Hello from CT

[Turbodreams]

Hello everyone. Mark, from CT. Just got my 2006 Summit white LS 4.2 TB a month ago. Picked it up with a little over 74,700 miles on it.

Truck is a daily driver and family car. Came over here after signing up at Trailvoy a few weeks ago and realizing that site is very dead.

Not looking to build anything crazy, just some more clearance and visibility. Mall rated I guess. Will see mostly highway driving. Occasionally an old mountain road that heads out to the shooting range. And a muddy field or 3 during the fall festival season up here.

Havent done anything but remove the running boards, LS badge, and cracked rear chevy emblem.

Planned upgrades:
Stereo upgrade
MarkMC/liftmeister 2.5 or 3" lift
MarkMC 1.5" spacers
Bilstein HDs
Larger tires on either the factory wheels or maybe a set of steelies (I like the way bigger tires look on them)
Roof rack with wheel hold down and hi-lift jack.
LED light bar up front, unsure if I want a guard/safari bar or just find a good way to mount a light-Any info on a mount would be helpful.
Also, the K&N intake system claims better gas mileage. Anyone have an opinion there? Truthful, worth it?

Ive been reading some about the UCA flip. Is this gonna be necessary with just a small basic lift and no plans to do any major offroading? My buddy whom we all use his garage/driveway for working on cars just sold his house and is moving south so access to space and more tools for anything major is now limited. And I live in an apartment so I dont have the room or tools to do it at home.

Again, any input on my eventual build would be appreciated.

[KingBird]

We do the UCA flip to help with the ball joint angle after lift. You can get good idea of what you're gonna be dealing with by removing one of the front wheels and jacking the vehicle up by the framewhile watching the upper ball joint flex.

I still run paper filters. With how often mud gets into the airbox, I just don't run expensive filters.


I think you're on the right track with your build.

[Turbodreams]

We do the UCA flip to help with the ball joint angle after lift. You can get good idea of what you're gonna be dealing with by removing one of the front wheels and jacking the vehicle up by the framewhile watching the upper ball joint flex.

I still run paper filters. With how often mud gets into the airbox, I just don't run expensive filters.


I think you're on the right track with your build.

Yea, I get the reasoning behind why some do the flip. And Ive seen some pics of peoples builds on here whove done it. But havent actually read a definitive answer as to whether itd be necessary in my case.

Like I said, this will be mostly 'Mall Rated' as my wife drives a small car and I do have a baby seat in the back. It wont see much off roading. Mostly parking in wet muddy fields (those are the parking "lots" at all the fall festivals up here) and the local shooting ranges rough dirt and shitty paved mountain road. And of course some clearance for winter time.

If its not necessary and I can get the truck aligned properly with the liftmeister lift without doing the flip, Id just prefer to leave it alone.

Thanks for the input!

[mason10198]

I think the biggest concern with flipping UCAs was trying to keep from over extending the joint to the point of breaking it off on a flex. If you're not going to be doing much offroading with yours, then the truck isn't going to see that much articulation so if you really don't want to mess with it then I'd think you'd be fine just leaving it as is.

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[Turbodreams]

I think the biggest concern with flipping UCAs was trying to keep from over extending the joint to the point of breaking it off on a flex. If you're not going to be doing much offroading with yours, then the truck isn't going to see that much articulation so if you really don't want to mess with it then I'd think you'd be fine just leaving it as is.

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Good to know, thanks!

[Cable810]

Welcome!!

[PROSPHOTO]

Welcome!

I'm a fairly new member here too, but have had my '06 LT since new. Always wanted to lift it and finally did this spring. I did it in steps though, because of a lot of "I should have..."

After all was done, I went with the BDS kit/upgraded (fox) rear shocks, Billstein HD front shocks, and z71 rear springs; front springs are OEM and i left the upper control arms stock since my off roading will probably max out on the beach (Long Island,NY).

For highway/daily driving, I would only use the spacers with factory wheels or a different lug pattern. I had them on with OEM wheels and 265/65R17's and the truck drove great. Once I changed tires to a greater offset (approx 1" difference from OEM), coupled with 32" tires, the ride suffered tremendously. I removed the spacers, had plenty of room with the new wheels (MB TKO's), and it drove so much nicer!

I don't know much beyond what I've done, but this site has been a tremendous resource! Good luck