To get a more sporty experience out of your truck have you ever considered lowering your truck, it is cool and can improve on-road handling, but how much does it cost to lower a truck?
In this article, we will have a look at all the different ways you can lower your truck from a minimal drop to scraping the floor.
Skip ahead:
How much does it cost to lower a truck?
Lowering your truck can cost as little as $249 to upwards of $20,000 for a full custom install with air suspension.
Prices differ from how reputable a suspension brand is and how much is included in a kit, for custom installs your biggest expense is the labor involved to produce the parts and notch the frame of the truck.
6 Ways to lower your truck
Lowering a truck isn’t just something easy to do, there are many different ways with different outcomes and pricing.
Let’s have a look at the 6 ways you can lower your truck and what it offers.
Lowering springs and brackets
Cost ranges from $249 to $306.
Lowering springs and brackets are your budget-friendly option and usually costs a few hundred bucks and the kit consists mostly of just lower springs for the front and drop shackles for the rear leaf springs.
There are no body modifications needed and only require a wheel realignment afterward.
The amount the truck is lowered isn’t enough to worry about binding issues in the suspension and steering.
Drop knuckles/spindles
Prices range from $272 to $422.
This can only be done on the front of the truck if it has independent suspension, and in very few instances at the rear, but there aren’t a lot of independent rear suspension trucks in production.
Drop knuckles replace the whole mounting surface of the wheel bearings and suspension pickup points.
It has many advantages since the lowering of the truck is done where the wheel is mounted and not in the suspension, your truck’s suspension geometry stays stock thus there won’t be any issues with binding in the suspension or steering.
With these kits, they will also provide a lowering shackle for the rear leaf springs if needed.
Coilover kits
Prices range from $410 to $580.
The coil-over kit is a happy medium between lowering springs and full race-style suspension, the springs are stiffer than the lowering but not as rock hard as the full race-style ones.
The dampers are also much stiffer with bump and rebound compared to the stock ones but lack adjustment like the race-style ones.
These are good kits for people that like to do everyday driving and do track days every other weekend.
Full race-style suspension
Prices range from $1,520 to $8,800.
This is the highest price tag bolt-on kit you can get, usually, you will only find reputable brands in this market segment like RideTech, GroundForce, and Belltech.
This kit compromises fully adjustable coil-overs for the front with drop knuckles, fully adjustable shocks for the rear, and a leaf spring flip kit.
Some kits can even convert your rear suspension from leaf springs to 3 or 4 link suspension.
These kits take every practicality away from the truck and make it a more track-focused or weekend warrior vehicle.
Air suspension kits
Prices range from $3,400 to $9,800.
Air suspension is seen as the best of both worlds, you can control the height of the truck either with switches on the inside of the truck or with advance kits even with your phone.
When you are parked you can drop the truck down onto its bump stops (as low as the stock suspension arms and solid axle can go), for the ultimate stance and once you start driving you can lift it to a more sensible height to clear speed humps and normal obstacles.
In these kits, you get an air tank, one or more air compressors, air controller, air dump valves, airlines, custom rear suspension 3 or 4 link arms, front and rear air struts, and a controller to control the system while driving.
Custom cut frame and suspension
Prices range from $3,000 to $20,000.
If you are willing to do the dirty work you can notch the frame and modify the mounting points of the suspension to lower your truck all the way to the ground.
If you have the money to spend you can give your truck to a Custom shop so they can do the job for you and do a one-of-a-kind build.
This sort of modification is very expensive because even the chassis of the truck would be modified and it is usually built for aesthetics and not all-out handling, you can let them build you a custom track-focused set up and the price will not differ that much.
The suspension used can be from fully adjustable coil-overs to air suspension.
Why would you lower a truck?
Some people do it for esthetical reasons and others like the idea of “sport” orientated trucks that can be used on track days and other motorsport activities.
The main performance advantages are a lower center of gravity, better roll angles through the corners, and all-around better on-road handling.
With the more expensive kits, people can delve even deeper and change how the car reacts through suspension setup which is also a very interesting thing to learn.
Frequently asked questions
Is lowering your truck worth it?
Depending on what is needed from the truck, if you like sporty handling or the looks of a lowered truck, yes, then it is worth it.
By lowering a truck you get a better center of gravity and better road handling.
How can I lower my truck for free?
This is possible but only with trucks that cam equipped with torsion bars at the front, you can lower the tension on the torsion bars resulting in dropping the nose of the truck, and then you can put the rear axle on top of the leaf springs if it isn’t already.
This will usually give you ½ to an inch drop at the front and closer to 2 inches at the back.
Do I need new shocks with lowering springs?
It depends on how much lower the vehicle will be after the installation if it is lowered beyond 1.5 inches then lowering shocks would be advised to be used.
The big risk is bottoming out the shock constantly which could shorten its lifespan drastically by damaging the valving inside the shock absorber.
Does lowering a truck affect payload?
Yes, lowering a truck affects the suspension travel resulting in a lower weight carrying ability.
With a suspension lowering kit, the total distance between the rear axle and the frame is significantly reduced resulting in the truck reaching the bump stops quicker when loaded thus reducing the loading capacity.
Does lowering a truck make it faster?
Yes, in the corners there will be a great performance increase since the vehicle’s handling is improved.
Since the truck is lowered the center of mass is lower resulting in better roll angles in the corners.
If you however want more straight-line performance and speed, increasing the power of the truck will be a better option.
Does lowering a truck improve gas mileage?
Theoretically yes, since you are decreasing the frontal area by blocking off more of the tires with the body, the less frontal area the better the fuel economy.
But let’s be honest with lowered suspension we all drive a bit more aggressively resulting in poorer fuel economy.
Does lowering a truck affect towing capacity?
No, because the tongue weight on trailers is quite low it won’t affect the ability of the truck towing.
Trailers aren’t supposed to be ‘carried’ by the towing vehicle only pulled, so if the trailer is set up correctly it will only push down on the vehicle with a tongue weight of 10-15% of the total weight of the trailer.
Does lowering a truck affect insurance?
This depends on how lenient your insurance company is, but usually, any modifications done on a vehicle will alter the insurance cost, because a modified car is deemed unsafer on the road than stock.
So before installing lowering kits on your truck, contact your insurance broker and find out how they handle modifications done to the vehicle.
Final thoughts on the cost of lowering a truck
So there you have it, everything you ever wanted to know about the price of lowering a truck.
Whether this has answered all of your questions or simply raised more, hopefully, you found this article helpful in some way.