I heard someone talking about turning the torsion bars up on their DMax. I have an '04 2500HD DMax but don't what this means - can someone educate me?

Do a search using the word torsion bar and there will be a wealth of information for you. Basically it will lift your front end up. There are so many variables it would be best to read ALL about it. Good luck.

Heck, Riverdog, I'll give you a quickie answer. The DMax front suspension is torsion bar. The way this works is that the lower A-arms are splined onto two long torsion bars. As the front end rises and falls, this pviots the A-arms up and down and the torsion bar is splined in at the hinge point of the A-arm - so when the A-arm goes up (front goes down) this twists the torsion bar. The torsion bar resists the twist and straightens back out, which pushes the A-arm back down (and the front of the truck back up). The torsion bars have adjusment blocks on the rear (called keys). These blocks have an adjustment bolt that can be tightened to "pre-twist" the torsion bar - thus causing the torsion bar to straighten and push down the A-arm (lifting the front of the truck). People talk about "adding or removing turns" in regards to these adjusting bolts (turns on the bolts). Add turns - raise front. Remove turns - lower front. How's that?:)

Thanks to both of you. Do you know if you lift the front end up does it effect performance - i.e. handling, tire wear, mileage, etc. OR is it merely a cosmetic adjustment?

It's cosmetic within a small window. The angles and alignments of the entire front suspension are designed for a set angle (and up/down travel off that angle) and range of motion. If you really crank it up, you have taken the "rest angles" to near the top of the travel range - reduced remaining upward travel and prevented full downward travel. Some people have added turns to level the truck (stock angle is a bit nose-down) and others have cranked the bars for clearance for oversize tires. Once you get outside a pretty narrow range, or add an oversize key (called the "green keys") to get even more crank you are looking at an alignment at best and perhaps handling and wear issues at worst. Me, I'm stock in the suspension (except for Bilstein shocks) with OEM alloys and tire sizes.

Idle Chatter - thanks for the info. That said I'm 100% stock and think I will leave it that way. (Maybe the actually engineer it they way they do for a reason!:rolleyes: ) I know I've seen a few where it looked like they were more level or a little taller in the front yet didn't appear to be "lifted". This must be the case of turned up torsions. I do like the look better than the nose down look I have, but it's doesn't bother me enough to risk a harder ride.

if you change the torsion bars up or down, you need to get a wheel alignment as everything changes.

Exactly, my alignment guy prints out the before and after measurements and there is a difference. I went 4 turns to put 285's on. I like the look and ride and that's as far as it's goin' .