The Ultimate Tacoma Lift Guide

I guess it depends on exactly how you plan on extending it. If you’re very confident in your welding skills, you can replace the tabs that are on the axle with longer ones that raise the lower attachment point. If your plan is to build something that bolts to the existing tabs, that seems like a bad idea because you need to be absolutely certain that it won’t have any rotational play. If it rotates, it will be acting like an extra suspension linkage, which you don’t want.

There are two potential issues with any setups that move one or both shock mounts. If your leaf springs don’t arch down far enough, you might lose droop travel because the springs are designed assuming your shock sits higher than it will be sitting after you raise it. You will also need to raise your bump stops enough that your axle fully compresses them before the shocks bottom out. Taking the spring apart would help a lot here because you’ll have a hard time fully flexing a completely assembled leaf with the truck on jack stands.

How much weight will the bed carry day to day? If you’re looking at 300+ pounds of weight, your springs might sag down to just 1.5 inches of lift. My Icon RXTs with the middle load option sit at about 1.25 inches of lift with about 350 pounds in the bed. You might want to install the new springs with the stock shocks, drive around with your normal load for a week or so, and see how much lift you actually get once things settle a bit. If you’re still sitting above 1.5 inches, you can either live with the less than optimal ride, replace either the springs or shocks, or deal with welding on new tabs and live with the compromises that come with that. Maybe someone else will have a better idea, but it seems like most of the shock relocations out there involve welding on at least one new shock mount.

 

Yes so the mount I plan to make will bolt onto the existing shock mount and I'll make a new mount spot that follows the shock angle up so it sits 2" higher. I am avoiding welding directly to the mount on the axle if I can but it is an option.

If you have an idea of what the mount on the axle looks like there are two holes that can be used to stop any extenders from creating additional rotation by running a bolt through them. I don't have any pictures right now but I can post the result after.

 

Super rough drawing with the phone but sort of the principle

 

This is a great post over all but there is a small correction that is needed. In-coil spacer kits ARE preloading the spring. They are NOT changing the spring rate. Spring rate is static no matter what position the spring is in.

Preloading a spring is when you COMPRESS a spring. Period. By compressing a spring, the amount compressed is equal to a specific WEIGHT being applied directly on top of the spring. By compressing the spring, the equivalent weight it is taking to compress it OFFSETS that amount of weight from the vehicle when it is at rest.

For example:

A spring with a 600lb rate means it takes 600lbs to compress 1 inch. For every inch of compression, an additional 600lbs is needed.
- 1 inch = 600lbs
- 2 inch = 1200lbs
- 3 inch = 1800lbs
and so on.

If your truck has a corner weight of 1200lbs, when at rest (sitting on the ground on all 4 wheels) it will compress the shock and spring assembly 2 inches.

By adding a spacer, you are COMPRESSING the spring. For example, a 1 inch spring spacer on this setup is enacting a mechanical force equal to 600lbs on the spring.

This 600lbs is now OFFSETTING the corner weight of your truck by 600lbs. This means the first 600lbs of your trucks corner weight have no effect on the spring.

Your "effective corner weight" on the spring is reduced by 600lbs (or 50% in this case). Effective truck corner weight is now only 600lbs (1200-600 = 600lbs left).

When the truck is at rest, the truck now only compresses the shock and spring assembly by 1 inch. Remember, 1 inch takes 600lbs of force and 600lbs of force is all that we have since we offset the first 600lbs by PRELOADING the spring with the spacer.

Actual weights and compression vary on the actual vehicle, but this is the theory. This is how preloading a spring on a fully adjustable coilover shock works. Instead of a spacer you're setting the adjustable collar rings to compress the spring a certain amount.

This is why preload is very important on the high dollar coilover setups, and this is why PRELOAD is what sets your ride height. A spacer is a block put in place to enact a certain amount of preload on the spring to raise your vehicle height.

Vehicle ride quality will change by a small amount when adding more preload, and you will also reduce the amount of spring travel before you run into spring bind which is very bad. Initial shunts and bumps may be harsher because it takes more weight to instill initial movement and compression of the shock and spring assembly. However, riding over continuous bumps that cause the suspension to cycle up and down will feel exactly the same since the effective spring rate has not changed.

I hope this helps someone!

 

Such GREAT information in this post.

Which of these lift types is the relatively new, dealer-only TRD Lift? Shocks and spacers only, right?

Also, isn’t calibration of Safety Sense systems on Gen3s something worth considering? Is that just bunk?

 

Lurking and curious for more discussion

 

We've got some great tech articles that go along with this. Just filmed a spring rate video too, just need to edit and post it. I'll follow up when its all done

 

Will be reading tonight...

 

tagging for info

 

There’s a link at the top that says “watch thread”. Clicking it will do the same thing without spamming the thread.

 

This thread delivers!

 

I have OME 3 in lift that provided 2.75 in. I have upgraded UCAS diff drop, carrier bearing drop, swaybar relocated and needle bearing deleted. Want above 3 inch lift. Have ¼in and ½in spacers. Trying to decide if 3.75in would be fine with what I already have or 3.25in is more advisable. I don't off road heavy just dirt roads and occasionally fields.

 

OK. So I read through this and realized that the "best" lift at 1.5in is actually what I had been looking for already. Thing is, I have the basically flat leaf springs in the rear, and I want to upgrade those as well. Any idea on going about getting that 1.5 and upgrading the rear? There's so much info out there that I'm drowning in it and not sure which way to go with it.

 

Many options to replace your leaf pack with a new one to give yourself ~2" of lift. Deaver, Icon RXT, OME and many others. You could also do an add-a-leaf (AAL) but that won't be a real solution more like a bandaid on your currently flat springs

 

yeah. I'm looking at getting full leaf packs for the rear. Just trying to find the right set of stuff so I can add a tiny lift without getting into the territory where I'm really changing geometry and new UCAs are a requirement.

 

So I have 2021 Tacoma SR5 2WD, currently has 265's and is stock from the lot, no lift, wanting to go up to 33's (295's), as a body armoresque front and rear bumper with light bar in front, and was looking into this setup: https://www.extremeterrain.com/roug...rear-leaf-springs-74272.html#customer_q_and_a
I was wondering what you guys thought about this. Is it a good option or a complete waste of money? Also can top hats be purchased for any lift kit or only specific lifts?
Tacoma uses:
1. Mainly in town driving
2. Occasional ranch/light off-roading
3. Light loads; i.e. dirt bike at heaviest

Thanks in advance everyone!

 

This is incredible. Thank you for taking the time to provide this write up.

 

I remember reading this when I first started. Good stuff.

 

@itsthex already covered one of things I was going to bring up (post #24), but another thing that also should've been mentioned:

Above coil (spacer) kits not only can create problems at full droop, but the longer total length of the shock assembly also can cause the bumpstops to become ineffective as well. When the suspension compresses, the shock can bottom out (compress fully) and damage the shock itself and/or the mounts. A spacer lift having spacers more than ½" thick (for more than 1" lift) should always include bumpstop extensions to prevent this happening, but from what I've seen, very few do.



A note here too:

Drop bracket kits can be complicated to remove if you no longer have the part they require you remove from the frame. If you do have that part, then it is only a matter of welding it back in place to reverse the lift installation.