2015 TRD OFFROAD, WHICH LIFT?

ok so here's the deal. A few months ago I bought a 2015 tacoma. TRD offroad package. I must add I absolutely love the truck. So the other day my old man called me up and said he was about to buy a new set of tires for his Tahoe, I had mentioned before that I wanted to put bigger more aggressive tires on the truck. So he said I could give him my tires that are on my truck (265/70-16) and he would buy me a new set and I pay the price gap from what mine cost new to the ones I get. Sounds good to me. So I get a pretty good bonus from work around the 1st week of May, and I want to put a lift on the truck. Been browsing around at 2.5" lifts. Don't really wanna go a full 3" because I've heard that this will cause a lot of stress on the CV boots. And since the truck doesn't even have a full 2500 miles on it yet I'm in no hurry to blow a CV lol. So now the questions before I ramble on and on some more

1. Which lift would you reccomended? I'd like to stay under $650-$700 if possible. I love the height and stance of the trd pro. That's really what I'm going for.

2. What would be the biggest or best looking size tire to run that I could fit? If I'm not mistaken the trd pro comes with 265/75-16's.. So I'll keep those in mind

3.ill have to keep my stick rims for a while until I can afford the trd beadlock style. Love those things. That being said, would I need 1.25" spacers for a trd pro looking stance?

 

Something to keep in mind, some people need to go with an aftermarket adjustable upper control arm to be able to get correct caster adjustments at 2.5" of lift.

For the front you can get bilstein 5100's, an adjustable coil over that can be set at 2.5" using factory springs or aftermarket springs.

 

Like this one? I'd like it to set pretty level. I don't really like a large rake. A little isn't bad. So should I go with a 1.5" block or the 2" AAL

 

Around how much would I have to spend for a set of UCA's?

 

That kit will work. I would go with an aal or a leaf kit as opposed to a block. UCAs will be $400-$600.

 

Well considering its gunna be around $1200+ for the lift and UCA's I may just go with the Billys up front set at 1.75, moondeath how did u get the 1" in the rear? I don't wanna be nose high and according to the measurements I got I'd be about .25-.50 nose high with 1.75 in the front. Since I can't afford that I'll be looking into new wheels. If I don't want to run spacers and have the tires at least flush or about 1" past the flares what offset woulf I need? And what is the minimum back spacing for a taco?

 

I have a 1" block in the rear. I'll be changing over to a different leaf pack at some point. The only positive thing about a small block is it retains the factory ride. I had a 1.5" aal before and I didn't like the rough ride, so I went with a small block.

When I originally set mine at 1.75" without a rear lift, my truck sat close to level. I have the factory 3+1 rear leaf.

0 offset will give you a wide stance without the tire tread sticking out past the fenders. My wheels have 0 offset and 4.5" backspacing. I'm not sure what the minimum would be. Factory Tacoma wheels have about +32mm offset.

 

I have a new 2015 as well. I put on 265/75R16 BFG All-Terrain A/T KO2's, and they fit just fine on the stock truck (stock rims and no rubbing ever anywhere). The tires raise it 1+" above the ground, and that is a "real" lift and the one that counts the most!

My rear came stock with 3+1 leaves, so the rear is plenty high already. I will eventually do Billstein 5100's set at 1.75", just to get front level with the back. My friends who have gone with higher lifts and monster tires, have all seen their gas mileage go way down....

 

My last Tacoma I had at 2.5" without any sacrifice to fuel mileage. Big heavy tires are what will kill your mpgs. 265/75-16 load c is a safe size and weight. You won't see much loss. In the summer with that size I get about 22 mpgs highway.

 

I was thinking about a rear block too. Same as yours. I don't do much offroading just the occasional trail dirt and gravel to a fishing spot or for hunting so I don't think axle wrap would be a big issue for me, but then again I havent ever lufted a vehicle. So I'm clueless. As far as rims I've been looking at these. 0mm offset. Do you know of any wheels that look like the trd wheels? I just can't see paying $1200 for a set of trd rims. Thanks for all ur help btw I appreciate it

 

1" block isn't terrible. It's a more comfortable ride, but it does make the rear leafs arch in the center slightly. I think I get some axle wrap when stopping. I notice when I let off my brakes at a stop light that it will jump ever so slightly. I'm not positive, but I think that's what it is.

I don't personally know of any wheels that look like trd, but I'm sure there are some. OEM wheels will be way over priced. My wheels only cost $115 a piece.

 

When you say CLOSE to level was the front higher than the rear with just the Billies at 1.75? I have the front billies new in the boxes and dont want to touch the back at all, just level. I have the 4 leaf pack, 2013 Sport Double cab, long bed. I was gonna set at 1.75 but there are so many posts with conflicting information, the front sits "nose" high, TACO lean, ETC.

 

Mine is also a 2013 dclb sport. With just the front at 1.75, it literally depended on the angle you looked at it. Sometimes it looked perfectly level, and sometimes just a hair high in the front. Once anything was in the bed it went nose high.

It probably also depended on how much fuel was in the tank at the time. A full tank of gas weighs about 127 lbs.

That's why I went with the 1" in the rear. I almost always have tools or something in the bed. Currently, if I have no load and a close to empty tank I have rake, but nothing drastic at all.

I'll try and get a picture up with it loaded.

 

This is with about 150lbs of tools and material plus a little over a quater tank of gas. Sits with just a slight rake.

 

3" won't hurt your CV's, when you start getting over that is when it becomes an issue.

 

Perfect, thank you for your help and the photo, you truck looks great

 

I'd like to let you know my experience with the 5100 front shocks on my 2013 DCSB V6 6 spd. TRD OFF ROAD 18,000 miles as it is applicable to this thread. I have 3 leaf stock rear springs and I have installed Monroe Air Adjustable shocks in the rear to help with the payload carrying deficiencies we all know about. Stock ride heights with 40psi in rear shocks, 34 1/2" front and 36" rear. On Sunday we installed the 5100 shocks at 1.75 " snap ring setting. My son and I used the no spring compressor method posted elsewhere on this forum to install the shocks. That part was painless and in about an hour and a quarter the shocks were in and done. Front measurement 36 1/4" front and 35 1/2" rear. As a note, every 10 psi in the air shocks raises the rear about 1/8 inch.

We headed out to GOODYEAR to get the front end aligned and within the first 1/8 mile, noticed the front end vibration. I attributed this to the alignment being off. The ride quality was firmer but not objectionable and our roads here are awful after the winter. Goodyear aligned the truck which rides on new Firestone Destination A/T'S 245/75/16. They got decent alignment numbers (within Hunter Wheel Aligner specs.) except for steering axis inclination (SAI) which was 1 degree and 2 degrees, depending on side, out of spec. Driving home there was no improvement in vibration at all. The tires also looked like they had positive camber. I should mention that switching to 4wd, allowing front drive shaft to spin and load the front end and axles, eliminated the vibration.

Today, on the way to work, in 2wd, it still had vibrations and steering return was not as nearly as good as it was before lift. This was apparent on high crown roads.

I brought the truck home tonight and we removed the shocks, reset them to zero lift and reinstalled. This took about 45 minutes ,again with the no spring compressor method. We marked the camber adjusters as Goodyear had set them and reassembled the truck. A test drive showed no vibration at all. Measurements 34 1/2" front (from ground to bottom of fender) 36" rear.

Ride quality over stock... not sure of any big improvement. Time will tell I guess.

Bottom line- lifting this truck will change axle CV angles and that will cause vibration that is similar to but not nearly as bad as running on a rumble strip. It sounds like old bias ply snow tire noise except that the Destination A/T'S were quiet before and again after removal of lift. The vibration occured at varying speeds less than 40 MPH in my case. You can feel it in the floor and gas pedal and hear it as well.

I should also mention that with the air shocks I varied the rear end height but that had no effect on this vibration at all.

I have read here of many trouble free installs of these shocks but this was my experience. I was not confident in the .85 setting being any better so I didn't try it.

 

Thanks for chiming in, every experience shared is knowledge gained on my end. I wonder why vibrations etc. are so case by case truck by truck. You'd think they'd all have at least similar problems. But it seems everyone of them is different. I wonder if the shocks come with any kind of money back type of refund? I would guess not.. I'll definately have to do some digging around and see what I can find about the front end vibrations. And I'll probably end up making myself paranoid about lifting lol. I swear I change my mind more than I change my underwear.

 

I really wish I knew the answer. I think you have to be very careful to know the vehicle models involved in the posts. Every thread has pre-runners, long beds, sports, access cabs and what all else mixed in. I cannot imagine that the front end geometry is very different between any of the current 4WD's allowing some to work and not others In fact, this morning I noticed the the front axles and Cv' are just about in a straight line from the wheel end to the diff end. This was not the case when set at 1.75 lift. The wonky angles at the CV's were obvious. That vibration while tolerable to some is indicative of wearing parts( read expensive) to me.

 

Just read about 15 pages of a thread about this, apparently there's a solid fix for the issue which looks like is caused by the play in the cv's due to toyotas crappy tolerances for some of their parts. Apparently the housing that holds the spider gear is cast, most housings seem to have a machined piece inside the housing that hold the spide gear more snugly. Toyotas however has a ton of play in there but it's usually only when people lift the trucks that this becomes more noticeable. Now I'm wondering how much it would be to have a shop install the part. It's some sort of bushing made by east coast gear supply. Around $60 I think