Questions from a new owner

I just took ownership of 2004 Regular Cab 4x4 that I will use as my farm truck. (I've had it with Polaris Rangers and look forward to having A/C in the summer and heat in the winter!) Mostly I’ll be driving on gravel and dirt roads (some are rough), with some off-road driving in fields and occasionally crossing creeks. Nothing too extreme. I will be doing some towing and carrying some weight in the bed. I'm unlikely to put more than a thousand miles a year on the truck.

My plan is to replace the current road tires with Nankang N889 tires in 265/75/R16 mounted on stock steel 16x7 Tacoma wheels painted black.

Currently the truck sits flat, 22 inches from the center of the hub to the fender flare front and rear. I think this means that the rear springs are worn. I'd like to have some rake when I'm done, but I'm not really looking to lift the truck too much. Maybe 2 inches in the rear and an inch in the front?

I plan to replace the front bumper with an All-Pro bumper and add a winch. I plan to replace the rear bumper as well with a tube bumper. I’ll also add some All-Pro armor to the underside. So the weight will go up a bit.

I've been looking at options for the suspension and have pretty much decided on Headstrong's Coil/Bilstein kit with HS's three-leaf AAL in the rear. I'll remove the factory overload leaf to keep the lift to about 2" in the rear.

I've read through numerous threads but still have a couple of things that I would like to understand before I pull the trigger.

1. In the rear, instead of doing an AAL kit, could I just replace the current worn-out spring pack with a new set of heavy-duty oem springs? I assume that would restore the truck to factory rake. Or would I be better off with the HS AAL package?

2. In the front, given the added weight, should I replace the front coils, or will the Bilsteins be enough? If I replace the coils, which ones should I choose: 2880, 2881, or 2882?

Thanks for helping out a newbie!

 

@HeadStrong Off-Road

 

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Thank you @DustStorm4x4