So does anyone have a final answer on torsion keys?? Some members here say you do need it and some say you dont to level out. Does anyone have an actual picture of a stock key and a so-called green key. Correct me if Im wrong, but the green keys are supposed to be re-indexed making it so you dont have to turn up the bolt as much as you would on a stock key. I'v just read somewhere on here where member were posting that green keys was snake products, and on the other hand, there were members posting, commenting on how they used stock keys and switched to green keys and had a little bit more room to play with and a better ride. And i know regardless of what keys are installed, you can only go so much with the the actual UCA and the frame stop... So Final ? I have stock keys now and i have a set of green keys, do i swap them out ?

I have my stock keys maxxed out since last year, and plow in the winter so I have a 900lbs Boss V on the front. I still have room to crank but the Bolt is maxxed out all the way. I have a set of green (1/2 ton) keys just havnt had time to put them in. I only got about an inch(no pun intended) of crank outta my factory bolts. Every truck is a little dif. So before this winter ill put in the green keys and add some new shocks since my rears are shot and the fronts have always sucked.

I needed to use green keys to level out my truck. It was a-l-m-o-s-t level bottoming out my stock keys. With the Green keys, I was able to add 1" lift blocks in the rear to raise my entire truck up a bit in order to clear 295's.

Lets use your noggin a bit..... you've pretty much got it figure out but the light bulb hasn't quite lit up yet.

You understand that the droop stop is the only thing that effects your ride. The simple act of cranking on the torsion bar bolt has nothing to do with the ride untill you run out droop travel. It doesn't matter if your stock keys have the bolt turned all the way in or if you have green keys with the bolt all the way out.....the torsion bar is in the same position.

The reason some guys say you need them and some say you don't completely depends on the weight of the truck and which torsion bars you got from the factory. GM has progressively put stiffer bars in as the years have gone by. Most if not all 01-03 models need the green keys as they have soft bars. The newer trucks don't as their bars are stiffer. My 08 lmm has the next to the stiffest bars GM makes, I got 2" of lift and still have over 1/2" of bolt left to adjust.

Again to reiterate, turning the keys is only effecting your installed height of the spring, it is NOT changing the spring rate. To visualize this put a 1 lb weight on top of a spring in your hand, now take that spring and put it above your head.....the spring isn't going to compress any more than it already is, you just changed the installed height. You are doing the same thing by twisting the torsion key only the wheels are your hand and the truck is the 1lb weight.

Lets use your noggin a bit..... you've pretty much got it figure out but the light bulb hasn't quite lit up yet.

You understand that the droop stop is the only thing that effects your ride. The simple act of cranking on the torsion bar bolt has nothing to do with the ride untill you run out droop travel. It doesn't matter if your stock keys have the bolt turned all the way in or if you have green keys with the bolt all the way out.....the torsion bar is in the same position.

The reason some guys say you need them and some say you don't completely depends on the weight of the truck and which torsion bars you got from the factory. GM has progressively put stiffer bars in as the years have gone by. Most if not all 01-03 models need the green keys as they have soft bars. The newer trucks don't as their bars are stiffer. My 08 lmm has the next to the stiffest bars GM makes, I got 2" of lift and still have over 1/2" of bolt left to adjust.

Again to reiterate, turning the keys is only effecting your installed height of the spring, it is NOT changing the spring rate. To visualize this put a 1 lb weight on top of a spring in your hand, now take that spring and put it above your head.....the spring isn't going to compress any more than it already is, you just changed the installed height. You are doing the same thing by twisting the torsion key only the wheels are your hand and the truck is the 1lb weight.
:agreed: Another way of looking at it is; let say your truck has 6" of total wheel travel, we'll say that the wheel can travel up 4" and down 2", as set by GM. If you crank your bars up, you will be reducing the down travel and increasing the up travel, but no matter what keys you have, you will not get any more than 6" of total travel. If you crank your truck to where it has little or no down travel, it will ride like crap. The reason why the Cognito leveling kit is so popular is that it adds drop travel, thus total travel. This allows you to crank more before running out of down travel. It also changes the ball joint angle to compensate for the difference in angle. Make sense?

so who makes the green key and why is it different the say readylift keys

Green keys are just stock keys from a half ton truck. They are no different than ready lift keys, both are indexed more aggressively than the stock 2500 GM keys.

i would swap them out for the news ones, im in the process of gettin a set but they are a bit different. they are called Maxxcam2 from suspensionmaxx.com they are fully adjustable so you can go as little or as high as you want!

I have a ready lift leveling kit on my 08 LMM. I still have room to go up on the keys but like somebody on here was saying, the more you go up the less down travel you have. This affects they ride quality of the truck. When I go over bumps, my front suspension drops and hits hard. I wish I would have know this before I spent the money on keys. Instead I would have gotten COGNITO UCA. Hope this helps.

My best advice is to try what yoiu have before going and spending money. Personally, I think the OE keys with about 7-9 turns is all a guy should do. If you need more, then do the Cognito leveling kit and possibly the green keys, but quite often the OE keys will get it done.


I haven't seen the Maxx cam deal in person, but by my way of thinking it really does nothing for you that 2 pair of keys can do. I would assume that you still need to unload the bars to change the cam setting right? The green keys should get all the height you need (short of a real lift) and be able to drop the truck to a bit of a rake if desired.