is $665.31.
Coil Spring Lift Kits
These lift kits are a bit more expensive and a bit more involved. They generally include not only new coil springs and shocks, but also things like extension brackets and track bar brackets.
TeraFlex 2.5-inch Suspension Lift Kit with 9550 VSS Shocks for the Jeep JK (2007 to 2019) Wrangler: The Teraflex kit includes four coil springs, four shocks, brake line extension, and rear axle-end track bar extension brackets. List price is $967.99.
Advanced Lift Kits
The basic leaf spring/coil spring lift kits simply replace the factory springs with taller versions and replace the shocks with something longer that might be slightly better than stock. Modern vehicles often use coilover front shocks, in which the shock and the coil spring are one unit. You're not just adding height with these kits; you're significantly modifying the truck's suspension. Adding a couple of inches of lift also means that you need to think about replacing the front control arms so that the tires remain level with the road surface. These kits often include those components, and more as the price goes up.
ICON Vehicle Dynamics 1- to 3-inch Suspension Lift System for 2007 to 2018 Chevrolet Silverado: This kit includes new coilover front shocks, upper control arms, and reservoir rear shocks. List price is $2,779.80.
BDS Suspension 3-inch Performance Coilover Lift Kit for 2003 to 2013 RAM 2500: This kit provides extensive modifications and adds three inches of lift to the heavy duty RAM 2500 with front coilovers for eight inches of suspension travel, an adjustable front track bar, extended sway bar links, greasable upper and lower control arms, a two-inch block lift for the rear suspension, and new rear shocks. List price is $2,914.82.
Genuine Mopar Lift Kit 3-inch with Premium Bilstein Struts and Shocks for 2009 to 2011 RAM 1500: This kit includes replacement struts, shocks, springs, stabilizer bar, belly pan, control arm crossmembers, and everything you'll need to lift these RAM 1500s without exhaust or driveshaft alterations. List price is $2,810.
Crossover Lift Kits
More and more, owners of crossovers like the Subaru Outback and Toyota RAV4 are looking for lift kits that provide the advantages owners of pickups and conventional SUVs have enjoyed for years. Typically, these lifts are shorter than those you’ll find for pickups and SUVS (think 1.5 inches rather than 4), and they are generally focused on springs and spacers rather than new suspension components like control arms and track bars. The good news is that they can be significantly less expensive than those for trucks.
Primitive 1.5-inch Lift Kit for the 2015 to 2019 Subaru Outback: This kit includes new King springs, a rear subframe spacer, rear shock extensions, brake line bracket extensions, Primitive lift spacers, and hardware. List price is $689.
Ready Lift Suspensions 2-inch SST Lift Kit for the 2019 to 2021 Toyota RAV4: This kit retains the factory caster and camber settings for ideal alignment, and it includes offset spacers, steel plate top mount strut extensions, and hardware. List price is $399.95.
LP Adventure Lift Kit for the 2017 to present Honda CR-V: This kit includes 304 stainless steel top plate spacers, aluminum subframe, spring and trailing arm spacers, brake line spacers, endlink spacers, and hardware. List price is $1,195.
Labor Costs
All of the prices listed above are just for the kits themselves, not for installation. Most lift kits are easy enough for any DIY’er to install, especially with the clear instructions and YouTube video explanations typically supplied.
But if you’re getting into six-inch lift kits that include things like new crossmembers and steering knuckles, you may not have the proper equipment to handle the installation safely at home. A lift like this is also going to require an alignment, so you'll be looking at a professional installation at an auto shop or service center to provide that at a minimum.
Look around locally and you’re likely to find a shop that will install any of the above. Keep in mind that labor rates vary wildly around the country, and the lift kit installation process and installation time can vary, so the pricing listed here is just a guideline:
Leveling Kit Installation: A leveling kit shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours to install. The cost of installation usually runs around $200.
Body Lift Installation: While body lifts are cheap, the installation can be expensive, especially if the shop has to waste a lot of time cutting off rusted bolts. Even in the best of cases, you’re removing eight to ten body mounts and jacking the body off the frame. Figure $1,000 for labor.
Leaf/Coil Spring Lift Installation: Leaf spring installs are pretty easy, provided the bolts are rusted in place. An install might run about the same cost as a body lift install. Coil spring lifts require more tools, like coil spring compressors, but typically the time isn’t any more than for a leaf spring install. Plan on $1,000 to install either.
Advanced Lift Installation: As you get into more complex lift kits and lifts in the four- to six-inch range that require new steering knuckles, track rods, etc., the cost is going to increase dramatically. Expect $2,000 for labor at a minimum, depending on how crusty the underside of the vehicle is. Throw another $200 for an alignment.
Crossover Lift Installation: In general, there’s nothing too complicated about installing one of these spacer lifts with new springs. As long as you’ve bought a quality kit and the parts fit, you’ll probably be looking at $1,000 for labor.