My Budget build

My understanding is that the longer leafs give a better ride.

 

FatBob's still has not gotten back to me. I sent them another email this morning. Not only are half the parts missing from the kit I ordered, but now I'm concerned about the fact that I received the shorter AAL's vs the longer ones. I sure hope this gets resolved. Stay tuned.

Update: They emailed me soon after my 2nd email and admitted their mistake and offered to throw in a t-shirt in addition to the missing parts. I asked about getting the longer AAL's and am now waiting for a response to this.

 

The order mixup has been resolved. Thanks goes out to Josh at FatBob's. Along with the missing parts, I also paid the extra money to get the longer AAL's. I'll be shipping the shorter ones that I originally received back to FatBob's.

My plan is to install everything over this 3-day weekend. I'll have some pics for you guys when it's complete. Wish me luck


The missing parts....




Here you can see the size difference between the long AAL's and the short AAL's. The long leafs are about 30" and the short leafs are about 20"




On a slightly different note, my wife's car had a bad front and rear strut (so I'll be replacing them all) and needed new front brakes. I'm hoping to have enough time to tackle that this weekend as well. Our automotive budget for this year is stretched thin. As you can see from all the boxes below, I've been keeping the UPS guy busy lol. Free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime is awesome.

 

Screw her car, get that lift on !

 

I am soooooooooo jealous! LOL. Been wanting a lift forever. DAMN YOU COLLEGE TUITION!!!

 

awaiting those lifted pics................

 

Alright everyone, I got everything installed over the past weekend and the truck looks a hundred times better It's been a hectic week which I why I haven't had a chance to post until now.

Anyways, the install went fairly well. The instructions from FatBob's aren't very helpful at all. I ended up following ReadyLift's youtube video for the most part which was very helpful. The install took longer than I had anticipated and there were a few hiccups along the way but overall it was a success.


Passenger side was attacked first...




You can see that the stud on the right of the strut (not the spacer) is longer than the others. I forgot about this at first, went to reinstall and was wondering why it wasn't fitting *doh*. I used a reciprocating saw to cut it down to size. I ran into some troubles though when the instructions said to "rotate strut 180 degrees" before reinstalling. I did what apparently many others have done and rotated the whole strut only to install it and find out the bracket for the brake line was backwards and the upper control arm rubbed severely on the strut. So after some research I found out you had to use spring compressors in order to rotate only the top of the strut and not the whole thing. There wasn't any mention of needing these in FatBob's or ReadyLift's instructions. I really don't know how you'd accomplish it without spring compressors so it's definitely something to be aware of if you're planning on installing this kit. After compressing the springs, the top of the strut rotated no problem and everything lined up and fit the way it was supposed to. Oh, and the camera makes this picture look worse than it really is, but yes, I got a bit over-zealous with the locktite at first .




Driver side with FatBob's spacer installed and the MotorSport Tech wheel spacer installed...




Close up of the FatBob's spacer on the driver's side (I must've still had locktite on my gloves when I put the nuts on lol)...




FatBob's long AAL installed...




Removing the factory shocks was tricky as the shock will just spin when you try to remove the nut. After seeing what people here on the forums recommended (cutting the shock, grinding the nut, clamping down on the shaft with vice grips or pliers, etc) most of which tend to ruin the shocks in the process, I thought I was going to have to resort to one of these things and destroy the factory shocks. I wanted to avoid ruining them if at all possible. I ended up having success with some PB Blaster and an adjustable wrench tightened on the flat spot at the top. Took some time but finally got them out...




Here you can see the size difference between the factory shock (left) and the pro-comps included in the FatBob's kit (right)...




I went to install them and ran into another problem. The bushing at the bottom of the shock was way to wide to fit into the mount. I tried using dishwashing liquid and some aerosol spray lube to help it slide in but no luck. After going at it for about 30 minutes, I decided there was no way that bushing was gonna fit. So I ended up having to shave about 1/16 of an inch from each side of the bushing with a razor. Even after doing this, I still had to muscle them into the mount, and get it just right so the bushing wasn't binding up and blocking the bolt from passing through. This was probably the most strenuous part of the install...




Here's the shock finally installed. Dust boots are not included with the kit. I just bought some the other day and will install them this weekend. My plan is to remove the top nut on the shock and compress it enough to fit the boot over. I don't want to have to take that shock out again

 

And now, for the results....












I took some before and after shots of the height difference with the new tires and the lift.

Front = 4 1/2 inches




Rear = 3 3/8 inches

 

Looks awesome ! ! !

Great write up as well ! ! !

Have the big tires affected you gas mileage or the engines power ?

Great job ! ! !

 

Thanks Ivel I haven't put enough miles on it to know if it's affected my gas mileage (I just broke 22,000 miles yesterday lol). I'll probably never have a good idea of it's affect on my mileage since I've only had to fill it up once between purchasing it and doing these mods.

It does affect acceleration a little bit. I could tell a slight difference when accelerating from a stop, but it's not really a big enough difference to be a concern. Initially, I was worried that it would be super sluggish with these larger tires but honestly, the difference in acceleration is hardly noticeable and well worth the larger tire size IMHO.

One thing that is very different though is the road noise. There's no hiding the roar of these aggressively treaded tires lol!

 

Not trying to sound like an ass, but those jeep wheels look wayyyy better than I thought they would, I honestly thought they might be a little goofy, but dang they're sweeeeeeet! The truck looks great man!

 

That's an awesome looking Taco. I have the exact same thing and I've been saving up to do the same thing (college student). Could you tell us if the ride was smoother than stock?

 

Thanks. Yes, I'm very happy with how they look for the price I paid for them.

The ride is noticeably "stiffer". However, I believe this is mostly due to the tires. I say this because I grew impatient waiting for the lift kit to arrive and went ahead and installed the wheels/tires on the truck for about a week prior to installing the lift. Once I put them on the ride was not quite as "cushiony". If I had to guess, I'd imagine the change in ride quality is mostly due to the increase in unsprung weight with the larger tires. I'm sure the lift and the additional leaf spring play a part too, but I think it's mostly the heavy tires since the ride changed as soon as I installed them even without the lift.

 

Question for you guys. I finally got around to making an appointment for an alignment. My question is, do I need a full four wheel alignment? Or is just a front end alignment enough?

 

I have no idea.

You ever check your mpg's ?

I think that I've decided to not lift my truck. I'll be 50 in two years and I'm short so I don't think I want to be climbing up into a truck but heck, I might change my mind tomorrow.

 

Sorry Ivel, currently, I don't have to drive very far with this truck so I don't have much mpg data to go off of. Since purchasing it, I've only filled up 3x.

1st) Immediately after purchase before driving home. Couldn't calculate the mpg since the previous owner didn't reset the odometer.

2nd) I went a total of 401mi at 21.2mpg. This was all with the stock tires/suspension and was about 40% city driving.

3rd) Went a total of 327mi at 17.4mpg. About 25% of these miles were with the stock tires/suspension and then I installed the new tires/lift. This tank was also about 70% city driving.
​

So it's really hard if not impossible to say how the tires/lift has affected my mpg since I went from stock tires, and mostly freeway driving on one tank, to big tires, lift, and mostly city driving the next lol. I don't have much of anything to compare my mpg's to prior to the lift/tires. I'll be watching my mpg's though and once I have some more fuel ups to compare to, I'll let you know what I'm getting.

 

After every lift, I believe a 4-wheel alignment is done. I only say that because my friends and I were talking about lifting my truck and what had to be done, but take my info with a grain of salt because I'm not quite sure.

And in city MPG don't seem that bad at all, because I get 18-19 with stock suspension and 225s. Just come back and tell us when you drive on the freeway so I have an idea of how much MPG to expect from after lifting, since I drive 80% there

 

Nice build so far man.

 

Thanks! I'm hoping to tackle paint matching the grill next but things are too busy right now.

I did end up getting a full alignment and the truck drives noticeably better now. At highway speeds it tracks a lot better/straighter. Also, my last fuel up, I got 22.4 mpg which I'm pretty happy with considering it was about 40% city driving in addition to 2 separate trips up to the mountains on the steeply graded highway. I definitely noticed the lack of power in the higher gears going up the grade though. 4th and 5th were pretty useless. I don't know which blame for this. The larger tires, the 4-cyl engine, or the transmission gearing. I guess it'd be a combination of all three. Either way, it wasn't unbearable. Just a little different than the other vehicles I've taken up there in the past. I just had to keep it in 3rd for most of the climb. I'm still very happy with my truck

 

Okay that's good news! MPG's aren't horrible as I thought and I already downshift to 3rd everytime I approach a hill anyways, so it won't change that much. If you have the cash and don't mind installing it, you should regear to 3.9 or 4.10 to restore the lost power but I don't think it's necessary haha.