Pros and Cons of lifting or lowering

I am on the fence with either lifting or lowering my 08. Which ever I decide it will be minimal,no more than a couple inches either way. If I lower I am just going with x runner springs,shocks,struts. If I lift I am considering the bilstiens all around and body lift? Over all I just want a different look than the stock one I currently have. What are the pros and cons(if any) of lifting or lowering?

 

When you say bilstiens all around, are you talking about bilstein 5100's? The adjustable ride height ones? Because they don't fit on our trucks

 

I was talking about those but not anymore. Thanks for that info. What are my options now for a lift? I would just like a few inches and go up to the max tire size(not too wide,I still want my good gas mileage) without any rubbing issues.

 

Readylift or Fatbobs

 

This. Unless of course you wanted to go mid travel or long travel, but that'll run you a few grand. Most people with fatbobs or ready lift usually run like 31-33 in. tires, most running 33's do the black box mod I think, and might need a little extra trimming.

And trust me, if they made 5100's for our trucks I'd be using them right now, LOL

 

Also, from what I've heard, lifting with FB or ready lift will make your ride stiff as HELLLL, and again, from what I've heard, lowering your truck will make your ride hard as well. Not sure if this factors into your decision or not, this is just everything I've heard.

If what I said isn't true, someone please correct me, since I'm still ruin around stock! LOL

 

This is true. Ride quality suffers when you put in the spacers. For most people, it's worth it since the 5lug looks better haha

 

im leaning towards lifting,is it a all in one kit from fat bobs? What shocks and struts should i add? Im sitting at 58k miles on my 08

 

You can buy the all in one leveling kit from Fat Bobs for around $220-270, depending on what type of add-a-leaf (long or short). It comes with rear Pro-Comp shocks.

 

Not completely true. Mine rides just like OEM, unless I stiffen the shocks

 

If you want great MPG, I recommend not lifting your truck. When you add a lift, then comes bigger tires (this is where your MPG will drop). You can run some Bilsteins on your truck, it is the HD series.

There are limited options to lift your 5 lug, you can go with the Fat Bob Lift kit, Readylift kit, or ProComps lift kit. These lifts are all the same, spacer up front and AAL in the rear.

But if you have some $$$ to spend, you could go with Total Chaos, they have a mid-travel and long travel suspension for our 5 lugs.

I can't comment much about lowering a truck, just the fact that you could run stock size tires and still get great MPG.

 

there will be no noticeable difference in ride height. all it will do is firm up the ride and make the truck handle noticeably better. the difference in weight plus the stiffer springs negates the minimal difference in the actual spring height.

welp my truck doesn't, mine is moar like dump truck. rofl.

 

^^ ride height is lower on xr's cuz of the 4.0 right?

 

I'm not convinced that the actual ride height on the stock XR is lower... at least not by much.
I think the rear is about an inch lower, which basically levels it, but the body skirt kit makes it look a lot lower, and the 18" tire combination fills out the wheelwells with some help from the flares.

 

^^that makes sense. but bigger engine might make a difference too right?

 

Normally, bigger engine means stiffer springs from the factory which maintains right height.

But supposedly, the XR front strut assembly will lower the 5-lug by 1/4-1/2" as well as ride a bit stiffer.

You can somewhat level the 5-lug by installing Prerunner/4x4 rear leaf packs... that'll drop it about an inch.

 

1st gen ftw lol