2" Lift with 285/75/17 KO2s <---- I have questions...

This is my second Tacoma. I had a 2003 1st Gen 2.7L AC SR5 that I never got the chance to mod the way I really wanted. Now that I have my 3rd gen, I’m finally getting around to actually doing it!

My overall goal is to lift the truck 2” in the front and 2.75” in there rear so I can fit some KO2 34s.

I’ve been researching lifts, coil overs, new leaf springs, and UCAs for quite some time now and noticed there are so many different options out there in different combinations that give entirely different results. I wanted to check in with y’all to ask you some specific questions I have regarding the proper parts to get the desired lift with the least amount of problems. I’m also hoping to get everything necessary done at once so I don’t have any headaches later.

I understand there are a lot of things to consider and my setup currently is fairly basic. I have 265/70/17s on 7” wide TRD SEMA wheels, a SnugTop Rebel shell with the “sportsman package” and a Thule roof rack. I run a CVT Mount Saint Hellen RTT occasionally, tow dirt bikes on a trailer or a hitch mount bike hauler when I just need to bring one bike. Loading up the bed for week long camping trips is something I do several times per year, too. When I got off-road it is typically on washed out fire roads in order to get to staging areas for riding. Not really doing any crawling yet.

Weight issues I need to rectify:

When I carry my dirt bike on the hauler the cantilever causes some serious rear end sag, even loading the bed up with like 300 pounds, the rear end droops and bugs the hell out of me. I was planning on upgrading my leaf springs but I’m not sure if I should go with the medium or heavy duty Dakar leaf packs. I really want to avoid the rear end skipping around corners when unloaded. Honestly, the rear end sag is what’s making me get this all done with the quickness, I don’t like the way it looks or drives.

Tires size I want:

I would like to run KO2 285/75/17s and from what I’ve been reading I’ll need to do an aggressive CMC, which at this point I’m okay with. I’ve also read some folks rub with these tires no matter what they do and some folks don’t… Aside from wheel offset, I can understand why that might be.

In order to get everything done at once the best possible way I’ve narrowed things down to the parts below: (If you think I’m not considering a part that I should, please let me know)

Coil Overs

1) Fox 2.5s or King 2.5s, both with RR and adjusters. I think this really boils down to personal preference since they are both great coil overs but let me know what you think is better for what I do.

- I like the color of Fox but the adjusters of the kings. Probably going to go with Kings in the end…

- I’ve also read that King shocks don’t hold up to salt very well (not many things do) and Fox does. I do a lot of coastal trips but live in the valley, so I’m not sure if this is really going to be an issue for me.

- Spring rate is another question I have. Should I go with a 600, 650, or 700lb spring? I don’t want a rough ride and I don’t have any added weight to the front and most likely won’t.

King kit:

https://www.headstrongoffroad.com/s...Dakar_Leaf_Packs_for_2005__Toyota_Tacoma.html

Fox Kit:

https://www.headstrongoffroad.com/s...OME_Dakar_Leaf_Packs_-_05__Toyota_Tacoma.html

UCAs

1) Total Chaos Uniball
2) Camburg Uniball

Leaf Springs

1) Dakar medium or heavy duty. I do not want a rough ride with my rear end skipping around corners.
2) I’m starting to read more about the icon leafs and like the aesthetics but I don’t see many folks using them.

Rear Shocks

1) Fox 2.5 with RR and adjusters
2) King 2.5s with RR and adjusters

Tires:

1) BFG KO2 285/75/17 E rated (100% certain I want these) My current 265/70/17s have like 5k on them if anyone is interested in buying them, PM me.

One thing I really want to avoid is problems after the lift. Aside from rubbing, which I know takes time to find out where to trim plastics and all that.

I have a manual transmission so I’m also wondering if I’ll be okay with my current gear ratio. I do a lot of trips to the mountains, almost every weekend, so I want to make sure I’m still capable of that will maintain performance. I guess I’ll be the only one that can answer that question… After I get the lift done and put those tires on I’ll need to take a trip out there. If folks have any experience with 4.88 to 5.29 and run a similar setup as what I’m looking at. Let me know your thoughts on this.

Another thing that I’ve been wondering is the rim size. So technically you would want a 7.5” and ideally an 8” wide rim to fit the BFG KO2 285/75/17s but every single shop I call says they’ll put those tires on my 7” TRD SEMA wheels. From your experience, does this .5” really matter that much off-roading running lower PSI or on road using higher PSI? I really don’t want to get new rims and like my current ones. I’ve read some folks say smaller width rims are a poor man’s bead lock and others call it a concern for popping a bead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Drive line vibration is another thing I want to avoid. Does anyone think I’m going to run into this at all if I lift the front 2” and the rear 2.75”? What parts would I need to ensure the output yoke and u-joints of the drive shaft are moving at the exact same speed under normal driving circumstances with this lift? I don’t want an ellipse while driving at any speed like in the video below:

https://youtu.be/Idk3BVDVHq4

As far as install of these parts. I was going to have an off-road company do the CMC and the install the shocks, tires, UCAs, leaf springs, relocate the spare tire mount so I can fit the full size spare and then I would take it to an alignment shop to get that setup properly. There is a small chance I will install everything myself, still looking into that.


TLDR:

I want to lift my truck 2” in the front and 2.75” in the back while stuffing some 285/75/17s on my TRD Pro SEMA 7” wide wheels. I’ll be adding Fox or King 2.5 front and rears with some Dakar medium or heavy duty leaf springs after performing an aggressive CMC and want to know the following:

1) Will those tires safely fit on those rims?
2) Will I get any driveline vibration with 2” lift in the front with 2.75” in the back?
3) Will there be any rubbing with 285/75/17s with Total Chaos or Camburg uniball UCAs with 0mm rim offset?
4) If I got heavy duty leafs in the rear with a constant weight of my SnugTop in the back will my rear be super bouncy unloaded? Can shock compression and dampening adjusters help with that?
5) What will I need to do to fit a 285/75/17 spare under the bed?

This forum has helped me so much getting the knowledge I need to make it this close to actually getting the lift done. I’m very grateful for that and thanks for all of your help in advance!

- Josh

 

Posting for responses

 

I'll take a stab at some of these.
1) I know there are a lot of people running 285's on those wheels. I think you will be fine but you may want to not air down as much as you normally would.
2) Put a 3 degree shim in the rear and you should be fine. Do the driver side needle bearing replacement up front while you have it all taken apart.
3) To answer your first question, your tire should clear those UCAs fine. With a CMC, some pinch weld banging, and some trimming, you should be able to get it to not rub. The second part of this is consider if you really want to deal with uniball maintenance. I personally do not. The third part of this is you might consider an adjustable UCA like the Light Racing SPC. I know lots of people run Camburgs or TC or JBA. They are all good because they increase the amount of caster there is from stock, allowing you to push your front wheel forward more. From my experience you can push the front wheel even more forward with the SPC UCA because you can adjust caster and camber from at the top ball joint in addition to the normal adjustments on the LCA cam tabs.
4) I don't think you will be happy with HD Dakars in the rear when you are unloaded. With how much weight fluctuation you have I would look into air assist. Compression adjusters will help you fine tune the ride, but you will need to have the right amount of spring to start with. I would start with the medium duty springs and compression adjusters, see how it rides when you are loaded up and unloaded, and then either add a leaf if you need more spring all the time or add air springs if you need more adjustability.
5) I haven't done this, but from what I have seen moving the spare tire mechanism aft an inch or so, then bang or trim the alignment arms should get you there. There is also the option of dropping the PSI in the tire to get it to fit, and just knowing you will have to inflate it when you use it.
6) If you aren't adding armor up front, get 600# springs. 650 or 700 depending on how much armor you go for. Check out Headstrong's group buy going on right now for King and ADS setups. I just put an ADS setup on and am pretty stoked on it. I don't think you can go wrong between the two. I've heard Fox customer service can be lacking. Also sounds like you'll want the extended travel version for your setup.
7) On gearing, I would personally wait until you have everything else done, then decide if you need gears or not.

 

Thanks for the info and recommendations! I've got some comments and questions in line:

Do the needle bearings go bad quickly with the lift I'm aiming for? I was thinking if it is working fine now just to leave the current one intact and hope for the best, haha. This is not the first time I've heard of replacing the needle bearing while you have everything apart either so I'm sure there is a pretty darn good reason for it.

How often would you recommend greasing the uniballs? I don't mind it if it is like once per year or something like that. This looks pretty easy:

https://youtu.be/xvMdAX2uybs

I never considered air assist with medium leafs. I might look into the HD pack and remove a leaf since those apparently have some added noise reduction features that I'm after.

I'll be checking with a local off-road shop to see what options they have and report back. Dropping the PSI might be something I need to do regardless. They mentioned that 285/75/17s will clip my rear axel unless they cut off a couple mounts... I'm not sure what mounts they are referring to yet.

Good call. Since I won't be adding any armor the 600-650# seems like the ideal options.

Again, thanks for your guidance!

 

I’d take a look at ADS for shocks/coil overs too

 

Not sure on the needle bearings. Seems like generally when people go above 2" they have issues but it seems relatively random. At stock height you would never have a problem.

The uniball greasing depends on how you are using them. Some people do it once a month, some people once a year, some people once. I just don't really like the idea of them being generally exposed to the elements.

I think the HD pack just has an extra leaf in it but otherwise they are the same.

 

I'm wondering what benefits the clamshell bushing have over the needle bearing? I just watched this install and it looks involved...

https://youtu.be/cVMuu5qJqVM

 

The needle bearings don’t tolerate the loads on the axle caused by angle of the CV after the lift. That causes the bearing to wear out prematurely generating vibrations. The bushing is just a bushing so there is nothing to wear out. It’s the same problem that has been going on since the second gens.

 

It sounds like you and I use our trucks for the same purpose. I have kings in the front and rear, total chaos UCA's and did a "add a leaf spring" with a 2-degree shim to the back. I also use my truck to haul my dirt bike but I do not have a camper shell. I'm still running my stock tires because I cannot justify buying new tires until the current ones are bald or bad. I have my truck set kings set at 2 in the front and I get about 2.5 in the back. Unloaded the truck drives great and I have no vibration, going over speed bumps the rear of the truck feels like I'm entering earth's atmosphere with the apollo 11. Loaded down aka. dirt bike, gear, cooler, wife, dog, and other crap the truck still drives great and I have never noticed any sag. The main difference is I don't have a shell and I know most people that get a shell usually get some sag especially with the truck loaded down but I think if you got some Dakar HD's you would be fine. I plan on upgrading to Dakar's but I don't need the HD's.

 

Thanks for everyones help thus far! I’ve been researching my lift like crazy the past couple of days and think I have made up my mind on the setup but have a couple more questions for y’all.

Here goes…


Front suspension

1) Aggressive CMC

2) King 2.5 with Remote Reservoirs and adjusters
https://www.headstrongoffroad.com/s...ional_Compression_Adjusters_-_05__Tacoma.html

3) Total Chaos Upper Control Arms


Open questions:

1) Still not sure about the Total Chaos Spindle and Cam Gussets… Does anyone have experience with this and do I need it for my usage? I don’t wan to pay for alignment every time I rotate my tires.



Rear Suspension


1) Archive Garage Tacoma shock relocation towers
https://archivegarage.com/explore-archive?olsPage=products/taco-shock-relocation

2) King 12.5” Smoothie Shocks with Remote Reservoir

3) Archive Garage U Bolt Flip Kit with Bump Stop
https://archivegarage.com/explore-archive?olsPage=products/stealth-toyota-u-bolt-flip


Open questions:

1) Archive Garage Hammer Hangers <--- I'm still debating on these as I'm not sure they are 100% necessary. Then again, I do want a smooth ride and also like the lift they can provide.

2) Deaver or Dakar HD Leaf Pack <--- Which ones are better in your opinion?



Tires

1) SCS Matte Jet Black F5 17x9, 3.50" backspace and -38mm Offset.

2) 285/75/17 BFG KO2 E rated tires with spare on a generic steel rim

- I still don’t know if a 285/75/17 will actually fit even with bending the mounts.


I plan on leaving my gearing stock and seeing how it performs then take it from there.

Let me know your thoughts.

 

It is time to purchase some rims and I have a few questions.

I ordered the Archive Garage shock relocation towers and I’ve read that I need spacers to clear the King 12" smoothie shocks when flexed. I also hear that negative offset can help with this so I don’t need to run spacers which I really don't want to do. Does anyone run a similar setup with 285/75/17s? If so, let me know your experience.

I’ve boiled it down to 2 different rims. SCS F5s with -10mm offset and the FN Fx Pros with 4.5” BS and 0mm offset.

If I run the FN Fx Pros, will I rub on my rear shocks when flexed or do you think I will be fine? I’m fairly certain the SCS F5s with -10mm offset will clear without issue but they are not going to be available for a while so I really started looking into the FN Fx Pros.

I appreciate everyones help in advance!

- Josh