What's so bad about lift blocks?

Well to start with, everyone talks trash about them

 

95.5 Tacoma SX.

 

Either way thanks guys, alot

 

one of the big issues are going to be axle wrap, this is no good.. but if your not going any off road you wont be in much trouble... I do suggest dont try and take off fast with blocks.. this will cause axle wrap quickly.. For the price you pay for a block kit you can get AAL in the rear... yes most aal kits are 2.5.. If your dead set on 3 inches you could do a 2 inch AAL, and 1 inch blocks in the rear... if it was me i wouldnt do a 3 inch block..

 

Would this have happened if the bump stops had been extended?

 

no it wouldnt have.
as long as you hit your bump stops before you bottom out your shocks you will be fine.
the way to test that, is take the coil off of your shock, put the shock back on the truck, and jack up that tire.

the reason that happened is because by putting a spacer on the top of the shock, it pushes the whole body of the shock down, and makes it bottom out before the bump stop.

 

Another reason not to do the top mount spacers only is that Toyota designed the shock to be the droopstop in the suspension design. If you add a top mount spacer, you are extending the droopstop by the thickness of the spacer. If you go more than a 1/2 inch, the upper balljoint will bind on full droop and the UCA will smack into the coil.

 

Ahhh, now we're getting somewhere on actual info. Most posts I've read have an awful lot of opinion without detail. Good work. Anything else that will cause problems?

 

Not really. Anything other than replacing the entire strut with one purpose built to provide lift is garbage, resulting in garbage. All we've been doing is talking about what in the trash bag stinks worse, metaphorically speaking.

And the issue with blocks in the rear has been beaten to death in a million threads.

 

Op go with the AAL, a 1 inch block isn't really that big of a deal, though I yanked mine out when I purchased my truck used (lifted) and swapped it out for full leaf packs. Can't go wrong with full leaves.
AAL is also way cheaper than full leaf packs.

Thanks,
Brett

 

ok so i may a little confused but is axle wrap a risk with front block on the coils or just the rear??

 

Not on Coils on front, (unless i guess you did a solid axle swap, but dont quote me on that) But you have the risk of breaking your shocks running the "Hockey Puck" style spacers and coil spacers...

 

Bear with me - another couple of questions.

With ball joint bind; how is using a spacer different from using a full strut replacement in prventing the bind? I can picture the bind due to the frame being higher with a lift but how does a spacer cause bind and not a full spring replacement? Do replacement struts still stop at the same relative location as stock when measured from the top of the stroke meaning they must have added material to the bottom of the strut to make up for the difference in lift?

 

With a top plate spacer, the whole shock assembly is being pushed down and the shock is not being extended at all from the lift. Therefore the shock can still fully extend the same distance that it would even if the spacer was not install.

A preload spacer, the 5100's and taller springs gain lift by keeping the shock assembly in the same position and causing the shock itself to be extended further at ride height.

Kinda hard to explain but i would recommend to read this info PDF Bilstein did on the 5100's

http://www.bilsteinus.com/fileadmin/user_upload/user_upload_us/pdfs/Bil_LevShks_WebArticle.pdf

 

Not ideal for offroading, if you like the look of a lifted truck and wont take it offroading youll be fine.

 

you will be fine, unless you tow, then you will experience large axle wrap, there are solutions to minimize the wrap with some simple leaf pack addons....


my recommendation would be at least the AAL, clamp the leafs to minimize axle wrap...


I added this:


http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/we...raft_10053624-p?searchTerm=leaf+spring+helper


Use one of their 30% off coupons, order online and pick it up at your local store, I snagged one for about $23.....there is a thread here at TW that shows the install, very simple, maybe an hour if you takes breaks....

 

Once you understand what axle wrap is, it will make sense.


So, imagine your leaf springs - I'm gonna make 'em flat like you have a load in the bed.

______________

Code:

Now imagine your leaf springs with the axle underneath them:
 
______________
      O
 
Now imagine your leaf springs with a block above the axle:
 
______________
      ||
      O
 
 
Now imagine you stomp on the gas and the axle starts to rotate:
 
_______---------
       \\ 
        O
 

Make a little more sense now?

 

thats what i thought they were talking about i was confused when the springs and coils came into the convo. thnx man.
but in all seriousness i was gonna go with blocks but i see now that it is bad thnx guys

 

It's not the end of the world, but there is a right way to do things...and a wrong way to do things. If always drive with a light foot and never go offroad you'd probably be perfectly fine. But..it's one of those things that I think is worth doing right.

 

I have 2 inch blocks in the rear and I dont go off road.... my truck rides fine.