Upgrading suspension pre-roadtrip

Howdy all, I usually pop up on here when I'm getting ready for a road trip and this is no exception. I'm about to head across the country (twice) and spend the next few months off-roading in some scenic places; however before I can do that I need to address the suspension in my 2011 Toyota Tacoma 4x4.

My truck currently has 60,000 miles on it and from what everyone tells me that seems to be about the time I'm supposed to start thinking about replacing my shocks and whatnot.

I run a heavy load in the rear of my truck (Topper, gear, bed, extra battery, plywood drawers/frame, roof rack ect...) the stock springs in the back are insufficient and I recently received another TSB notice saying they could/would snap. So I'm thinking I want to replace them with some Old Man Emu Dakar Leaf's.

This leads me to my question; I have never installed new suspension in a truck and so I wanted to know if the new suspension increases my ride height by roughly 2 inches; will I have any drive train problems or unexpected consequences? I see that they offer a drive line spacer, is this needed and is it hard to install?

Also will my 245/75 R16 tires suddenly look too small for the truck? (The last bit is 50% joking but seriously will it look weird?) ;-)

Thanks for your expertise!

 

yes,no and yes.....at 2in.,you're probably not gonna experience anything major in the driveline(if they get the alignment correct,which shouldn't be a problem)sure,things change when you lift,but it'll be minimal if anything at all,maybe a tiny bit of driveline serge at certain speeds that you may not have noticed before.everyone seems to be drooling over the new bilstein 6112's(i'm running 5100's,all around, on stock sport springs)seems like bilstein tested the 6112's pretty good...looks to me like the way to go for an uncomplicated setup,but since you actually load your bed,yeah dakars should do nicely,i'm on "tsb's" on my 2010 sport 4dr. ir rarely carry any load,2 or 3 german shepherds...not much weight,but after 50,000 mi,my tsb leafs have a "slight frown",not much,but not like when new...245-75-16...gonna look like a fat lady with skinney legs...maybe you can find some16 or 17in take-offs..i like the "tall skinnies for expedition type travel(maybe 255-75) with less backspace to make them fill the wheel-wells...have a great trip...wish I could do it,have fun!

 

"Fat lady with skinny legs" hahaha I agree

 

So I was wondering with the Dakar leaf springs will I need the "add a leaf" for a topper+300lbs or should they be fine without? I don't want to install and then have to remove them lol.