Spiker Engineering High Lift Hood Struts for 2nd Gen Tacoma

Spiker Engineering's original "high-lift" hood struts are available for the 2nd Gen Tacoma at https://spikerengineering.com/product/05-15_tacoma.





These are the only kits available that allow you to set your hood height up to 6" higher than stock, giving you unparalleled access and lighting. To answer a common question we get, you do not have to set the height higher than stock, you can choose whatever height suits you, or if you need a to accommodate ditch lights.




As with all our products, all components are made in the USA, down to the shipping tubes. All hardware is included, consisting of heavy gauge gloss black powder coated brackets, heavy duty multi-grip rivets, and OEM quality high lift gas struts with a 5 year warranty.



Copying @Timmah!'s 1st Gen Taco installation video below since the kit and installation for the 2ng Gen is very similar to the 1st Gen.

Notable updates from the video for the current kits are fully powder coated gloss black mounting brackets, heavy duty multi-grip rivets, and a drill bit stopper included in every kit to positively prevent drilling too far into the hood.

Hey Dudes,

Here's a very cool and affordable mod you can do on your 2001-2004 1st Gen Tacoma. Spiker Engineering also makes a kit for 1995-2000 Tacomas as well. Check it out!

 

question: for the 2nd gen Tacoma Installation, I'm not able to find any videos. do you happen to have any ? Thanks!

 

I have not seen a 2nd Gen Taco install video. Faye Hadley is planning to make one for her YouTube channel, but she sounded like she's pretty swamped at the moment, so it may be a while.

You can use the 1st Gen and 3rd Gen videos to get 99% of what you need, or feel free to post questions here.

 

I ordered mine on Friday (4/10/20), got them Monday (4/13/20). Installed them today (4/14/20). They're awesome. Installation was easy. Just took like 30 minutes. All I had was a cheap Harbor Freight rivet tool. But if worked well.

 

Thanks for the picture - looks great!

 

got a pic of the HF rivet gun you used?

 

It was just the cheapy one:

 

Got my kit and installed it today. It's one of those "smile" type mods. No extra horse power, no extra off-road capabilities, but when you pop that hood... Smile.
I chose to attach my brackets with rivnuts instead of the included rivets. No dis to the rivets, they look decent to me, but I had rivnuts so, that happened.

@SpikerEng @prone2xl I filmed my install (2nd Gen).

 

Yep, one of the first things I did to my taco

 

Nice work Kevin, love the attention to detail! What size rivnuts did you use?

As for the strut orientation, it'd work either way, but the damping at end of stroke works better when the tube end is on top and the rod end on the bottom. Glad you caught that detail.

 

Thanks for the reasoning behind the strut orientation.
I used M5 rivnuts. M5 fasteners fit perfectly in the brackets.

 

Spiker Engineering is celebrating the birth of our nation by holding a July 4th sale on all of our USA made products. Use code "BornInUSA" at checkout to save 10% now through end of July 5th.

 

Nice! Just ordered mine!

Thank you, and Happy 4th of July!

 

I just ordered a set too. I had hood struts on my 2006 and never got around ordering some for my 2015.

Also ordered a rivnut tool like @airkewled used. These look amazing!

 

Rivnuts are very cool .

 

came here to pile on a bit. anyone who says "if These hoods could handle the stress of struts Toyota would have added them" simply doesn't understand the profit motive of companies, or how lucrative selling pickup trucks is.

The hood can handle it. Spikers strut is excellent, price is good, directions are clear, and having struts on the hood is awesome, practical even! That's it in a nutshell. Plus, in my case, it adds symmetry.

IMHO it's a mandatory mod for Tacoma owners. Do it.





With all that space, you'd think my engine bay would be cleaner, but that's another story.

 

do you ship to Canada?

and has anyone installed these on a 2nd Gen who also had an Aux fuse box installed by the brake reservoir? ( drivers side )

 

We do ship to Canada, you can specify that at checkout. Do you have a picture of the aux fuse box setup? Here's one that someone else had:

 

This is the best picture I have at the moment.
I made it myself, but as you can see, it hangs down, and is below the hood line.

 

I'm 99% sure that the strut will clear - it'll be closer to the fender and higher than the fuse boxes. From the looks of it, if you had a minor interference, you could shift those boxes slightly. But I think you'll be fine as is.