How Much Lift to Fit 35s on a Silverado 1500?

The honest answer, up front: on a standard-height T1XX Silverado or Sierra, no leveling kit’s manufacturer states a 35-inch fitment — the leveling claims stop at 33-inch-class tires. There are exactly two manufacturer-stated routes to a 35 on this platform, and both are in this guide with their conditions attached: a 4-inch SST lift on a standard truck, or the Trail Boss’s factory lift plus its trim-specific leveling kit. If your plan was “2-inch level and 35s,” the manufacturers’ own paperwork is the thing standing in your way — not our opinion.

When we first researched this platform, we could not verify a Silverado 35-inch claim from quality sources and said so. What changed is that we went to the kit manufacturers’ fitment documentation itself. This page is built only on claims a manufacturer states for a specific kit — checked 2026-11-03 — and our method is in how we test and verify. We have not test-fitted any of these combinations.

First, what counts as a 35 here

Both verified routes are stated in metric: 295/65R20. Do the arithmetic — 295 mm wide, 65% sidewall, 20-inch wheel — and it measures about 35.1 inches in diameter. ReadyLIFT itself quotes the size as a “35×11.50 max,” which is the honest way to read it: a true 35-inch-class tire, roughly an inch narrower than a 35×12.50 flotation tire. That narrower width is load-bearing in these claims. A 35×12.50 is a different, harder fitment, and neither route below should be read as covering it. If the width is the point of your build, you are shopping beyond manufacturer-stated claims and into test-fit territory. The tire size calculator converts any size you are considering.

Route one: the 4-inch SST lift (standard trucks)

ReadyLIFT’s 69-39400 4.0″ SST Lift Kit ($949.95 in ReadyLIFT’s shop) lifts a standard T1XX truck 4 inches at the front and 3 at the rear, with tubular upper control arms — and its documentation states the tire claim plainly: max tire 295/65R20 on a 20×9 wheel with 0 offset, for 2019–2022 Chevrolet trucks. Three conditions ride along, and all three are the kind that get lost in a listing summary:

• Badge and year cap. GMC trucks, and 2023+ Chevrolets, max out at 295/55R20 on this same kit — ReadyLIFT cites fender flare clearance. A Sierra owner reading a Silverado claim is reading the wrong row.
• The leaf-spring check. Trucks with rear composite mono-leaf springs (identifiable by round U-bolts) need an additional U-bolt kit before this lift fits; steel-leaf trucks (square U-bolts) do not.
• The exclusion list. Not compatible with Trail Boss, ZR2, AT4 or AT4X; not compatible with Super Cruise or the 2019 Limited old-body truck; Auto 4 Hi use is not recommended; the single-cab configuration is unvalidated. In its favour, this is the rare larger GM lift that is built to work with Adaptive Ride Control.

Note what the claim does not say: no trimming is mentioned either way. We record that as “none stated in the source” in the table below — which is a statement about the documentation, not a promise about your truck. Test-fit before you commit, as ReadyLIFT itself advises.

Route two: Trail Boss + 66-3921 (the factory-lift shortcut)

The Trail Boss leaves the factory with a 2-inch lift and a longer front strut, which is why standard kits exclude it — and why its arithmetic is different. ReadyLIFT’s 66-3921 ($529.95) adds 1.75 inches of front lift with replacement tubular upper control arms, engineered around that factory lift, and states a max tire of 295/65R20 on a 20×9 with 0 offset for the Trail Boss. Total front lift over a standard truck: roughly 3.75 inches — in the same territory as route one’s 4-inch kit, reached from the opposite direction. The GMC AT4 on the same kit is capped at 275/60-20, because its fender opening differs; the badges diverge at the arch, again. Our Silverado leveling kits guide covers this kit in its trim-by-trim comparison.

ZR2 and AT4X owners should note where they land: excluded from the SST kit, and their own ReadyLIFT leveling kit (66-32150) states a 33×11.50 maximum, 295/60-20 with trimming. There is no manufacturer-stated 35 route for the ZR2 / AT4X in the sources we verified — the flagships’ DSSV hardware narrows their catalogue, and this is where it shows.

The verified rows, in one table

Every T1XX fitment row in our dataset, rendered from data — the 33-inch leveling row from the platform’s mainstream kit, the ZR2 row, and the two 35-inch rows this page exists to document:

Offset and trimming, on this platform

Both 35-inch claims name the same wheel — 20×9, 0 offset — which is not a coincidence. Zero offset keeps the tire’s steering arc where the fender was designed for it; the Chevy-versus-GMC maximum split exists purely because of clearance at the flare, and a more negative offset spends exactly that clearance. On trimming, this platform’s manufacturer documentation is quieter than Ford’s: neither 35 route states a trimming requirement, and neither states “no trimming” as a guarantee. The correct reading is the fitter’s one — the claim is the wheel, the tire and the kit as a set, verified by test fit, and any change to one leg reopens the question. Our tire size and lift height guide explains how to interrogate claims like these on any platform.

Before you order: the three checks

Both routes fail in predictable places, and all three are checkable in your driveway. One: the badge-and-year row. Confirm whether your truck takes the Chevrolet 2019–2022 maximum or the GMC / 2023+ maximum — the difference is a whole tire size, decided by fender design, not by the kit. Two: the rear springs. Look at the U-bolts over the rear leaf springs: square means steel leaves and a straightforward install; round means the composite mono-leaf, and the SST route needs its additional U-bolt kit (67-39530UB) before anything is ordered. Three: the factory-lift question. If your truck is a Trail Boss, AT4, ZR2 or AT4X, route one is closed to you no matter what a configurator suggests — those trims are excluded by name, and your options are the trim-specific kits in our Silverado leveling guide. Ten minutes with a flashlight and the build sheet answers all three, and every one of them is cheaper to learn before the lift is on a pallet.

Pricing the two routes

Route two is the cheap 35 if you already own the truck it requires: a $529.95 kit plus labour and alignment, on top of a factory lift you paid for at purchase. Route one is a $949.95 kit in the 3–4-inch class, which our cost guide puts at roughly $1,200–$3,000 installed before tires — and a set of 35s runs about $1,500–$3,000+ on top of either route. There is no third, cheaper route in the verified record; a 2-inch level and a prayer is a forum build, not a fitment claim. Start from the full picture on the Silverado hub, and if you are still choosing the lift type itself, leveling kit vs lift kit vs body lift comes first.

Sources for this guide (checked 2026-11-03): ReadyLIFT’s 66-3921 product page (Trail Boss max tire, stated on the manufacturer page); ReadyLIFT’s product documentation for the 69-39400 4.0″ SST kit (max tire by badge and year, ARC compatibility, mono-leaf note, exclusions), as published in ReadyLIFT’s shop listing for the GM 1500 and reproduced in full by its dealers, including Suspension Lifts’ 69-39400 listing; ReadyLIFT’s 66-32150 product page (the ZR2 / AT4X ceiling).