Spacer lifts. Did you or someone you know die?

That’s kinda what I thought.

 

My experience:
1) 1” Daystar spacers in Land Cruiser KZJ90 = similar construction as 1st gen Tacoma: lifted almost 2”, no problems within 4.5 years/70k miles
2) FJ Cruiser Rough Country 6” lift kit with 4.63” front spacer: bump stops were WAY too short, even if I shortened the spacers to 3” the shock bottomed out first! That’s why you see bent shocks when spacers are installed. Had to add few plates between:

Otherwise ok, I used Bilstein 5100s first, drove over 70k troublefree miles with them and then bought FOX 2.5 coilovers and got rid of the spacers. Light Racing UCA’s have been all the time installed.

Summa summarum: you have to limit uptravel by adding bumpstop height if top plate spacer is used and also limit downtravel if ball joints/CV joints are not flexy enough.

 

Here is how much shock shaft is left with a 1” spacer on a 2gen Tacoma/Trd shock with the trucks weight resting on the bump stop. As you can see there is still room to spare even with a 1” spacer.
People run into problems with the 2.5-3” spacer lifts and I don’t argue that, but people also break/bend 5100’s and Icons with no spacers involved.