Spiker Engineering High lift hood struts for the 3rd Gen Tacoma

I think rinut looks more stock

 

You're welcome - you made quick work of it! Enjoy

 

Well done - what size rivnuts did you use? Did you use them for the hood as well?

 

M6, want to match 10mm bolt.

 

Last week is notoriously the coldest week of the year here and we managed to only hit -10F (the record is -40F without wind in 1994 if you're curious), 8 inches of snow in that storm and some freezing rain....it was a disaster as is tradition.
The joys of Minnesota.

 

Brrrrr... I can't promise that the struts will lift the hood with 8" of snow on it

 

Hi all-
Today was a perfect rainy day, so I installed my struts. The instructions are clear and everything went smoothly. I increased my height by 5" and i'm extremely happy. Only advice I would give is be careful when riveting. These Rivet tools have sharp edges and if you're not careful, you can scratch the paint. I almost did and after I put painter's tape on my fenders do remove the chance of damage.
Excellent product with easy install. Great job, Spiker.

 

Thank you for the feedback and kind words, glad you liked our products! And thanks for the tip about taking care to not scratch the paint, the painter's tape is a good suggestion.

 

Anybody have a sense of how much these relax after measuring and riveting? I set my hood to 5”, but it looks like compared to the pics in the instructions, my hood mounts should be a little farther rearward. Haven’t drilled yet, but my hands are itching to. Fender mounts already on.

 

Just saw this - you're on the right track, and don't worry about the pictures : those holes were drilled with the hood at +7.5", so the locations will be different at +5". Drill away!

 

I’m assuming there’s a point where too high might compress the strut too far when closing? Is that why there’s the 6” high limit recommendation?

 

All done, right at 5 and 3/4” once settled.

PS, is it me or does your instruction picture seem to have the body pin for the side molding (the one we remove) in backwards?

 

Yes - there are two things that happen as you increase the hood height: 1. You risk bottoming out the struts when the hood closes; 2. It requires more force to start closing the hood from the higher position, because gravity is not helping you as much. Also the end of travel force gets higher, and requires a bit more effort to fully close the hood.

For these reasons we recommend staying below +6", but there is definitely a safety margin. You can go up to +7.5" or even +8" without bottoming out the struts, but the closing force may feel excessive to some folks, which is why we don't recommend this installation.

 

Well done . As for the trim clip, that's definitely possible - maybe someone else with an untouched Tacoma can weigh in (I can't vouch for our prototype being right anymore, since we've disturbed it).

 

Finally installed mine today! The first hole you drill into the hood is a little daunting, but after that it’s all pretty easy. Instructions were pretty good, looks nice, and works great!

 

Chuck, did you have to do any trimming to clear the TRD air filter box?

 

No sir, it works perfectly in conjunction with it. I shut it real slow the first time

 

That's good to know, I'm sure it'll help others with the TRD filter. Thanks for blazing the trail!

 

Finally installed today and it makes a world of difference.
Thanks SpikerEng for offering something that the factory should have.

 

I don't think I said anything after I got mine in. It was easy peasy. I think the rivet gun I have couldn't handle the rivets. It would snap off only a portion of the stem. Nothing some dykes couldn't take care of. The additional height is amazing. So freaking happy with it. I had to do some tinkering up by the master cylinder and for once I didn't have to remove the struts so I could get more height out of the hood. My ditch lights don't cause a problem--even the one I had to relocate for the snorkel.