Chevy Maxx Cam Leveling Kit

By Brian Hofmeister

The Chevy HD2500 is equipped with an independent front suspension that rides very nice.  But it has some disadvantages when used for a commercial plow truck.  One of my friends was getting sick of scraping his plow brackets off curbs while plowing and decided that there had to be something to do about it.  He started by adding Timbrens and cranking the torsion bars.  They helped, but the ride unloaded was horrible.  The truck sat on the timbrens at all times and the truck was bottoming out on them each bump in the road.

Since the truck was used in a snow plowing business, a comfortable ride was not first on the list and the problem of bottoming out on the curbs while plowing was continuing.  After talking to everyone we could, and thinking of ordering different torsion bar keys, we ran across a local company called Suspension Maxx.  They have a product called the maxx cam.  It is basically a torsion bar key that has a hex key that allows it to be adjustable.  They also have a product, like the timbren, but set up for a better ride.  Our game plan on the truck was to raise the front about 2 inches, and install an add a leaf in the rear for mode load carrying, and some height.  We also decided on new 255/85/16 tires to increase the ground clearance.

The new torsion keys are very easy to install once you have the experience of doing one.  The front of the truck was supported by the frame in the air, then we removed the adjustment bolt for the torsion bar keys. The GM torsion bar removal tool to take the pressure off the torsion bars so we could remove the retaining block.  Then we slid the torsion bar key off, and installed the new maxx cam.  Then we put pressure back on the torsion bar, installed the retainer block, and put in the adjustment bolt.  Then you can remove the torsion key tool.  Once we had the torsion bars in we installed the new bump helpers.  They are the blue polyurethane in the back of the picture just to the right.  You can see that this kit has not stressed the CV joint angles.

The rear add a leafs were installed, new tires mounted, balanced, and the truck aligned.  The truck looks totally different.  We added a little more aggressive tires and threw away he street tires that come on it stock.  When the plow was mounted and lifted, the truck only dropped one inch.  The ride actually improved since it was not bottomed out on the trimbrens all the time.

The truck gained 4 inches of clearance with the tires and new maxx cam.  There were no issues with the tires and nothing was trimmed or zipped back.  Everything fit and looked like the truck was made to be this way.  With the minor adjustments made, there has been no topping out of the factory shocks, and there is no reason to replace brand new ones.

If you are thinking of doing this to your truck, I highly recommend you   Read all instructions before starting. The job is not as bad as you would think.  But I cannot stress enough, that you need to have a truck shop do an alignment before traveling far with your vehicle.

Suspension MAXX
407 S. Linn St.
Bay City, Michigan 48706

Phone - 989 892.2013
Fax - 989 892.3745
Toll Free - 1 800 894.4459

E-mail - Larry Verbowski