Removing Revtek "lift"

Hi all-

Finally bought my dream truck, the truck I have wanted for 10 years....!

Now it's time to make it mine. First: It has a Revtek "lift" (which, if I understand correctly, is just a big rubber spacer above the shock). A few questions"

1.) Does this negatively affect the ride of the truck? ("tippiness", roughness of bumps, etc.) An 1.b) Does this improve ground clearance at all?
2.) Does it have any affect on longevity of the shocks?
3.) Are there any rear-end components? I didn't see anything....but I'm no suspension expert.
4.) How difficult would it be to remove it? I was thinking about putting an ad on craigslist..."free if you can carefully remove".

I'm just not into big tall trucks.

 

If you can't do the work yourself and don't have a trusted friend who can, get it professionally removed. Spacer lifts are easy to put in and remove if you know what you're doing. I'd NEVER let a stranger from Craigslist do anything to my truck. You'll need an alignment afterwards too.

 

Seriously. Take photos of your UCA's, the shocks/springs, especially at the top where it mounts to the truck. In the rear, we also want to see the shock, the leaf springs, and the area where the leafs contact the rear axle.

It's very difficult otherwise to determine exactly what you have.

 

^ What he said.

 

You want pics? I'll give you pics.


By the way...if you spot any problems/issues that need to be dealt with, please let me know. Just bought the truck and it has pretty limited maintenance records (and 167k), so I'm keen to head off any little problems before they become big problems!

 

Oh, that's a coil preload lift. You'll have to disassemble the shock to remove that spacer. It's not too tough a job with the right tools. The rear block is easy.

 

You may also be eligible for new leaf springs under recall from Toyota. Good opportunity to throw in a 3 leaf AAL from one of the vendors on here along with new shocks.

 

The only way to improve ground clearance is bigger tires and wheels.

 

Hello doughpat and other members. I also recently bought my first Tacoma, I've always wanted one. I have the exact "lift" as you do. I also have the same concerns. 1) does it effect longevity of parts? 2) how does it effect the ride. I'm guessing the aluminum block in the rear is just a spacer to level the truck from the revtec? I THINK mine is a 3 inch lift? Thanks for any input. Loving the Tacoma and tacomaworld!

 

The parts negatively affected are wear parts anyway, so I'd say replace them with better shock as and springs when you think the truck rides worse than you'd like. 4 shocks and springs all around aren't that expensive. And you can do one end at a time.

 

Thank you! I took it in to the local off-road shop and replaced the stock front shocks with 5100s, the bearing/sleeve coming out of drivers side diff case(common problem I guess?) and the bottom bushings. Also took it to Toyota and had rear springs replaced, for free. I like the lift, just as long as it's done right. Next upgrade is the rear.. ?sorry OP.

 

The spacer in your front shock will hurt ride quality. But so will having 167k miles on the shocks. I'd replace them with something else, even if it's take off stock stuff from a newer taco, rather than disassemble the shock to remove the spacer.

Rear blocks are not the best option mostly due to axle wrap. Small ones like that aren't toooo bad. Very easy to remove in any case.

 

Ok...thanks for the replies, all. I'm going to see about just removing the spacer/block and just putting it back together.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong:

This Revtek spacer is basically just a hard rubber 'donut' that is installed above the spring in my Bilstein shock. So all it really does is compress the spring by 1.5" (i.e. "pre-loads" the spring). That means I actually have LESS available travel than if the spacer wasn't there.

This is F'ng stupid if true.

And the rear block is literally just a block of aluminum that goes between the axle and the leaf spring to lift the rear end up. This would add some strain the leaf springs, stiffening/pre-loading them as well.

I can see why removing this silly boy-toy would improve my ride...

 

Basically.

 

Looking at that invoice it looks like its running 285's. If that's still the case, you might have some major tire rub when you take off that spacer lift.

 

Thanks for that. I'm actually swapping out these fancy big wheels and tires for some stock ones (265's). But that is very good to know--order of operations! (i.e. I'll get the tires swapped out before I remove the spacer). Appreciate the tip!

 

Sort of.

The rear block shouldn't change ride quality at low throttle... The issue is that it creates a bigger distance from your axle to your leaf springs. When you apply throttle it twists the leaf springs because torque, but if you move that twisting force further away it gets worse. Stock is like using a little ratchet, the spacer makes it more like using a breaker bar.

 

Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense. Looking forward to getting that thing off!