Tires and Wheels, I finally went down to my local Les Schwab Tire to see what's available. While talking to the manager, I mentioned cranking up the torsion bars 1-2" max. Tom then told me that raising the front end via torsion bars would cause re-occuring alignment issues and excessive wear to the front suspension. Tom then offer to properly lift the truck w/a 4-6" lift, but thats not what I want. Looking at @ 20's wrapped with 285/55's or 305/50's rubber. Is he right about cranking the bars and future alignment trouble or is he wrong and just trying to sell a lift. I have always received excellent service and advice from Tom for 20 yrs and have owned Fords the whole time. This is my 1st Chevy, so I'm uncertain about a lot of things.

What's your opinions!!!!

It depends. The most trouble free way to run larger tires, have adequate clearance, keep the front end aligned to factory specs, and keep a good ride is with a lift kit. However, you should be able to run the tires you mention--which are about 32" tall, with just cranking the t-bars a couple inches and possibly doing the fender liner/bumper mods/trimming. That is assuming your wheel has decent backspacing.

The issue with alignments and cranked t-bars is this. As you crank the t-bars you tow the wheels in and change the camber angle. You can easily readjust the toe, but after a certain point you can no longer get the camber back to factory specs. That might happen at 2", or 1.75", or 2.5" of t-bar lift, depending on the truck. Cognito offer upper a-arms that allow more camber adjustment.

Also, the stock Pittman and Idler are prone to premature wear. This can haoppen in is as little as 30,000 miles if you run larger than stock tires. With the Pittman and Idler worn it is hard to keep the toe set properly--it tends to wander.

The stock rubber upper a-arm bushings probably do not help in maintaining the camber setting. The Cognito kit uses poly upper control arm bushings. Cognto also offers Pittman and Idler supports that eliminate the premature wear.

The other issue to consider with cranked t-bars is you really need to run longer shocks to keep a decent ride.