Whether you’re an off-road enthusiast or just want the biggest, baddest truck around, knowing how to properly measure the lift height on your vehicle can be pretty important. It’s a simple procedure, but it’s not really common knowledge, so here’s a quick run-down of what you need to do.

The first step in the process is to make sure that all four tires have an even amount of air pressure in them and that they are inflated to the proper amount for your vehicle. The reason for this is so that you will get an accurate measurement on all four corners.

The next step is to park the vehicle on a nice level surface, like a parking lot. Hopefully you don’t live in Denver, Colorado or Salt Lake City, Utah, where almost all of the driveways and parking lots are on a slant. Once you find a flat surface to park on, get out of the vehicle, and get your tape measure, pen and paper. Starting with the passenger front, measure from the ground to the bottom of the fender straight through the center of the tire. Write down your measurement and move to the passenger rear and repeat the measurement and write it down. Follow the same steps on the driver’s side.

After you have all four measurements, you can take the smaller measurement on the driver’s side (almost always the front) and subtract it from the larger measurement on the same side. Repeat these steps for the passenger side and you will see how far off from level your truck is.

A common result is that one side of the vehicle sits a little taller than the other. This is pretty common, since most vehicles will lean a little bit towards the side of the truck that the fuel tank is on, so unless it’s a difference of a few inches between the driver and passenger side then it’s really nothing to worry about.

Whether it’s a simple budget boost or a complete custom suspension with a solid axle conversion, find a team of experts at your local garage to find the parts you need, and the answers to all of your questions.

For those of you who don’t follow what’s being said here, a suspension lift is a modification that Jeep, truck, SUV and off-road enthusiasts like to do to raise the ride height of their vehicle. A lot of other factors are impacted when lifts are installed, so be sure to find an expert garage to advise you on your project.