I have a Ram Promaster City--Scotty's favorite car!. The front clearance is about 5". I would like to increase this clearance so I won't hit parking blocks, which tend to be 6". Folks online seem to place 40mm strut spacers (eg Tema 4x4 on ebay) on all 4 wheels to give an extra 1.5" of clearance while keeping the overall factory "level" similar. Is there any major downside to doing this? It doesn't appear very expensive. I presume the wheels don't need to be re-aligned after since they will be the same? Not looking for bigger wheels just a tad more ground clearance. Thanks!
I presume the wheels don't need to be re-aligned
Of course you must align the wheels. Moving the struts changes the suspension geometry. Make sure there is enough adjustment in the alignment to account for the change in camber.
Is there any major downside to doing this?
You are taking the vehicle outside of it's engineered range of use, so certainly there are trade-offs. Whether or not they're worth it will require experience and knowledge of your particular vehicle.
Obviously it moves your center of gravity higher. On a tall vehicle like yours with an already high center of gravity, this increases your chances of roll-over in accidents or swerving manoeuvres.
At minimum it puts more stress on the strut mounts. You will likely experience accelerated wear on CV axles and steering linkage (due to increased angles)
It's a cargo vehicle right. So I'm sure you're aware your floor height will be higher when loading.
I would at least talk to some other owners who have done it first.
Thank you for the information.
The few folks who posted online about this for my model car did not rebalance their wheels after (as long as they didn't change the wheels used). They said they had no problems. General web searching revealed that an alignment in this scenario may not be needed, but opinions vary quite a bit. That said, I agree with you that it would make sense to re-align them.
The van in question is a cargo van (the promaster city, not promaster) with a relatively low center of gravity as far as I can tell (it's a few inches shorter than my OEM jeep wrangler). The van is 74" high. Folks routinely add spacers to the front only to level the van since, as you know, it's higher in the back and only levels when fully loaded.
Anyhow, thanks again for the post. Since the Promaster City is basically a poorly built Fiat Doblo made in Turkey, maybe the "lift" will be an improvement and reduce the wear on components and make the van drive safer!