Hi, I have a 2017 Yukon XL Denali with about 116k miles on it..purchased new. It's the wife's car so it's mostly driven around town shuttling the kids or taken on road trips. Truck has been completely stock up until recently. My plan is to slowly build it up for mild off-road use. Before the kids, I had a built '02 R50 Pathfinder that we took on trips all the time. Was a great overland rig, but I needed the space so we went with the XL. Now that the kids are old enough to go on longer trips, I'm hoping to make the Yukon a bit more capable; not MOAB stuff by any means, but more along the lines of Cathedral Valley trail, white rim trail, mogollon rim etc. That's about it for the backstory so on to the build:
Last month I removed the OEM struts/coils/rear shocks and deleted the MRC. I replaced the fronts with Fox 2.0 Coil-overs (#985-02-018) and the rears with Fox 2.5 Piggybacks (No DSC Adjuster, figured that was overkill and wouldn't get much use out of it). The rear coils were replaced with the Z71 coils (Moog #81069). That gave about an extra 1" of lift in the rear compared to OEM. I also, installed Dirt King tubular front upper control arms.
Few side notes regarding the install for anyone who may plan to do something similar for their yukon/suburban in the future:
1) The Fox 2.5 rears are designed for the sierra/silverado pickups so the rear passenger's side shock will need to be clocked 90 degrees for it to fit. I mentioned this to DK over the phone before ordering..told them I had a Yukon and it needed to be clocked, but when the shocks came in the mail it wasn't done. 4wheel parts and a couple other shops said they couldn't do it and it would need to be sent back to Fox in order for the res to be rotated. This was bad news because I was doing the work at my buddy's house in Phoenix and needed to drive the truck back home to SoCal. Luckily I called, Shock Therapy in Phoenix and they said to bring it in and they would take care of it. Drove to their shop and within 15 minutes they had it clocked and ready to go, they didn't even want anything for it! Awesome service and I really appreciated them helping me out. Aside from that hiccup, installing both front and rears was straight forward with no issues. I did leave the coil-overs at their pre-set height which gave me a 4" height increase over where it was at, but remember my oem struts were shot and sagging. After the install I sat 38" from ground to fender on both passenger/driver side in the front and 38.5" in the rear. I've put about 2k miles since install and the front is still at 38" and the rear settled 0.5" so it's also at 38".
2) DK Upper Tubular control arms: installing these UCAs will require you to cut off the bump stops. You will then also need to come up with a way to attach the ABS sensor lines. I cut a piece of clear tube and wrapped it around the control arm and then zip tied the bracket over the tube.
3) I purchased MRC Delete Sims off Amazon so that I would not get service suspension codes on the dash. Paid $140 per pair (You will need 2 pairs, so $280 total). They've worked great so far, no issues.
4) After removing the rear auto-level shocks and installing the 2.5s, the air compressor will continually run. I left the compressor in place and just capped the line. I also removed the fuse to turn the compressor off.
Aside from the suspension work, my buddy and I also took the time to do some general maintenance. Replaced the spark plugs, put new belts, and replaced the passenger's side head-light bulb which was a real PIA.
Last month I removed the OEM struts/coils/rear shocks and deleted the MRC. I replaced the fronts with Fox 2.0 Coil-overs (#985-02-018) and the rears with Fox 2.5 Piggybacks (No DSC Adjuster, figured that was overkill and wouldn't get much use out of it). The rear coils were replaced with the Z71 coils (Moog #81069). That gave about an extra 1" of lift in the rear compared to OEM. I also, installed Dirt King tubular front upper control arms.
Few side notes regarding the install for anyone who may plan to do something similar for their yukon/suburban in the future:
1) The Fox 2.5 rears are designed for the sierra/silverado pickups so the rear passenger's side shock will need to be clocked 90 degrees for it to fit. I mentioned this to DK over the phone before ordering..told them I had a Yukon and it needed to be clocked, but when the shocks came in the mail it wasn't done. 4wheel parts and a couple other shops said they couldn't do it and it would need to be sent back to Fox in order for the res to be rotated. This was bad news because I was doing the work at my buddy's house in Phoenix and needed to drive the truck back home to SoCal. Luckily I called, Shock Therapy in Phoenix and they said to bring it in and they would take care of it. Drove to their shop and within 15 minutes they had it clocked and ready to go, they didn't even want anything for it! Awesome service and I really appreciated them helping me out. Aside from that hiccup, installing both front and rears was straight forward with no issues. I did leave the coil-overs at their pre-set height which gave me a 4" height increase over where it was at, but remember my oem struts were shot and sagging. After the install I sat 38" from ground to fender on both passenger/driver side in the front and 38.5" in the rear. I've put about 2k miles since install and the front is still at 38" and the rear settled 0.5" so it's also at 38".
2) DK Upper Tubular control arms: installing these UCAs will require you to cut off the bump stops. You will then also need to come up with a way to attach the ABS sensor lines. I cut a piece of clear tube and wrapped it around the control arm and then zip tied the bracket over the tube.
3) I purchased MRC Delete Sims off Amazon so that I would not get service suspension codes on the dash. Paid $140 per pair (You will need 2 pairs, so $280 total). They've worked great so far, no issues.
4) After removing the rear auto-level shocks and installing the 2.5s, the air compressor will continually run. I left the compressor in place and just capped the line. I also removed the fuse to turn the compressor off.
Aside from the suspension work, my buddy and I also took the time to do some general maintenance. Replaced the spark plugs, put new belts, and replaced the passenger's side head-light bulb which was a real PIA.
