nivomats

Ive got a 3"BL & want to add 2.5" in the rear & ford keys up front. Ive read somthing about "nivomats" and this is bad or somthing like that. what is this & how do i know if i have them? Ive got a 03' LS 4x4

i had the same question. Took me a while to get the answer. If you have nivomats, it will affect what you need to do for the rear suspension. From what I understand (and please correct me if I'm wrong), the nivomats work with your coils to provide your payload capacity. If you remove the nivomats, your stock coils may not be enough to support your payload if you decide to tow. So when I put on new bils 5100 I also had to install coils from a z71 tahoe, which dont necessarily add height but are more for payload capacity (if you tow). There are some members on here who know a lot more and were very helpful. Here is my old post regarding nivomats:

http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23373&highlight=nivomats


And hopefully this will help...

a) you can check your RPO code, most likely in your glove box. The code for nivomats (premium smooth ride suspension) is ZW7.

b) or you can look under the car and see if you have these:

Yea, i think i have them. So to put spacers in the back, i have to replace the coils to z71 coils in the rear?

Do they make an extension for the rear shocks? Will i loose any height taking my coils & shocks and replacing them? If i put 2.5" spacers in the rear, do i have to replace the shocks?

If you just want to add spacers, you dont have to get z71 coils. But you might have to do something with the shocks if you are going to add 2.5" to the rear. Not sure if they make shock extensions for rear shocks. But getting bils would take care of that because they make a shock long enough for 2" spacers. But if you do get the bils, you would probably want to swap out the OEM coils and put in z71 coils. It was explained to me that the nivomats help with payload, so if you take them out, your coils will be carrying most of the weight, which your stock coils can probably do but it will affect the ride and towing capacity. By putting in z71 coils, which have about 750 lbs more payload capacity each in each coil, you will increase payload and be ok.

Z71 coils do not add height, or if they do, it's maybe a minimal .75". It's more for payload than adding height.

so the rear of a z71 dont have nivomats? how do you like your set up? how does it compare to factory? You have 2" spacers, z71 coils & ford keys?

i have the stock replacement bils on my z71 and i dont like them i want to go back to stock... just fyi