Lift Sanity Check

Hi all,

First off ive been a Lurker around here since i picked up my baby 2 years ago and would like to say how awesome and helpful this Forum is. Really, really good stuff and people on here. With that out of the way, I Would like to post here the lift that i (believe) i have finally settled on for the truck. As its two year birthday just occured, its time to stop reading and start doing!

Please Look over the below and let me know if there are ANY comments, issues, or perhaps things im over looking. This is not ment to be another dreaded "which do i do?" but more of a "hey buddy, you forgot you need this" and answer just a few lingering things on my mind type of thread. Again, any input would be extremely appreciated.

Truck: 2013 Tacoma Access Cab, 4x4 TRD 4.0L with 6 Speed Manual trans. 0 External mods as of now, this will be the first.

Goal: Lift the truck ~3in while keeping a useable Rake and fitting 255/85/R16 rubber on the "stock" TRD wheels after painting them. I should note that this is my DD currently and sees about 20k miles a year on pavement while being a weekend warrior on local trails. I am located in MA so winter salt is a major concern for me on new and exposed componets.

Base Lift: Toytec OME Kit. http://toyteclifts.3dcartstores.com/OME-Tacoma-Suspension-lift-kit_p_231.html
-90000 Front Shocks
-885 Front Coils
-Top Spacers (this will give me the full 3 inchs while being a small enough spacer to not compromise reliabilty?) will Taco lean be an issue here?
- Shocks/Coils Assembled ( i dont have a Spring compressor)
-Dakar Leaf packs. (Again, should give 3 inchs of lift according to posts that i have read, maintaining a natural stance. Want to avoid going nose high at all costs.)
- Consensus is that i will not need the diff drop

Upper Control Arm's: This one has been very tricky for me. Ive been told that i shouldnt need them, as The tire size that i am moving to is actually thinner than what is on my truck now (265/70R16 to 255/85/R16) and i should not rub the stock UCA, but extra range/ adjustability for alignment would help via aftermarket UCA's. That being said, and being more of a "do it right the first time" type, i figured i should just get them on there while i have the front end apart anyway. I was going with the SPC LR UCA's, but as of a few days ago i have started seeing threads speaking of them very negatively. It would appear however, the only other Balljoint (Should avoid a uniball in the salty north correct?) are these: from Camburg which i can not find to much info on. Im really at a loss on this part :/

Tires: Either Cooper St's or St Maxx's. I can not find BFG KM2's anywhere around here and simply put, i can not afford 5 Toyo's. Also with around 20 miles a day highway, i should probably avoid a pure M/T type tire. Wanting a 33" tire, but not want to grind metal off the truck does not leave many options here haha.

Sorry for the book of text, and again thank you for any and all help or wisdom that you guys can provide.

 

Recommendations:

- STRONGLY recommend UCAs IF you're going full 3"
- I recommend extended brake lines at least in the rear with the Dakars (I went all around for the "do it once, do it right" mentality)
- Carrier bearing drop kit to help with potential vibrations. FK29 is the part number.
- Lastly, I recommend new bump stops. Wheeler's SuperBumps are a popular choice and I love mine.

I have the same kit you are looking at. Feel free to check out my build thread and let me know if you have any questions.

 

UCAs is not a matter of rubbing but a matter of caster and proper alignment for safe driving. If you're rubbing on the UCA the problem tends to be the backspacing on your wheels. I use LR UCAs and I've put them through some pretty ridiculous shit and they're holding up just fine. I haven't needed an alignment since I put them on or anything. Last I saw Headstrong Offroad had the best prices on LR UCAs.

You can always buy your tires online.

 

^Do you even flex bro?

 

Someone at the company that made the product vs someone on an internet forum. Ride the truck up on something, check how close your lines get to tight at full droop, make your own decisions.

 

Peace of mind and doing it once and right vs. ripping up your brake lines on the trail and having no brakes. Sometimes your own decisions can also be smart ones..

 

x2

 

I agree with geekhouse and I also have the 885s, dakars, lr UCAs and 255/cooper st maxx.

I would also add leaf spring center pin collars. So you an add remove shims as needed with out too much trouble.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated. Looks like the support for the LR UCA's is out weighing the negatives ive seen, Maybe those were lemons? I was curious about the brake lines before hand and i am glad to see that the money will not be wasted. I will most likely try and find some good extenders and add those to the cart....This is getting expensive haha. Thanks Again

 

I've been looking at the JBA UCAs. At 2.5 lift, I'm short on caster and I do rub a bit with 255/85/16. I still have my mudflaps on. It handles DD and light wheeling fine. Expect to hear the driver side diff bearing talking to you after you lift. I just had the ECGS bushing done.

I'll be interested to hear how much lift you actually get. My Billies at 1.75 gave my access cab 2.5 lift. That makes me wonder what 885s will yield (spacers my put you over 3).

 

Thing with the UniBalls is you need to keep them clean and lubed up... When I talked to the guy at Camburg for some odd reason he recommended the Uniball even though I live in upstate NY (looooooooots of salt just like in MA for winter) if you keep them clean and sprayed down it actually holds up well. I'm using liquid wrench spray that also contains a water repellent now, once I got off the surface rust it looks good as new. Picked up a spare set of bearings just in case and I should be able to put 40+K without to many worries. Servicing them is hell of a lot easier then Ball Joints. Granted if I did it again I would go for the ball joint arms.

I had the same set up as you, my ARB struts shit the bed at around 40K miles (rusted completely up and started to really sag) and I upgraded to a set of coilovers. Dakar leaf pack is looking a little rusty and I know the shocks are bout done to, just need time to install my new ones.

I have to say all of the ARB stuff does not like northeast winters, first year I had it everything rusted up. Only response from ARB was to wash it after each snow storm.... kind of hard when we get snow almost every day or its -10 degrees the other days.

Highly recommend extended brake lines, the rear just about stretches the stock right to the max with the Dakars.

If you stick with the ARB stuff really recommend giving everything a good paint job before installing, if you can split the leaf pack apart and re-paint each leaf. Once you put it back together give it a coat of undercoating and it should last a while looking good.

 

So, Ill definitely be doing the extended brake lines now. Glad i posted. Im still on the fence about the UCA's. Ill be buying some with out question now, just not sure which way to go.

Im sorry, im really new to all this. What am i looking at that is ARB? Do they make the Dakars?

 

ARB = OME and Dakars

 

Yeah ARB makes the Old Man Emu Suspension (OME). It is a tough call cause you start racking everything up and it gets expensive really fast. That kind of inexpensive kit soon reaches $2k very fast. I would recommend Bilsteins all the way around with the Dakar springs in the rear. Toytech usually has the best deal on them. Have them assemble everything with the height you want (its worth the couple extra bucks) and go at it. You can always add the UCA later on to be honest. Recommended install time for just the Arms was like 3 hours, ended up taking over 8 because of how seized on everything was and persuading the inner fender out enough to get the bolt out. If you did everything at once it just makes it slightly easier to get the struts in and out.

 

Well thats disheartening. Been researching this for two years now and i just went back to square one :/ Thanks for the info.

JZT, did you replace the OME with Blistens as you advised? Better salt resistance? Toytec has their "ultimate lift kit" as an option, seems like it would end up being with in a few hundred of the OME kit with the options. The Dakars still seem like a pretty good option even if i have to paint them upon arival, correct?

I agree on how fast things add up, Im not looking at about $2.2k before rubber...

 

I ended up being a little odd and decided to do things slightly different. So I am good friends with the guys at Rock Krawler who mainly do Jeep and HD pickup lifts. So I had them do me up a custom set of 2-5/8" Coilovers in the front, and just buying the top mounting plate from Camburg we were able to get them in with minimal persuading. For the rear since I am hopefully going to install my shock relocate kit I went with a 13" stroke set of Rock Krawler 2.0 shocks. Basically went with them 1) because they gave me a hell of a deal 2) its all aluminum so it wont rust (also lighter and cools better) 3) Well its pretty bad ass cause no one else runs them on a yota....

Granted I beat the piss out of the ARB stuff. I'd recommend when you get it to give it a nice extra coating of paint, I think they must use the thinnest coating of powder coating ever on it or something. Make sure you have the newest generation of springs and you should be good. Also look at the 887 coils instead. Gives you the same height without the spacers and also the same spring rate as the 884s (590lb/in)

My buddy just did that set up with the Bilsteins instead of the ARB struts. Toytech does give a TW discount (10%) but you have to call, and they are usually good at making a special "kit" without you having to pay extra. My buddy wanted the 887s which you'd have to buy separtely and install on your own Toyech wrapped it together into the same price as the kit and installed the coils on the struts for him

 

So if im following correctly, i would end up with blisten 5100 shocks and ARB springs at all four corners, correct? I did not know 887's were even an option. Very intriguing as i was brought up to viewing spacers as the devil haha. I may just call Toytec tomorrow morning and see what they can do, really really itching to get something in the works and i feel like i just need to jump on something. It must be nice having friends with a shop

Thanks again

 

Yeah I didn't know about the 887s until after I ordered mine originally. Toytech is pretty easy to deal with. For the most part everyone runs the Billies. Yeah spacers generally cause more issues then anything else. I ran a Hell Bent Steel leveling kit for a while and a used set of 265/75R16s until I had enough cash for the full lift and tires. I pulled the trigger fairly quickly mainly cause I broke a leaf spring (this was before the recall)

Good luck with it!

 

My OME kit still looks pretty good after the first winter. No rust on anything so far. My leaf packs squeak a bit after I get out of the water and/or mud. I sprayed everything down with fluidfilm when I did my frame though.