New member form the mountins of NC

I understand that, and hello meatman

 

Welcome! 35s are way cool. From the picture it doesn't look like a 4"-6" drop bracket type lift or have a body lift.

Looks really nice & clean look btw!

I have never seen a 3" lift on here with only fender trimming to clear 35s and do any off-road without major rubbing... So I have a few questions.

I saw another post about 35s where you mentioned using tundra struts, I think... Tundra springs too, or no? I haven't looked into that; do you know some pros & cons compared to aftermarket lifts.

What's the wheel backspacing & width?

At full compression and full lock (wheel turned all the way) is there rubbing? Or did you limit compression or steering or both? If so, how much and well... how?

Do you do much off-roading; if so, what kind?

Was weight a factor in choosing brand/style/model of tires.
I also have a 2.7l 5spd, and might go 35s after these 33x12.5s and figure tire weight is really important with a small engine and big tires...

Sorry about all the questions, but the guys that I see here that do 35s with a 3" suspension lift usually also: tub the firewall or a 3" body lift...

Thanks in advance! And welcome to the forum!

 

Hey man and thanks for the appreciation and the welcome!
Okay so I'll try and list off what I did and hope I don't get too carried away with everything lol I'll try and number off the points so it's somewhat organized. There is a lot of answers to your questions so bare with me
1. Alright so the tundra lift: I had originally had a spacer kit to fit my 33s. When my leafs broke I ended up getting some pro comp leafs for the back in hopes they wouldn't break like the oem ones are prone to do. Well they lifted it more than 4" so I had a bad rake to my truck. Well I searched and searched for a fix and Idk which forum it was on but there's an entire thread on using The tundra struts. It might be a 4runner forum but I'm not sure. Anyways you take a 1st gen 2001-2006 4x4 tundra strut(they said to use The trd but I have the non trd struts on mine) and use The top hat of the tacoma strut on the tundra strut and it bolts right in. The tundra top hat bolts are spaced out more than the tacoma so it's easier to use the tacoma tophats. It gave it more lift than The strut spacer did. Apparently it's a 3 inch lift. But you can use just the tundra spring in the tacoma strut for an inch or two lift from why they said.
The pros to it:
-it lifts the truck without a spacer for an oem look
- it rides a whole lot better than the spacer lift
- it can handle more weight without sag if you are putting a bumper and winch up front
-bought my struts and everything for about 140 on Amazon. You can't beat that
Cons:
-i haven't found any cons yet
Now for the lift I have I am running my strut spacers on top of my tundra struts. I know it sounds bad but my truck had a really bad rake to it and it's the only way I could even it out. I had them laying around one day and figured I'd try it and well 6 months later they are still doing fantastic. Only thing I recommend doing with that combo is a uniball uca as you won't be able to get your truck aligned if you have more than a 3" lift without them from what I believe. Also definitely get a diff drop for any kind of suspension lift you do to the 1st gen. It helps
I went with this setup purely because it was affordable at the time. I'm sure the coilovers and other lifts are great but this is the cheapest lift I can come up with that still rides decent. I would guess it's about 4.5-5" lift but I could be wrong. It sits way up there
2. The wheelspacing on my rims at the moment are most likely 3.75 taking a rough guess. They are a 15x10 eagle alloy wheel I bought off of craigslist so I could run a bigger tire without spacers.(i had spacers before because I bought some summit steelies and they didn't clear my front calipers) man I was so disappointed...
Anyways yes there is rubbing but only from the front bumper and occasionally from the fender but I only have the pinch weld folded back. (I didn't want to get super crazy with a hammer and ruin everything if I wanted to resell it) I've thought about tubbing it but honestly don't need to. I thought I would with 35s but I was surprised how my lift handled them. Also I have brand spanking new A/T tires on mine which make it rub. The first pair of 35s were down to the last 3000 miles and never rubbed unless I had some uneven terrain and was at full lock.
3. As for offroading I live in the mountains and I see plenty of rough terrain but it is my daily so it mostly sees pavement until I choose to go out and have some fun. I haven't been to any offroad parks yet but I'm excited to go do some. I would trust the it to do very well as it has surpised me enough already. I hope to go very soon actually I just usually don't have any time to go out and wheel.
4. Last but not least the tire. The tires I'm running right now are the general grabber at2s. They are a 35 12.50 15LT tire and I'm really not sure on the weight of them but they are a C load tire. I got them for $1012 mount/balance/warranty out the door at discount tire. And my goodness the ride is amazing on these compared to the mud tires I had. I had the baja mtzs up front and the shook my truck like I was on a washboard the entire time. Also couldve been my alignment but the reviews on the at2s were really good and when he told me that price I was sold on them. My truck handles them surprisingly well. I honestly get 20 mpgs in the mountains up here. That was my last fill up calculation. I do a lot of highway 55 mph driving up here though so In the city it's probably worse.

Sorry if I got off topic but I wanted to give some in depth answers for clarity. I hope I isn't miss anything but I'll try and get some pics of it in the morning to show everything. If you have any questions feel free to shoot

 

Awesome! That's so for the great response! Basically answered everything I was wondering about.

I am probably being a little silly though thinking about 35s; I have new set of 33x12.5s and need to get a ton of other basic stuff done first; I guess I really always just prefer the look & capability of 35x12.5 over 33x12.5 for mud/snow and think may end up there...

Do the Tundra springs allow for much articulation/compression?

Hey if you are running the sway-bar and not getting much flex with those springs, you could disconnected it before the trail to help that out a lot. I haven't done it yet but folks on here say it takes like 5 minutes to disconnect it at the LCA; think you gotta zip tie it up or something to keep it from flopping around. It's supposed to make a huge difference going through gnarly trails...

 

Hello and welcome. I'm in Lenoir NC.