First Time Tacoma Owner Suspension Upgrade

As the title says I am attempting to upgrade my suspension for the first time in my life. I will be honest I do not know the most but I am definitely here to learn. I have spent the last couple of weeks reading through forums on this site but decided to finally make an account and ask for some help. I do a lot of offroading but currently feel limited due to my truck being completely stock and I am looking to change that. I am looking to do a complete suspension upgrade and ideally would like to keep it under $2,000 before taxes and shipping.

1. I want a 3-inch lift but I have seen that this is somewhat of a controversial topic on some threads. The roads near where I live tend to lead to a fair amount of bottoming out and I am looking to fix that. Some places mention that a lift may not help that. Is a 3-inch lift useful or overkill?

2. I would like to upgrade to 33s because I have heard that the wheel size is important in raising the overall height of your vehicle. But I have also heard that 33s tend to lead to a lot of rubbing which is something I would like to avoid. I am willing to cut away and make adjustments if this is possible. Is it better to get a size smaller than 33s? Are we speaking 32s or 31s? I would also like to get a small offset. Does an offset help with rubbing?

3. With this being my first time I am not the most educated on quality brands. Currently, I am looking at an

$1,628 ARB Old Man Emu 3" Lift Kit (Medium Load) - OMEKIT-004

Old Man Emu 3 Inch Lift Kit. Now while this is what I am looking at this is not what I am sold to. I have heard great things about OME, Bilsteins, Fox, and King. I would like to hear any opinions that y'all have on these different brands.

Any help or guidance will be greatly appreciated. These forums seem like a great place to learn within a kind community and I am proud to finally join the club. Thank you all for your time and consideration.

 

Welcome to tw...
3" is not a guarantee, if you have added weight, then it will sag to 2.5 to 2 inch, which is perfectly fine.
I would look into toytec or old man emu springs and bilstein 5100s or 6112s.
You will get lots of options on here, but almost nobody has tested every suspension option. Its your butt dyno that matters, not mine.

 

Welcome! and as you have seen there is lots of information on this topic(maybe too much lol).
OME makes quality stuff, I have the 2" lift.

 

I’m a first time lifter as well and I’m trying to decide between Rough Country or Eaibach’s stage 1 ..only thing about Eaibachs. Is that it’s not a complete kit.

 

Rough country is crap. I know its cheap but you'll be replacing the shocks and springs quickly if you do a lot of off roading. If you want the lift for the look then by all means go RC. But if you actually want a lift with true suspension upgrades stay away. From what I've heard from the guys who went RC the first time, it was worse than stock and they ended up replacing it anyway. Some complaints were that the truck dove hard into corners, shimmied from bumps or whoops, and got wobbly at high speed. Doesn't sound like a fun time to me.

 

I have the OME 3in with dakar heavies and love it. I have about 400lb of add-ons which is why I went the heavy route.
If you want to run 33s or even fat 32s, you'll need to do a cab mount chop. You *might* not have to if you run pizza cutters (tall/skinny) which would depend on your offroad needs.
You'll also need new uca's because the stock ones won't give you the down travel needed for a 3in lift. They'll rub your springs and also not allow proper alignment if not replaced.
You'll also most likely need to replace the needle bearing with something like the ECGS bushing, otherwise you're potentially sitting on a ticking time bomb. Also depending on how much you flex out the rear suspension you'll want to extend your back brake lines too.
I can't think of anything else off the top of my head but those are all things that should also be factored into your cost. I was able to do the OME lift in my driveway with the help of a buddy and an impact gun. Took us about 10 hours start to finish.

 

I vote a dobinsons mrr set up way better then ome or crap country

 

Thanks for insights.

 

Im getting the Eibach 2.0 kit for $1k
Its comes with adjustable coilovers for the front
dakar leaf pack in the back with cost you about $500 so thats $1500 for a decent 2.5 inch lift
I decided on monotube shocks rather than twin tube because they wont get aeration inside the shock which leads to rougher ride and more body roll

 

Yeah.... I’ve decided on the EiBaCH kit stage-1. W/ 1in rear lift blocks. I mean for the price point and quality you can’t go wrong... aside from that I really didn’t want to go higher then 3in leveled. I would have gone with TOYTECH set up but I don’t think ill be doing that much off-roading. I think ill be good w/2.5 lift leveled for now at least ....
Now comes the fun part ..wheels & tires ...??

 

1. Why do you think you are “bottoming out”? It’s hard to hit your bump stops on a road unless you try hard. Even if that is actually happening to you, increasing your ride height might not be the solution. Beefier shocks might be the answer though.
2. Wheel diameter is important for getting over obstacles and increasing traction. It increases your ground clearance and angle of attack when driving over rocks, logs, etc. There are a lot of trade offs though. If you aren’t getting high centered, dragging your hitch receiver over rocks, bashing your front splash guard, etc, you probably don’t need 33’s.

I’m guessing you should drive the truck stock until you know what you really need.