Suspension Advice!?

Hey guys, my question is this. I have a 2013 trd off road 4 door. I bought 2016 3rd gen shocks all around. The guy even left the coils still on them for 50$. They only had 35 miles on them too! Anyways. I'm aware that they only add one inch in the front and no lift in the rear. However I'm looking to get a little lift out of them and level as well. I'm new to suspension and want to keep it relatively cheap. I was thinking 1.5 inch spacer in the front with the new shocks and coils and then 1.5 blocks in the back or a 1.5" add a leaf spring in the back since blocks and aal are about the same price? Advice? Solid set up or garbage? I don't do much off roading. Doing it mostly for looks as well as fitting slightly larger tires and a little more capability off road. So to round up, it'll be 2.5" in the front and 1.5" in the rear to level it and get some lift? Thanks guys.

Also any suggestions on newer tire sizes? Thanks guys.

 

Welcome!

Spacers and blocks are not a good way to lift your truck, they are definitely the cheapest, you get what you pay for. Also, a 1.5" coil spacer is going to give you 3" of lift and then you will most likely deal with vibration issues.

 

Yup exactly what this guy said. You’re safe with adding a 1/4” or maybe 1/2 spacer up front but nothing more than that. I can’t even say for 100% certain there’s a 1/2” thick spacer. The 1/4” spacers are good for offsetting the drivers side lean. You’ll get lots of opinions about blocks but I would avoid them. Go with a 3 leaf aal for the back and you can opt to leave or remove the overload. The thickness of the overload is the difference of 1/2” in height.

 

So is that not what I should be getting? Can you explain how if the new front shocks will give me 1" lift, how adding another inch of a spacer will give me a 3" lift? Thanks guys

 

It’s kind of like a lever thing. Assuming that spacer is 3/4” thick it essentially makes the strut assembly that much longer. I don’t want to use the word “preload” but that’s kind of what’s happening. IF you had a solid axle truck it would only be 3/4” higher (1:1) but with control arms pivoting from the same axis as the strut you end up with a ratio of like 2:1 vs 1:1. The longer your control arms essentially the more static lift you’d get.

 

Okay that makes sense. Thank you. So if my desired lift is 2.5 in the front and 1.5 in the rear, what soccer should I get to pair with the new 3rd gen shocks? What about the rear? Thanks man. Y'all are super helpful. I would ordered the wrong stuff!

 

Check out headstrong offroad site or call them and talk to Marie there. Lots of positive feedback for them. They sell basically the same spacers you’re looking at and it specifically says the lift height is approx double the thickness of the spacer. Another issue with the ones you’re looking at is you have to disassemble the strut to change the studs. It’s easy to do but requires more work and can be dangerous I’df you don’t know what you’re doing.
So to get the added 1.5”you can buy a 1/2” and a 1/4” and stack the 2 as long as the studs for the 1/2” spacer will accommodate the added 1/4”. A single aal or 3 leaf will get you the 1.5@ for the rear but I can’t say if the 3rd gen shocks will be long enough to do this.
Again I’m not advocating spacer or block lifts but I can see where it could apply to your scenario. Call headstrong though they’ll steer you in the right direction.

 

Dont do what I did and buy a crappy lift then spend more money on proper coilovers