Convince Son Not To Lift 2023 Tacoma Off Road

Hawaiian stye --- Cherreh, brand new lifted Yota....parked on mom and dads driveway LOL.

 

don't lift it. it will only cause headaches and frustration and lots of money.

 

I got a lot more than $50 K sitting in my bank and retirement accounts- remember, this is the first new car I have bought (and kid actually bought 1/4 as he put $10 k down of his own money and still has much more in his own bank account). So all that money of mine that would have bought new cars with went into the stock market and I bought used cars like my FJ40, FJ80, BMW 320is, Saab 900, 91 Mighty Max, 2001 xterra, 2003 frontier, BMW 318ic, Land Rover sport 2007. BTW- I dislike subaru and would never own on- full time BS awd.

 

If he legitimately wants to offroad, he should know a six inch bracket lift is the last thing he wants to do. The best thing to do is take the truck, AS-IS, and go use it offroad. He will find the limits and what actually needs improved upon. Something like a Bilstein 5160 setup with 1.5-2 inches of lift, some nice looking wheels and 32s would drastically upgrade the truck in the looks department without messing stuff up, or being too expensive. Shocks can be installed in your own driveway without paying a shop a ton of money too.

As mentioned before, a six inch lift requires cutting part of your frame out. Tons of people have regrets after doing this as they go into a shop and tell them six inch lift, only to find out awhile later when they want to swap it back to stock that they are now missing a hunk of frame and it'll cost a lot to have something fabbed up in place of that crossmember.

Tell your son to get his own TW account and read read read and read some more.

 

Oh… y’all are in Hawaii…. Show him this

https://youtu.be/4ICMsM49zFY

 

Trying to convince your son not to lift his truck and him actually heeding your advice is definitely difficult. I've also been down this road with my son, unfortunately, some lessons are learned the hard way. In my situation, my son took it as me nagging, or telling him what to do, etc. At that point, you just hope the lesson learned isn't too expensive. Just my 2 cents.

 

Good advice,
I told him I never liked the big bracket sticking down at the front axel- what if you slam into a rock? All kine damage then. The other day I did tell him get on this site and look and ask for advice- being 18 he kinda blew me off, he will probably get on one day.

 

TW becoming family therapy forum. First, that married chick and now this...

Tell your son he can do whatever he wants after he pays off the truck. He is 18 and should be allowed to make questionable decisions if he is so inclined. Hopefully he will learn from them.

 

Just another day in Paradise........

 

Stay under 2". Anything more use drop bracket style.

 

Guys and Gals,
Don't like to break the news, but I also bought my 16 year old daughter a 2023 Tacoma OF V6 at the same time we got the son's. Daughters' is all in my name and I will use it if my beater frontier is down and I need to haul. She has no interest in a lift and it will stay as is. I am a little worried about her wrecking it, but the Taco has a great safety rating and I don't care if the kids total a car, as long as they or others are not hurt. My daughter does all kine sports and out rigger canoe paddles so the truck is useful, she wants some racks so she can haul a one man canoe. Don't worry bout my kids, they turn out all right, and my house is owned free and clear and almost finished my second house, son and I built ourselves on our one acre lot. Kids can have these houses and wife and I retire Big Island on 20 acres of ranch land I own- might take daughter's Taco with us as well as my FJ80. Btw sons taco is silver and daughters is mood dust or whateva they call it- colors are great.

 

Appreciate it. When I have the time I’ll read thru this thread and post just an opinion.

OPINION so people don’t get that confused hahaha.

Big factor for me tho…was the fishing/camping spots I’ll go to. When I have a break from work I’ll post my opinion.


In short, I don’t think your son needs a lift …period - until the day his hobbies or work requires one. Save the money, put a down on a house. Living in Hawaii is expensive AF

 

6" lift is terrible idea. Friend had a second gen that was the worst driving vehicle I've experienced due to a horrible lift.

 

Remember all,
Its Aloha Friday,
Aloha

 

Thanks for your comments, good advice. And agree, those bashing my kid for dropping out of college... well my irresponsible kid is helping generate and distribute electricity so these folks can post their rubbish on the internet.

 

Generally speaking, when you start changing the engineered geometry on vehicles you are going to see increased wear on components. It may not be drastic, but it's there. Also, bigger tires will throw the speedometer off unless you get it recalibrated, and the speedo being off also makes the odometer read less miles than it should. Big reason why I would never buy a truck that had been run with larger than stock tires. The odometer will be off by the percentage that the tire size increased. 10% bigger around means 10% more miles.

 

18 years old and testosterone is raging and after spending a ton of frivolous money he'll surprise you with "Dad I got a girl pregnant" or worse "I'm in the hospitol because I flipped the truck" or BOTH!!!

As Barney would have said..."Nip it in the Bud"!

 

It's Hawaii, so pretty hard to stop him. But you can always pull your financial support...

It's the biggest money waster and very irresponsible...

 

Alright, I got some time

I’m not gonna say 6” is idiotic, you WILL get that a lot on TW cause well, people just don’t fully understand it, just go with the flow of what others say, OR it’s directly not meant for THEIR use (long travels, heavy offroad which drop brackets increase center of gravity which they try to avoid).

I have a 6”, but not a basic kit.
If you guys decide to actually go this route, be prepared to spend extra $$$ to get it right. It’s not simply a bolt on kit - unless you truly stay on the road.
Yes, you do cut the frame - but I don’t jump my truck, and hell, I don’t offroad the kinda stuff Moab offers, so it’s fine for me (MY truck, MY decision).
In order for a 6” to be worthy, at a minimum, change all shocks. Get rid of the barrel spacer the kit comes with for the front and go full length shocks/coilovers. Ditch the rear shocks and get something more durable. Ditch the rear blocks and AAL for a full leaf pack. That’s the minimum. Stock UCA’s are fine since the drop bracket actually keeps factory geometry (hence the flat CV angles)

With this 2017 being the brand new vehicle I ever bought and probably will ever buy, I was not gonna drag my bumpers off just to go fishing and camping. Sure, could’ve add sliders, armored bumpers - but the cost to ship that and KNOWINGLY drag my brand new truck on volcanic rock did not sit right with me. Also, that’s added weight that interferes with my payload, and when I go camping, I pack a shit ton of stuff. This is MY decision and MY needs

If he wants to do it, but you don’t want to - that’s something you need to address with him personally. Just let him know, it costs wayyyy more than the quote to get it done right.

My build thread isn’t quite up to date so it’s prolly missing parts. In the gist of it, full length bilstein shocks in the front, OME 888 coils, Bilstein 5160 rear, custom Alcan leaf pack, timbrens, u bolt flip, hammer hangars and 3.6” greasable shackles, on board air, 35s, gears, tuned.

Edit: do I regret it? YUP. Truck is too fucking high hahaha. But this thing goes everywhere I need it to with ease. Trying to load fully stuffed 150qt coolers is a different story

 

If I lived in Hawaii I'd just loaf around no Tacoma needed.