I have a 2002 Z71 ECSB and it presently has a Rough Country Leveling Kit installed on it. This let me raise the front just shy of 2 inches, and the rear, 1 inch. It still rides (and drives) great but did quickly wear out both the idler arm, and the pitman arm, before I installed the Cognito Motorsports support kit.

I have everything, except the shocks, that would allow me to lower it, roughly 3/5".
K2500 Torsion Keys
New u-bolts (so I can remove spacer blocks)
BellTech 2" lowering hangers

Doing the swap is no big deal, and it's mainly just a cosmetic change thing as I get bored rather quickly. I've even considered swapping to lowered during the Summer, and back to lifted during the Winter, since I can't seem to keep a decent alignment, for some reason, anyway.

What's the consensus as far as which setup will be more rough on the truck?

I've read some people saying that lifted trucks suffer in the gas mileage area, but I get 16 or so MPG's in mixed driving, which I don't think is too bad for how I drive.

FWIW, I've also already ditched the 33's as pictured below (in signature), and now have later stock model 17's...so clearance is a non-issue, or at least should be.

 

wear and tear depends on how rough your roads are. if your truck is lowered, then you have less suspension travel to compensate for the holes in the road.

 

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I'm in a "roads salted when it snows" area (Baltimore), and from that comes potholes, so maybe I'll leave well enough alone.

 

I would look into why you can't keep an alignment before anything. Up or down properly installed shouldn't make a huge difference in wear and tear and should keep alignment. You only start running into problems with extreme drops on 4x4s. When I dropped my 99 NBS 4x4 the max every manufactor said was 3" before it starts tearing apart components because of the harsh angles. And all recommend staying away from keys if possible (even though they make and sell them)

 

The alignment issue popped up as soon as I swapped from 33's, back down to stock height/width tires and wheels. I'm definitely no alignment wiz, but I just assumed that had something to do with it since it was aligned with 33's, but now has 31's

 

That's the same drop I have had for over 12k and I haven't worn anything out (yet)...at least not in the front end lol. The angles aren't very extreme at all...we have salted roads and potholes too. I was able to align it too

 

Good deal. I was just looking on your webpage and that's pretty much exactly how I would like mine to sit...Thanks for the info.