How Much Does It Cost to Lift a Truck? Kit + Install + Alignment + Tires

Ask a forum “how much does it cost to lift a truck?” and you will get answers from $150 to $10,000 — all of them honest, none of them comparable. The spread is not people lying. It is people answering different questions: one bought a spacer kit and turned his own wrenches, another paid a shop for a coilover system, wheels and 37s in the same visit.

This guide separates the bill into the four lines every lift actually has — kit, labour, alignment, tires — and prices each line from the sources we verified in our research (checked 2026-11-03, cited at the bottom of this page). We have not installed or hands-on tested these kits; this is a verified-spec cost comparison, and our method is in how we test and verify. If you have not decided which kind of lift you are buying yet, start with leveling kit vs lift kit vs body lift — the type decision moves your budget more than any brand choice.

The full tier table

All figures below are the ranges verified in our research. Parts prices are US prices at the time of checking and will move; labour ranges are the published ranges from the guides and installers cited.

Tier	Kit / parts	Labour	Alignment	Realistic installed total*
Spacer leveling kit	$100–$1,000 (a Rough Country 2″ F-150 spacer kit lists at $99.95; loaded-strut leveling kits run about $350–$770)	$150–$400	$75–$200	About $200–$500 at one installer we cited, for a basic level
Body lift (1–3″)	$100–$800	$300–$700	$75–$200	Kit + labour puts most body lifts in the high hundreds to low thousands
Mid lift, 3–3.5″ (SST-type)	$699.95–$949.95 (ReadyLIFT 3.5″ SST for the F-150, depending on SKU and seller)	Full-lift labour applies	$75–$200	Suspension lifts in the 3–4″ class total about $1,200–$3,000 installed in the anchors we cited
Suspension lift, 4–6″ (quality systems)	$1,000–$5,000+ generally; BDS 6″ examples run $2,063–$7,456 depending on platform and shocks	$300–$1,800+ overall; a 6″ professional install typically runs $1,000–$1,800 on its own	$75–$200	About $2,500–$5,000+ for 6″ and up
Premium coilover systems	At the top of the ranges above (a BDS Tacoma 6″ kit with Fox 2.5 coilovers is listed at $3,828.35 in our research)	$1,000–$1,800 typical for the class	$75–$200	$4,000–$8,000+ installed

*Installed totals are the worked anchors published by the installers and guides we cite — your truck, region and shop rate will move them. And if the lift exists to fit bigger tires, add the fifth line: a set of 33–37″ tires runs roughly $1,500–$3,000+, before wheels.

Worked examples, tier by tier

These are illustrations built from the cited figures, not quotes. Use them to sanity-check a real quote, not to hold a shop to a stranger’s arithmetic.

The budget level. A 2″ spacer kit at about $100–$200 in parts, $150–$400 of shop labour and a $75–$200 alignment lands most owners in the $300–$700 band all-in; the installer anchor in our research quotes $200–$500 installed for a basic leveling job. Staying on factory tires keeps it there. This is the only tier where the kit is not the main cost — the labour and alignment are.

The mid lift. A 3.5″ SST-type kit at $699.95–$949.95 in parts, plus full-lift labour and an alignment, is how owners land in the $1,200–$3,000 installed band our sources publish for 3–4″ suspension lifts. The jump from the budget tier is not the extra two inches — it is that you have left spacer territory and entered “components get replaced” territory: control arms, struts or shocks, and the labour hours that come with them.

The full 6-inch build. Take a BDS 6″ system somewhere in its $2,063–$7,456 parts range, add the typical $1,000–$1,800 for professional installation at this height, an alignment, and — because nobody lifts six inches to run the stock tires — a $1,500–$3,000+ set of 35s or 37s. The honest total is $4,500 at the very bottom and well past $8,000 for a premium coilover build, which matches the $4,000–$8,000+ premium anchor in our research. If a quote for this tier comes in dramatically under that, a line is missing from it. Find out which one before you book.

The hidden costs nobody puts in the headline price

Alignment is mandatory, not upsell. Every source we cite treats a post-lift alignment as non-negotiable, and specialised alignment on a lifted truck can run above the standard $75–$200 range. Skipping it converts your $1,500 tire set into a wear experiment.

Gearing is a consideration on big tires, not a surprise to discover later. Moving to much taller tires changes your truck’s effective gearing — it will feel lazier and the speedometer will read low. Whether regearing is worth its considerable cost depends on your tire size jump, your engine and how you use the truck. We are deliberately not publishing a “regear at X inches” threshold here: the honest version is platform-specific, and we have not verified one. Raise it with your installer before the tires go on, while it is still a decision and not a complaint.

The parts the kit assumes you have. Some lift systems assume supporting parts — extended brake lines, aftermarket upper control arms, a carrier-bearing drop — that are either in the box, listed as required options, or simply expected. This is the most common reason two quotes for “the same lift” differ by four figures.

Your time, if you DIY. A spacer level is a few hours for a competent home mechanic. A full suspension lift is a long day or a weekend on stands, and one seized crossmember bolt away from a second weekend. Price your own time honestly before claiming the labour saving.

DIY vs professional install

	DIY	Professional
Realistic for	Spacer leveling kits; mechanically confident owners with a proper jack, stands and torque wrench	Everything at 3″ and above, and any kit on a truck with adaptive dampers or driver-assistance systems
Cash cost	Alignment only ($75–$200) — you cannot align a truck in a driveway to spec	$150–$400 (leveling) to $1,000–$1,800 (6″ install)
Time cost	Your weekend, and your problem if a bolt disagrees	Booked, warrantied labour
Risk	A geometry or torque mistake is a safety issue, not a cosmetic one	The shop owns the comeback if it pulls, wanders or clunks

Our standing recommendation, printed on every guide on this site: for anything beyond a simple spacer level, professional installation plus an alignment is the default. That is not us being precious — suspension is the system that steers and stops the truck.

So, what should you budget?

Decide the tire first — it picks the tier. 33s point at the budget level (run them through the tire size calculator if your size is metric, and read our tire size and lift height guide for how much lift each diameter actually needs). 35s point at the mid or full tiers. 37s are a full-build budget, full stop. Then price your exact platform: the Ford F-150 hub carries the verified fitment and kit data for the best-selling truck in the US, and every hub on this site follows the same rule — if we cannot source a figure, the cell stays empty rather than filled with a guess.

Sources for the figures in this guide (checked 2026-11-03): JCDR Ontario’s lift kit cost guide (tier ranges, labour, alignment); American Fusion Wheels’ lift kit ranges (installed totals); EngineerFix on 6-inch lift costs (labour hours and rates); ReadyLIFT’s SST overview (3.5″ SST pricing); Stillen’s Rough Country listing and SD Wheel’s BDS listings for the kit prices named above, via our research report notes.