Suspension upgrades for ARB bumper?

So I am looking to get an ARB bumper for my 2nd gen access cab. I work nights and have a 25 minute drive home on back roads in northern Wisconsin and have already hit a few deer this year, though the taco has taken it like a champ I figured I better get a doe basher before more damage happens. Anyways my question is what upgrades do I need to make to my suspension to maintain my stock ride height, and what precautions should I take while doing this if I decide to do a moderate 1-3 inch lift in the future? I'm also looking to keep this relatively affordable suspension wise.
This is my truck now
This is what im kind of going off of for looks, and what i want to do, ie bumper,light rack, tires/rims. (AKA Marty McFly Look)

 

Bump. Im in the same boat. I have seen a few people run the ARB up font for awhile before they upgraded their suspension.

 

I'm in the same boat and what I've read is you can do a OME setup and use 886 springs. I've read some say 650lb springs sagged quite a bit with bumper and winch, so many go with 700lb springs.
Or you can go with something like a ICON setup that uses 650 springs and just crank it up a little more than otherwise.

 

There is some great data on Headstrong Offroad page.

http://www.headstrongoffroad.com/st...-__Various_Lift_Heights_Available_(PAIR).html

 

Looks like @MikeyMcFly old truck. See if he chimes in on what he had for a set up.

BTW: I believe he has the light bar for sale...

 

That is my truck.

The photo you posted is with the truck on stock TRD Off-Road coils and shocks. I lost approximately 0.75 to 1" of ride height up front with the bumper on the truck. Honestly, I didn't notice a real difference in performance / handling with the bumper on the truck compared to with it not on the truck, although I didn't do any hardcore offroading with the truck, either. People say it's easier to hit the bump stops with the bumper on the truck, but I never experienced that.



That's the only very clear side shot I have of the truck with the OEM suspension. Any other shots I have are at an angle, which defeats the purpose of showing the truck's stance. Now, I had started to entertain the idea of putting a lift up front on it to regain the height for cosmetic reasons, not for performance reasons. I went to have the rear leaf TSB done (on the 2012-up trucks you had to have vibes to get it to work) and the dealer rejected my TSB claim because the front bumper lowered the nose (ridiculous, I know) so I went all in and threw a lift on it.

My lift was Eibach 112-620 springs with Bilstein 5100s @ 0.85 up front with an Icon AAL and Bilstein 5100s out back using 4-leaf TSB springs with the overload leaf removed. A lot of people say you shouldn't do the Eibachs @ 0.85" since that's akin to running the 5100 @ 2.5" and runs into UCA issues. My reasoning was that since I lost height with the weight of the bumper, I'd probably only be slightly above what I'd get if I ran just the springs, or ran my stock springs and set them at 1.75" on a stock truck. In then end, I got about 2" up front (similar to what people see with stock springs @ 1.75" or Eibachs + 5100s). I ran the stock UCA and was definitely low on caster, well below recommended specs.

Now, this is only my personal experience, and I'm in no way advising you that you will have the same results, but the low caster didn't tend to bother me. My driving with the truck was mainly around town with the occasional highway excursion. I didn't notice any wandering on the highway and actually thought the truck handled quite well. I hustled it around a few corners I probably shouldn't have over the year or so I had the lift and I thought it rode great.

The 5100/Eibach combo is stiff, no doubt, but coming from my STi and my Accord with stiffer springs / struts, I was used to the stiffer ride and thought it sharpened up the handling and felt less tippy than other trucks I had driven. I did have to do the ECGS bushing in my front differential due to the rumble strip effect.



A photo of the truck in its final state.



Just to show the impact of the cap weight on the rear suspension.