Leveling Kits with Fitting Position Front and Rear, Front, Rear for 2006 Jeep Wrangler 65th Anniversary Edition

Most trucks leave the factory sitting nose down, and that rake is a design decision rather than an accident.

Leveling kits for your Jeep Wrangler close that gap, raising the front so the vehicle sits flat and gets back the clearance and tire room the rake was taking away.

What Is a Jeep Wrangler Leveling Kit

A truck leveling kit is suspension hardware that raises the front of a truck or SUV to match the height of the rear, which is why a front leveling kit is the most commonly fitted version.

Most kits do the job with a strut spacer. A machined spacer sits above the strut assembly or between the coil and its mount, pushing the suspension down relative to the chassis and raising the body at that corner.

Typical lift is modest, with 2 inch and 3 inch being the common sizes at the front, because the goal is matching the rear rather than lifting the whole vehicle.

That is the entire concept behind a level kit, start to finish. No springs are replaced, no geometry is rebuilt, and the rear of the vehicle usually stays exactly where it was.

What Does a Jeep Wrangler Leveling Kit Do

Three things change when the front comes up to match the rear.

Stance is the most obvious change of the three. The nose down look disappears and the vehicle sits flat, with the tires filling the arches properly, which is why leveling is one of the most common first modifications on a truck.

Front ground clearance improves alongside the change in stance. The approach angle gets better and there is more room between the ground and the front end, which matters on a driveway lip as much as a trail.

Tire fitment opens up as a result as well. The extra space in the front wheel wells is often enough to run a larger tire without cutting anything, and on a lot of trucks that is the real reason the kit goes on.

What a leveling kit does not do is add capability at the rear, increase payload, or improve how the suspension works. All it changes is where the vehicle sits on its suspension.

Jeep Wrangler 2 Inch and 3 Inch Leveling Kits

Height is the main decision and the right figure depends on how much rake the vehicle came with.

A 2 inch leveling kit suits most trucks with moderate factory rake. It brings the front close to level, opens up enough wheel well clearance for a modest tire upgrade, and keeps the geometry change small enough that a standard alignment can absorb it.

A 3 inch leveling kit goes further for vehicles with pronounced rake or builds chasing more tire. The trade off is that geometry moves further from standard, CV angles steepen more on an independent front end, and the alignment has less margin to work with.

Going beyond that generally means a full suspension lift rather than a level, because the correction hardware a larger change needs is not part of a spacer kit.

Measure the actual gap on your own vehicle first. Park on level ground and measure from the center of each wheel hub to the guard lip front and rear, and the difference between those two numbers is the rake you are correcting.

Buying a kit taller than the measured rake leaves the truck sitting nose up, which is the opposite problem.

Why Trucks Like the Jeep Wrangler Come With Factory Rake

Worth understanding, because the rake is deliberate and removing it has consequences.

A truck is designed to carry weight in the bed and tow from the rear. Load it up and the rear squats, so manufacturers build in forward rake so a loaded truck sits level rather than tail down.

That means a leveled truck sits flat empty and nose up loaded. For a vehicle that rarely carries weight, that is a fair trade. For one that tows or hauls regularly, it is worth thinking about.

The rake also affects headlight aim, since the vehicle's leveling system and the beam cutoff are set around the factory attitude.

Leveling Kit vs Lift Kit

The two get confused constantly and they solve different problems.

A leveling kit raises the front only, by a modest amount, to remove factory rake. It is inexpensive, it uses spacers rather than new springs, and it leaves the rear untouched.

A lift kit raises the whole vehicle, front and rear, usually by more. It typically replaces springs and dampers with components specified to work at the new height, and it brings correction hardware for the geometry that changes.

The practical difference is what you are trying to achieve. Chasing stance and a slightly larger tire points at leveling. Chasing ground clearance under the whole vehicle, articulation and serious off road capability points at a lift.

Cost reflects that difference in scope fairly directly. A leveling kit is a fraction of the price of a full lift, and it asks far less of the rest of the vehicle.

Body Lift Against Suspension Lift

A third option exists and it works differently again.

A body lift raises the body off the chassis using spacers at the body mounting points. The suspension, the wheels and the chassis all stay exactly where they were.

That gains room in the wheel wells for larger tires and lifts the body visually, and it changes nothing underneath the vehicle. Ground clearance at the differentials, the sills and the chassis rails is identical to standard.

The advantage is that the suspension geometry is untouched. No camber change, no caster change, no driveline angles to correct, which makes it the simplest route to tire clearance.

The limitation of a body lift is equally clear. If the goal is getting the vehicle's underside further from the ground, a body lift does nothing for it.

Body lift kits include the spacers, extended bolts and the hardware to relocate anything that bridges the body and the chassis, which is why the parts count is high.

What Comes in a Leveling or Lift Kit

Contents depend on what the kit is doing.

Spacer leveling kits supply machined spacers for the front, along with longer fasteners where the spacer adds to the stack.

Front and rear kits add blocks for the rear on leaf sprung vehicles, with new U-bolts to clamp them, since the originals will no longer be long enough and are single use once torqued.

Body lift kits supply spacers for every body mounting point, extended bolts, washers and the brackets needed where components cross between body and chassis.

Check what the kit covers before ordering, since a kit raising both ends is a different product to one correcting rake at the front.

What Changes After Leveling a Truck

Raising the front moves more than the stance, and these are worth budgeting for.

The alignment moves the moment the front comes up. Camber and caster both change when the front suspension sits at a different point in its arc, and a leveled truck needs aligning afterward without exception.

Headlight aim changes with the attitude of the vehicle, and on anything with automatic leveling the ride height sensor reads the new position and compensates.

CV angles steepen on an independent front end. A modest level is usually within tolerance, and larger ones can bring a differential drop into the conversation.

Ball joint and CV wear accelerates if the geometry is left uncorrected, which is the hidden cost of a cheap kit fitted without an alignment.

Tire clearance needs checking at full lock and full compression rather than at ride height, because the wheel well is smallest at the extremes and a rubbing tire loses grip as well as tread.

Fitting a Jeep Wrangler Leveling Kit

Spacer kits are among the simpler suspension jobs and the preparation matters more than the fitting.

Support the vehicle properly and take the weight off the suspension before anything comes apart, since strut assemblies are under spring load.

Use the fasteners supplied rather than the originals, because spacers add to the stack and factory bolts will run short on thread.

Torque to specification and check clearance around brake lines, ABS cables and the sway bar links once everything is together, with the suspension cycled through its full travel.

Book the alignment before the vehicle goes back on the road rather than afterward.

On a leaf sprung rear with blocks, retorque the U-bolts after the first few hundred miles, since the pack settles and the clamping load drops.

Choosing Between Leveling and Lifting for Your Jeep Wrangler

Start with what the truck actually does day to day.

A daily driven truck that rarely carries weight and wants a flat stance plus a slightly larger tire is the clearest case for leveling.

A truck that tows or hauls regularly should think about whether removing the rake is right, since the factory attitude exists for exactly that reason.

A vehicle headed off road properly, needing ground clearance under the diffs and real articulation, wants a suspension lift rather than a level.

And a build chasing tire clearance alone, with no interest in changing suspension geometry, is what a body lift is for.

Budget for the alignment in all cases, since it is required rather than optional.

Find Leveling Kits for Your Jeep Wrangler

For fine-tuning front ride height, coil spring spacers sit alongside our leveling kits.

Select your Jeep Wrangler to see the leveling kits, lift kits and body lift kits available for it. Check the lift height and what the kit covers at each end before ordering, and plan for an alignment once it is fitted. Every part ships within 24 hours with 30 day returns and a US based support team.