Need some input on 6" vs 3" lift & tires

I'm going to buy a 2008 or 2009 tacoma reg cab four banger 4x4 next Christmas. After finishing my mod list I realize that I can spend more initially, since mods are going to be less than I thought.

Originally I was going to go with a 3" lift front and 1.5" rear with 32x11.5" swampers on 16x8" 4.5 backspace. I'm 95% sure that for the type of driving I will be doing with that setup, that there won't be any rubbing issues, other than maybe the flaps at full lock, which I'm taking off anyway.

Later I was thinking of moving up to a 6" lift and running larger tires/wheels. But it would probably be better to do the right thing the first time, instead of spending money on the 3" lift, just to upgrade a year later to the 6" and have to buy wheels again, not to mention the lift.

Some people say that the 3" lifts should just be a temp solution and ultimatley should go with something like coilovers within a year or so.

I would really like to run 33x12.5" tires on 10" wheels.

Would it be possible to actually get better ride quality on and or off road, with a proper 6" lift VS a 3" toytec or similar lift? Would these larger tires and wheels fit without hitting the A-arm, on a 10" wheel that has a 4.5" backspacing?

Or should I just stick my original setup, until I see exactlly what kind of clearances I'm dealing with?

 

Never mind I answered my own question. I do that a lot.

I would have gone with a fabtech 6" lift and 33's, but then it occured to me that if I ever needed anything fixed under warranty, the dealer would take one look at the 6" lift and 33's, laugh and stamp VOID all over the factory warranty and it would be tough to argue with them too because lifting that much affects several different componenets.

So guess I will hold off on the 6" lift for a couple years, after I buy and just do the 3" and 1.5" rear with 32x11.5x16" swampers. If they tried to void warranty on that, I would drag lawyers into it.

Ok I'm done for now.

 

i would also watch out for the power issue going to a 33 with the 4 banger.. also gearing might be hard on the trans and clutch... just a thought?

 

ya you really gotta watch lifting..especially the 6 inch.. on a four cylinder.you may not experience any rubbing, but you may not be able to generate enough power to get up to speed. just go for the 6 cylinder if you wanna lift

 

You said you wanted ride quality, and you said you wanted swampers. Those two are mutually exclusive in my experience. On my previous ride, I owned 33" TSL radials, and then 36" Bias Ply TSLs. Both were great off road. Both were more detrimental to ride quality more than anything I could have done with suspension. There are a lot of good MT tires out there now that are close to swampers performance offroad, but will ride 10x better and last 3x longer.

If you want to run 33s, Get a good 3" lift (Toytec, OME, etc) and do the trimming necessary.

Good Luck

 

Do you work at a graveyard? Cuz you sure know how to dig up 4 year old dead threads. I didn't even buy my truck till 2 years after I asked these questions.

I have 3" lift now via ICON's all around and 33x12.5's, Kumho MT's.