Needing lift advice from the experienced

Correct. I was wrong on the stock size, but those are still 1” shorter than 265/75/16 that I originally recommended

 

Right, was thinking Sport.

 

Mod days are just organized days where guys/gals get together to install a bunch of mods. Some mods require extra hands or experience to install. People bring beer, hang out and install a bunch of stuff.

If you needed help with your suspension install we can do a mod day at your house or someone’s house with the tools and do it together.

 

That’s sounds good. Whoever came up with that idea smarter than me. I’m typically a homebody/loaner in a way. Can’t make friends at work due to position I hold because unfortunately, from my experience over the years, people have hard time accepting the fact of friendship outside of work and business men while at work.

 

I hear ya. Military helped me learn to separate work and personal life. Work is work, leave it there.

 

Add a little more mud and that is a Vermont driveway.

Dear OP;
That last thing you should do, IMO, is convince yourself you need to spend more money on the truck. If you are having a hard time understanding the lift offerings out there, you will likely be wasting money mussing around with the suspension or even protection on your vehicle before you're really familiar with it's performance and the terrain you find yourself and your family enjoys. Spend your research time finding trails and trying them out, and your money on food and beer with the family afterwards 8^)

That said, I ended up going with one of the complete kits you mentioned, an Icon Stage 3 once my original suspension was shot. It was less about lift for clearance when off-roading, and more about ride quality for the terrain here in Vermont -- curvy gravel and dirt roads in various states of disrepair, and potholed pavement. I also convinced myself that doing the install myself would let me subtract the dealers price for replacing the worn shocks and springs from the ~3k I paid for the kit.

Enjoy!

 

I don't know why they do this. All 3 tires are almost exactly the same height. I guess just for looks.

 

Oh it was Vermont. Haha.

 

Might want to do some more reading.

Those two things do not correlate in the way you are thinking. The wheel fitment and tire selection is much more critical to clearance than lift.

You can run a full 33" tire on the right OE wheels, no lift, no rubbing, no cutting. That's a 255 80 17 or 255 85 16.

 

Yeah all non Pro third gens are the same height. SR5 is cheaper, the tires probably help make that possible. Guessing Toyota subtly differentiates the TRDs with wider tires.

 

gas mileage is better with 245/75/16

 

Yeah someone elsewhere told me the same thing but I’ve never liked skinny tires in a truck. When I purchased my 2015 Tacoma new that year, I would be driving along and come up behind another identical truck basically with the exception of the wheels and tires. Looked like the truck was driving on 4 spare tires that came out of the trunk of a car and recessed well inside of the wheel well. Just doesn’t look right on a truck (to me) so definitely not interested in more narrow tires than what’s on it now.

As for cutting I’ll sway as far away from that as possible. Once tires require me to cut metal it’s obviously not for the truck I own. Altering plastic underneath the wheel well isn’t a concern as I wouldn’t care to do that.

 

A good set of tires will do a lot more for your offroad performance than a suspension lift. In all reality a lift is only relative to the truck just sitting there doing nothing. As soon as you start driving, hitting bumps and dips you tire will be cycling through the range of where it would be stock. Based on what I’ve read, I’d recommend not going any bigger than 265 75 16 and most importantly just stick with a tire that’s “C” or “P” rated. A “D” or “E” rated tire has a heavier sidewall but adds a more weight per tire that can even further decrease your mileage. My wife’s suv has this size tire - Hankook dynapro atm. It an AT tread, wears really good and reasonably priced. It’s not overly aggressive looking tread pattern.

 

I’m curious about the following set ups.

From a lot of my reading (I’m sire I’m missing some things) these two set ups seem to be good for those of us who do not truly Off Road often but need a simple suspension lift to level the front end out with rear while also providing a little upgrade to stock set up. I’m seeking advice on these two options.

Bilstein (front and rear) 5100s w/ Eibach springs or OME springs

Or

Eibach pro kit stage 1 for front and rear.

Both set ups are under $700 total. I’ve heard good and bad on both but have heard bad only for those trying to do intense off roading or heavy hauling/lifting. Advice/opinions?

 

If you can visually see the 10mm reduction between a 265 street tire (like factory) and a 255 tire with a more aggressive tread, you've got quite the eye.

To that add mounting the new rubber on a proper fitting wheel, (offset & width) and the odds of seeing that difference drop further.

It's apparent you're not interested in exploring the thoughts I'm offering. And that's fine. I'll see myself out now.

Enjoy your selections!

 

Sorry if I came off rude. Wasn’t the intent of the reply I assure you. I really do appreciate everyone’s times taken to offer advice. As for tire sizes themselves I’m illiterate to them and don’t understand the number in correlation with the actual physical dimensions. I do appreciate the advice and will entertain the idea at some point when it comes time to fork out the money for upgrades. I’ve always liked the idea better of a suspension lift though due to what I’ve always thought would allow for higher truck stance/ground clearance as well as longer shock travel for various reasons.

 

As mentioned before, increasing tire size will give you clearance, in general.


I personally always upgrade my tires before lift. But I stay at 265/75r16.

 

Go to this site and plug in the numbers.

 

Or on the TW site here too

https://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/tirecalc.php

 

With the metric tire sizes you just have to do the math to convert to inches. It’s pretty easy example 265 75 16
The first number is width in MM. so 265MM/25.4”= 10.53” wide
The second number is aspect ratio and is the side wall height based on the percentage of tire width. So
10.43”x.75=7.82”. This number needs to be multiplied by 2 so
7.82”X2=15.64”
Then you add your rim diameter to that
16”+15.64”=31.64
So all of that means the tire is
31.64” tall and 10.53” wide and a 16” rim. 31 10.5 16. Hope that helps