History related, when did people start lifting Chevy trucks?

[ma3600vz]

Cause old trucks look cooler lolol

old truck is best truck

 

[Mike Gresham]

I believe I may have been one of the early pioneers in GA. I purchased a new 1972 K20 at Lawson Chevrolet in Jasper GA and wanted to lift it, but there wasn't any information to be had anywhere. I had a close friend who owned and operated a machine shop in Marietta, GA, so I had him to produce 4" blocks to be positioned between the axle perches and the springs. I then went to William Harvey Roland Company in Atlanta and had them produce longer U-bolts. I can't remember where I sourced longer shocks but I don't recall any difficulty in doing so. After I got everything assembled and drove the truck for the first time, I realized that something had to be done about the steering. I would hit a bump in the road and the truck would jump to one side and then to the other. After discussing this with the guys at Roland, it was decided to simply jack-up the front end by placing a hydraulic jack under the end of the pitman arm, and then heat the arm with a torch until the weight of the truck repositioned the end of the arm in a level position with the link to the steering box. Worked like a charm. To my knowledge, I am the first to accomplish such a feat, as I had not seen or heard of another lifted truck at that time. Soon afterwards, all my hunting buddies in Paulding County GA were lifting their trucks the same way. I'm now 74 years old and in the process of building a M1028 CUCV military truck which I have lifted 5 inches with springs and readily-available parts from ORD.

 

[Redfish]

Maybe google is different in Europe but here it says aftermarket lift kits started in the 70s. Which makes sense as the previous decade was when all the mfgs finally began offering factory 4wd pickup trucks.
With my earliest memories being in the late 70s early 80s lifted trucks were around but not common. It was a big deal to see a lifted truck back then. Ingrained in my memory because my dad would always comment how stupid or impractical they were. “Spend all that money for a lift and big tires and only increase the ground clearance under the diffs by a couple inches…..waste of money!”

My Dad lifted his '77 GMC while it was still very new. His first modification was a PTO winch, the second a mild lift and a set of mud grip tires.

Regarding the ground clearance, where I live and play we have a lot of very soft, very deep mud. We sometimes call it Gumbo Mud, our first set of mud grips on the '77 were actually Gumbo Mudders. The mud is so soft that the axles would be completely buried and the truck could still be pulling itself through. Many times when the truck was finally "stuck" the mud would be high enough that we could not open the doors. I have had to crawl out of the window, over the hood and then dig down to the winch to start pulling the cable.

I suspect that where the ground is harder and there are rocks the ground clearance under the differentials might have a greater influence.