I've finally decided to go with the Carli leveling kit and am very excited. My next issue is figuring out what the ball park price is to have it installed or if it's an easy at home garage project. I'm located in SoCal if that helps.

 

Which kit are you going with? It's a pretty easy install, took me an afternoon to do springs, bump drop, sway drop, and 4 shocks. I haven't done the sway bar or camber/caster bushings yet. You'll need something that can get you to 406lbs of torque for the track bar.

It's about $500 for install. Call CJC Off-road, they are near you and are specialists with Carli lifts if you want to get it installed.

 

After taking to Carli (super cool guys) they didn't even try to up sell me! They said since I do zero off roading and use my truck to launch a boat and down the road a 5th wheel that the cheapest kit is perfect. I'm still debating between that and the backcountry since I like the idea of a reservoir.

I don't feel that I need to get the radius arms. I'll make sure to get wheels that will fit correctly.

 

Radius arms are really for the 4.5" lift. They are stronger, but its really only for looks on a 2.5" lift.

Reservoirs are a necessity if you are offroading. If you are only towing a boat, you honestly don't need em, but they are nice to have. You know your shocks will never fade no matter what you do. My reservoirs get pretty hot after towing for a while on concrete freeways.

If you are just doing the commuter kit, then sheet, give it a crack yourself. Worse case scenario is you call AAA and have em drop it off at CJC to fix your eff up, but its a dead simple install to be honest. Just make sure you have some beefy jacks. Feel free to msg me if you get elbow deep in it and have a question.

 

Sweet thanks! After talking to them again today, I may go with the backcountry and do the rear springs later. I'm not sure if I want to do the rear springs until I drive it with the front and upgraded shocks.

 

I just noticed that the Carli track bar is on back order until mid August... Can you use the Icon one do you think? Is the track bar the item that centers the axel again?

 

I don't want to sway you away from buying a great suspension, but I feel like I should at least let you know what happened to me when I went with a Carli Suspension package.

Albeit, this was for a Dodge Ram, so take it for what it's worth.

I wanted to upgrade to the suspension of my dreams and went with Carli. New ball joints, track bar, radius arms, King shocks, the whole 9. Well, the truck never rode correctly after that. I experienced numerous problems and ended up selling it out of frustration. I wasted over $10k, no joke.
What I'd like to warn you about is Carli may seem cool while in "purchasing" mode, but just wait till you have a warranty issue. First off, they always tried to deflect the issues I was having with something else. For example, I installed their ball joints and the steering sucked afterwards. They told me to give it time to break in. I gave it 5,000 miles...still sucked. They blamed it on my steering box. Got a new steering box...still sucked. Etc etc
And then, after going with one of their best shocks, the Carli King Pintop 2.5 I got a leak after 300 miles on one of the shocks. Guess what, this isn't Carli's problem, it was King's. So I had to go through Carli to go through King (which was a mess) to end up getting it fixed. And dammit, I didn't hold onto my old shocks so when King told me to ship them the faulty shock I was up a creek without a paddle.

So, like I said, take it for what it's worth. I'm not bad mouthing Carli, but I can tell you that I saved for years and dreamt about a Carli Suspension, and once it was on all I wanted was for it to be off. I will never do that again.

 

You can use any track bar or bracket you want. Check out the PMF one as well, it's $399 and gets good reviews. And yes, the track bar centers the axel. The vast majority of guys don't even run one on a level kit.

That's a bummer for sure, although to be honest that's the first negative review of Carli I've ever heard. I've got about 6 close friends that have Carli suspensions and they are all over the moon about them. I will totally agree with you on Kings though. Mine kept pitting the shafts and blowing seals, the support there was abhorrent. I've personally sworn off Kings, but everything else with Carli has been great.

 

Yes I agree. I hadn't heard of any bad experiences either. That's why I wasn't really trying to bad mouth Carli, but at least give insight to what happened with me.
But oh well, I believe I have some really bad luck. First the suspension, now I have a brand new F250 with a rain water leak the dealer can't fix. *sigh*

 

Oh man, I feel for ya. Maybe you should go buy a lottery ticket, it's got to even out some where right? GL with the leak, is it a sheet metal issue?