Less than 4" lift

[MrSchaeferPants]

So I know 4" and greater you should do crossover.

My question is to maintain stock steering components, and full stock steering quality, how does 1, 2, and 3 inches of lift affect steering. Is is the same as no lift, or does it increasingly get worse with every inch, and by 4" is bad enough where you need to do something about it?

Basically trying to figure out my end result. This will be a dual purpose with everyday driving, and weekend crawling. Trying to figure that tipping point or as far as I can go while still having quality DD characteristics. I know that opinion differs from person to person.

 

[72blazerguy]

I have a 4" lift on my 91, it drives great with only the dropped steering arm. IIRC, you can't do crossover with less than 4" because of clearance issues.

I also have a 71 with 6" of lift and much flexier springs. It had bump steer (w/ dropped pitman and raised steering arm) and was not great offroad since the geometry of the steering was bad when the drivers side tire dropped. Cross over made it drive much better.

The steering geometry will get worse with more lift, but you will not have any problems with 4" or less of lift. You will have to get the steering corrections, but that is simple. Of course, new ball joints, drag link, rag joints, ect usually make these old rigs drive a lot better

 

[blazinzuk]

I would say that would be easy to do just correct steering angles with any number of componont s. I have 6" and a dropped drag link and it drives lovely on the road. It is when I am off road the stock steering starts to bring the suck

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

The parts truck I got had I guess 6-8" with just a fancy dropped drag link, and it drove like garbage. My very first K5 had 4" of suspension lift and it wasn't bad, and last year before I got the K5 I have now, I test drove one that was lifted, I forget 4" susp/2" body, or 6" susp, and it drove like crap, both that, and this truck had that 'can't turn lock to lock thing going on, and wandered on the road.

I need sharp turns, but I'd imagine with that truck, they probably didn't adjust anything, just slapped it together.

 

[rebelgregory]

The short answer is as long as you correct for lift and your drag link stays horizontal, your steering will be stock-ish. However, this gets complicated by the longer travel of lift springs. Since they travel farther, they can force the draglink into angles it wasn't really designed for which will cause bumpsteer. Also, tires play a big role. A larger tire, say 33 or 35) has a lot more sidewall which will flex in the turns.

On another note, that truck you drove that wandered the road and the tires wouldn't go full lock...those are pretty good indicators of a cracked frame at the steering box. And while we are on the topic, I highly recommend some type of steering upgrade for these trucks. I personally have everything but hydro and mine drives great. Everything being: ORD weld-in and bolt-in frame braces, XJ steering shaft, and X-over steering.

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

Cracked at the gear box is a possibility, I have yet to check, he was running 42s on it. Since I didn't want the 42s, he gave me some bald rollers on some old steelies, so it could have been the tires/rims out of balance, mixed with needing an alignment. I only drove it the once, home.

My whole reason for asking is I'm trying to figure out my end game plan as far as what mixture of lift/trimming/tire size/gear ratio I plan on going with. If I can finally wittle away at a buddy of mine, I might be getting one of his m1008s, so I'll have 4.56s, and if I keep that ratio, then I guess I'll stick in the 35-37 tire size, and I could do 1-3" of lift, and trimming, and be fine. I think that'll be a perfect mixture DD/toy. That size tire I'd rather do some trimming than lift, but even so I'd imagine I'll benefit with another 1-3", I just don't want piss poor steering. Perhaps that's because I've never driven a properly lifted/steering corrected Chevy. Well, like I said previously, my first ever K5 actually drove ok from what I remember, and that was 4", but I didn't have it long enough to really remember, and never took it off road as it had issues from day one.