What you need to know about lifting a 2016 Tacoma - Presented by Toytec Lifts

What's your driving conditions?

When I stay in the city, I consistently get 10-15, and will only average 17-18 if I am able to mix in highway driving where I get 20-21. Forget it if I'm mixing in trails as well.

 

Downtown San Diego Driving climbing in out of of Mission Valley every day. It should still get 16mpg though. Even 20 mile freeway trips where i have it on cruise at 72mph, I'm only getting 13.5. I just dropped it off at the dealership for them to go through it.

 

Damn that pretty good. I'd do better if I actually had a commute on the highway and wheeling takes a big hit on it. Its interesting to see the air dam gives you about 1 mpg.

 

I've contemplated throwing the air dam back on as an experiment, but I just can't bring myself to do it. The tonneau over definitely helps with the mileage, and I may or may not have a few things in the works which should aid in the performance and mileage department.

 

Yeah thats great for you! I'd take some wind noise for good mileage haha.

 

The Fuelly.com data seems to support this as well. Difference between V6 Dcab TRD OR and V6 Dcab TRD Sport is almost exactly 1mpg (18.21 vs 19.23): http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/tacoma/2016?engineconfig_id=102&bodytype_id=14&submodel_id=75309.

At $2.40 a gallon, if you drive 15,000 a year, that saves you about $90 a year, if you choose to buy and install one. Looks easy to take off before you hit a trail. Wonder how much they cost?

 

I finally lifted the Tacoma over the weekend and much happier with it now. I want to thank Micah at Down South Motorsports for helping me get all setup. I went with the King coilovers/shocks and the OME Dakar leaf spring pack in the rear. I reused my TE37's that I had on my FJ but installed a fresh set of 285/75/16 BFG K02's. I also installed a set of All-Pro's rock sliders for safety when we go trail riding.

 

Yeah I couldn't put an air dam on either. I just hate the look of it too much. Its hard enough keeping the mudflaps on until my sliders with filler plates are done.

 

ToyTec

TTFS - 1/2" Solid Steel Flat Axle Shim.......

 

They would not be able to correct it and put it in factory specs of 1.8 degree, they could probably add more caster to move your wheel forward to clear from rubbing, but that just way out of spec as its already 2 degree out. You would want 2.5 degree this would still be within factory specs.



It's really easy to understand caster if you look at this pictures, TC UCAs provide more caster by moving top point of spindle towards cab, to fix rubbing you would want to move wheel forward on lower arm this would create more caster degree, so it's not like you need lots of caster to clear your wheels from rubbing. This whole idea with adding more caster is only to clear wheels, it's not like the more caster you get the better it will ride, kind of opposite. 3rd gen comes with 1" lift with new upper and lower arms designed from factory to put you alignment in factory specs while keeping your cam bolt setting at zero. So using 2nd gen parts is not ideal in this case, or you would need more lift, true 3" from stock...but then you would run in more problems by having to much lift.

 

Im in SD as well and I'm not getting good MPG either (and I'm on stock). Would be very interested in seeing what they say. Where'd you get it? I got mine at Mossy in PB

 

Thanks for this info! The truck drives fine right now, but I notice that the wheel never really wants to return to center on its own. I would assume since i have high + caster that it would want to center itself more easily. This is the only thing thats kind of annoying, other than that everything seems fine (except the rubbing).

Im still a bit unclear what I would need to do to try to eliminate the rubbing. All i read on the forums is "add more caster, add more caster, add more caster". Well it looks like i have plenty of caster and still rubbing with only 265/70/17s on there. I do plan to lift the front a little more so we will see if that helps. i don't really want to go a full 3".
So you suggest i have them move the wheels forward with the LCA? I think i read something like this in another post where they said move the wheel as far forward as possible with the LCA, reset the alignment machine, and then measure caster. Is that what you mean? How does that effect the caster in my case, will it increase the caster to like 4+ or some crazy high amount or will i maintain my 3.6/3.9 caster and the only thing that changes is that my wheels/tires are now slightly more forward in the wheel wells? If thats the case then that would probably help fix the rubbing.

Thanks for all the help, i'm new at all this lifting stuff so is very hard to understand all of this.

 

These are the reasons I only plan on doing a level on my 2 wheel drive. You cannot throw 2"-3" of lift on anything without altering the geometry past factory limitations. You just cannot cut corners. Spend the money to do it all or keep the lift to the minimum. I worry that car manufacturers will use non-factory-installed control arms and different rated springs as ammunition for voiding any warranty related issues. Once the warranty is up then go to town. Just my 2 cents.

 

They can still add more caster on LCA, not much maybe .5-.75 degree. Caster angle does effect your strearing ability to return back to center when making turns. Problem with regular alignment shops they migh not be familiar how to align lifted vehicles. I got in argument with shop owner when they did my alignment, I told them moving wheel forward increases your caster, but their machine would show other way around, they were trying to tell me that I was wrong and his $40k alignment machine is right. After calling some professionals and explaining how it's done, I was able to get proper alignment. Not saying that every shop is that way but there are some. Usually when they do regular alignments they adjusting camber and toe

 

All the local shops generally do is "fix" tire wear issues anyway. Isn't everything on eccentric screws for Toyota. I remember struggling with control arm shims on big old cars back in the 70's.

 

I am going to take it to an offroad shop for proper alignment after I let the lift settle a bit. They should be able to get it setup much better than some bs alignment place.

 

I would recommend using SPC adjustable ucas, you can adjust them to have perfect alignment of 2.5 degree. First by adding caster on lower then adjusting upper. I know you want to keep TC ucas, they are super quality parts but just not for your application, sell them to 2nd gen owner and get your money back.
http://toyteclifts.3dcartstores.com/25470--SPC-Upper-Control-Arms-for-05-UP-Tacoma_p_195.html

 

Even just lifting my front 1" to level it I will take it to a reputable offroad shop for a proper alignment. I went to school many years ago for front suspension and they didn't teach me to manipulate geometry. They taught me to work only to manufacturers specs just like all general Hunter machine techs. Trust the experienced truck and lift experts who deal with this every day. They already know what does and doesn't work.

 

You shouldn't have any problems with your alignment just leveling the front 1" I'm sure any reputable shop can do it for you. I had Toyota do it after I installed my 5100s and my numbers were perfect. I did the install myself and only my Toe was out of spec after the install using the floor jack method and loosing the cam bolts on the lcas.

 

This is perfect alignment, I can tell that people that did this know what they were doing. You can see that they had to sacrifice .5 degree camber to put caster in 2.4 degree witch is totally fine. Also set toe in(positive) .04 this is ideal for RWD vehicle.