How Much Does A Leveling Kit Cost? Know The Overall Cost For Leveling A Vehicle

Off-road driving can cause quick wearing of tires and also reduce vehicle performance. You can create significant ground clearance by using leveling kits to prevent this. Before installing the leveling kit, it’s important to know its cost. 

So, how much does a leveling kit cost? Depending on the car model and the spacing level, the price will range between $45-$125. High-tech kits will cost up to $125-$1000. Generally, the installation and alignment will cost around $200-$500 and $100-$150, respectively.

In this article, we will provide a clear idea about the price of the kits and the overall cost of leveling your vehicle. You can also learn about minimizing the total cost of leveling vehicles. So, further ado, let’s start.

Table: Cost Of Leveling A Vehicle

Let’s check the price of kits and cost at different stages of leveling a vehicle:

Types Of Leveling Kits	Kit’s Price	Installation Costs	Alignment Costs	Total costing
2″ leveling kits	$45-$85	$200-$500	$100-$150	$345-$735
2.5″ leveling kits	$72-$100			$372-$750
3″ leveling kits	$74-$115			$374-$765
3.5″ leveling kits	$80-$125			$380-$775
High-tech leveling kits	$125-$1,000			$425-$1,650

How Much Does A Leveling Kit Cost?

Leveling kits will level the front of your SUV or truck with the rear and enhance its looks. Besides, it will also create ground clearance and make your SUV fit for larger tires. 

But, before leveling, you must have an idea about its cost. Though it will cost much less than any lift kit, leveling the vehicle is also not mere. Generally, you can categorize the total cost of leveling into 3 segments:

1. Price Of The Kits

The price of the leveling kits will differ with the amount of lift, your vehicle model and year, etc. Generally, you may find many of these kits that will provide a different level of spacing. 2 inches, 2.5 inches, 3 inches, and 3.5 inches spacing are most familiar for leveling a truck.

The price of this kit will differ with your car model and model year. Also, you can’t install a kit on a truck, unless they are made specifically for that model. Otherwise, there will be a risk of damaging the truck’s body. 

Typically, the price of these spacing kits will increase with the level of space you want. If you want 2″ front-end leveling kits, you may have to spend around $45-$85. 

Any 2.5″ and 3″ leveling system will cost you $72-$100 and $75-$115, respectively. But, when you go for a 3.5″ spacing, the price of a leveling accessory will rise to $80-$125. 

So, in a nutshell, if you want to buy any leveling accessories of decent quality, it will cost you around $45-$125. But, if you’re going to buy any high-tech and high-quality kit, you may need to spend around $125-$1,000.

2. Installation Cost

Typically, the installation cost will vary with your location, the shop’s service, and the mechanic’s expertise.  Therefore, the labor cost will be approximately $200-$500. 

Generally, the installation process may take 2-3 hours, which will also vary with the expertise level of a mechanic. In some places, the mechanics will charge you per hour rate for the installation process.

3. Alignment Cost

Leveling may leave your vehicle unstable, and the steering can feel stiff. Besides, the tire of your car may start wearing excessively and also can reduce the fuel economy. To avoid these, an immediate alignment is necessary after leveling your vehicle. 

Most of the technicians will charge you approximately $100 for this alignment. But this charge will also vary from $100-$150.

How To Minimize The Costing Of Leveling A Truck?

From the above discussion, you can see that for leveling a vehicle, you need to spend money in 3 stages. But, there is a scope for minimizing the cost in each stage. Here are the tips:

1. While Buying The Kits

The price of the leveling accessories will vary significantly with different factors. So, if you have a tight budget, you can go for used kits. Generally, pre-owned leveling accessories will cost approximately $20-$45. This is way less than the brand-new kits.

But we don’t recommend buying pre-owned leveling kits as they can get damaged quickly. Also, it may not serve the expected level of performance.

2. Cutting Off The Installation Cost

You can cut off the labor cost for installation by installing it yourself. Here, we are providing a step-by-step process of vehicle leveling:

• Step 1: Collect all the necessary tools like jacks, wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, hammers, etc
• Step 2: Measure the truck’s wheel diameter with measuring tape. For this, when the vehicle is at ground level, to know its height, mark the fender flare at 40 inches
• Step 3: Remove the three screws from the spindle plate. Make sure you are not removing the center nut
• Step 4: Pull out the strut bolts and then pull out the bolts from the base, also
• Step 5: Now, you have to detach the plate from the vehicle’s body
• Step 6: Then, you can use a small amount of thread locker to make sure the extender is there in place
• Step 7: Take any threading tool to thread a stud extender
• Step 8: Tight them by using a torque tightener
• Step 9: Install the strut spacer at its appropriate position
• Step 10: Reattach the spindle plate by following a similar process of detaching it but in a reverse sequence

Now we can tell this is a lot to take in, so check out this video for further convenience

3. Eliminating The Alignment Cost

You can save $100 by aligning your vehicle yourself after leveling. What you need to know is which component requires alignment. Here are steps to understand this process:

• Step 1: Use an angular iron to determine which degree the wheels are in.
• Step 2: Check the specs for your vehicle model and determine how much positive or negative camber you have.
• Step 3:  Locate bolts for camber alignment on the lower controller base.
• Step 4: Turn the bolts slightly using a wrench to maxing or minimize the camber degrees to get the expected specs.
• Step 5: After locking the steering wheel straight, you need to turn on the brake pedal depressor.
• Step 6: Attach measuring heads and centerline scales with the rear and front wheels for measuring thrust angle deviation, respectively.
• Step 7: If the laser reading on the scales is different, proceed with the rear adjustment.
• Step 8: Realign and readjust the rear axle appropriately to make both scale readings the same.
• Step 9: Now, the interchange between the measuring heads and centerline scales. Now adjust the alignment with similar procedures.

This process can also be confusing, so here’s a video for convenience 

Conclusion 

The overall leveling process will cost money at the kit’s price, installation, and alignment. The price range will differ from $45-$1000 according to the car model, quality of the kits, and spacing level.

For installation, you will need to pay the labor cost of approximately $200-$500. But you can eliminate this labor cost if you install the kits yourself. For this, follow the process that we already mentioned in this article.