Why we ONLY use steel – and what I know from being the Original Leveling kit Company….

Tech Questions – trying to pass along what I have learned since we started in 2003

This is an answer to a question we get every week…all of these tech posts are based on the last 20+ years of experience I have working with trucks at Truxxx, as the owner I get the privilege to talk to technicians daily and must have dealt with over 20,000 shops and dealerships in that same time frame…I am just sick of all the “hearsay information” that gets posted from people who really have no idea…If I help one person and save one perfectly good vehicle from the crusher, that will make me happy.

…Here is a quick and simple summary of what we have learned from 20+ years of designed and manufacturing parts and also why we do what we do – I could make all of our parts cheaper like those offshore copies but I have no interest in that, I can make our parts cheaper using lower grade steel or thinner steel but I have no interest in that…

We simply will not compromise quality for safety. Suspension parts hold your vehicles wheels to the road, a few dollars saved ( most times less than a trip to A&W for a couple burgers) won’t mean much down the road if something happens …WE SIMPLY WILL NOT COMPROMISE QUALITY FOR SAFETY…I couldn’t sleep at night if I knew we cut a corner for profits over making something the right way.

Leveling Kits vs. “Puck” Lifts (Fact vs. Opinion)

This is a great topic because many people buy the cheapest “puck” (spacer) they find on Amazon without realizing the mechanical consequences…there is lots of math we use and on some vehicles 1/16′ or 1/8″ too much cause a real crappy experience.

You can often find round “hockey puck” style spacers super cheap, they are round stock of some type of material and just pumped out – the hardware is cheap, the install is a pain ( you have to hold the strut in place sometimes and drop bolts in while holding up your front end) but you can make them really fast – the material is soft ( so your tooling never wears out) and it is also cheap ( mill grade and purity not high end) so the prices can be lower.

Title: Fact-Checking the “2-Inch Level”: Why Material Science Matters for Your Front End

The “Hearsay” (The Opinion): “A spacer is just a spacer. It doesn’t matter if it’s plastic, aluminum, or steel; they all do the same thing for $40.”

The Facts (The Reality):

• Compressive Strength: Composite (plastic) spacers can compress and deform over time under the constant weight of an SUV, a car full of passengers or  Isure hope you didn’t just do that, any vehicle with a diesel engine. This compression and deformation can make changes your alignment specs every 5,000 miles. Laser cut Mill Grade steel (like we use at Truxxx) has zero compression under vehicle loads as we weld the parts together in a sandwich style – meaning the load is always compressing on our part. We design the kit this way, even if a weld broke the part would still stay compressed – we tested this back in 2003 when we first started and spent a year doing R&D – I tack welded a kit together and put it on our truck, drove it around trying to abuse the truck to get the tacks to break and when the tack welds never did break we decided we would always use this compression method even though it take more time to make the part, but it is safer – your family is worth more to me than a few $$

• Galvanic Corrosion: Putting an uncoated aluminum spacer against a steel strut tower creates a battery-like chemical reaction (electrolysis). Over two winters, those two metals can “cold weld” together, making future suspension service nearly impossible. Galvanic Corrosion can also turn the aluminum into a chalky powder, severely weakening the material and again, allowing a possible risk of failure.

• Geometry Limits: Fact: Most independent front suspensions (IFS) can only handle a 2-to-2.5-inch lift before the upper ball joint reaches its maximum pivot angle.

• Opinion: “You can go over 3 inches on just a spacer with no issues.”

• The Reality: At 3 inches, the ball joint is “maxed out,” this is as much as you EVER want to go and in some vehicles you simply cannot go 3″ – some vehicles a 1.5 or 2″ is the max amount.  Remember that safety thing?

The Truxxx Way:

We measure every kit to ensure it stays within the factory ball joint sweep. If the math says a truck can only handle 2.25″, we don’t build a 3″ kit. It’s not about the “look”; it’s about the suspension’s survival…you need to be able to get home, your kids need to be safe, your vehicle is way to expensive to worry about saving $20 for something that was never designed to suit the vehicles suspension design and engineering, we don’t make parts simply to satisfy an Amazon or eBay demand algorithm.