Lifting a trd sport

Hello,
I’m looking for some advice on lifting my 2011 trd sport Tacoma. I’ve heard various things about driveshaft misalignment and other difficulties. What would be a fairly budget friendly option that would give me around 2-3 inches of lift without having to sacrifice handling or drivability. And also not having alignment problems.

The truck is mostly a winter daily driver but I take it on trails fairly often with my dad.

 

This is BILSTEIN 5100 set at 2.5” in the front, 5100 in the rear with an add a leaf. Tires are 275-70-18.

 

Wow looks great and thank you for the response. Did you have any issues installing it at all? Also what is the offset on those rims?

 

Broke my toytec coilover, and rear strut. Had to go rough country 3.5", have diff drop, and carrier bearing spacer.

 

How high of a lift would require the diff drop? Would I be able to do a leveling kit without having to worry about that?

 

FWIW I raised mine (2015 sport) about 2.5-3” with a full dobinsons kit a few years ago. And at the advice of @Crikeymike at Exit Offroad, I didn’t to anything to the driveline. No front diff drop, no rear axle shim, no carrier bearing drop. He said that lots of people do those things and they often just introduce more problems than they solve.

So the only mods I did were extending the rear brake lines, greasable shackles, u-bolt flip, bump stops, upper control arms, and of course the ECGS bushing. Cost me about 3k IIRC, all in.

Over 100k miles later I’m inclined to believe he was right, as I’ve had absolutely zero lift-related issues since. Minus a couple junk upper ball joints, but that’s a manufacturer thing.

Thats my experience. YMMV. Best of luck!

 

Is your truck 4x4? If so go full suspension, of not just do a spacer lift.

 

It is a 4x4 so I’ll go with full suspension. Do you have any recommendations for kits that give around 2 inches and level the car?

 

There are vendors here on the site that would help you with exactly what you need, @Crikeymike and @HeadStrong Off-Road are the people I would ask. They can offer the best of what you need and give you pricing as well!

 

I think its all about your budget, I was in a pinch with a snapped coilover, and low funds. Had to settle with rough country front,rear and leafs for around $800 installed myself. I already had jba UCAs and my ecgs bushing done. If I had the time and $$ would've gone with bilstein 6112s and 5160s. Jba hd ucas.

 

Thank you so much for your help I’ll take a look at the bilstein set. Are you happy with your rough country lift? Is the handling sacrificed at all with it?

 

I am happy for the price, they do hit little hard definitely not built for speed offroad. Feel really good on the road, I've only put a couple hundred miles so far. Time will tell, definitely will be saving just in case I run into any issues. I got the bottom tier N3s, if I am satisfied would consider the M1s, or Vertex. I am in socal and ran cleghorn hitting almost all offshoots minus the chute, was not able to do so befor with my 3" setup. Does kinda bother me seeing that big made in China stamped on the struts but feel solid, but again was all I could afford at time and was not on some crazy long backorder.

 

I just put this in a PM, but will share it here for others watching.

Hey Samuel,

Sure thing. You would lift up the front only with new coilovers, and just change out the rear shocks to level it out (and keep costs down). Each page of coilovers has a link to the matching rear shocks.

Here are the Dobinsons options:

https://exitoffroad.com/product/dobinsons-0-3-5-pre-assembled-twin-tube-tacoma-coilovers/
https://exitoffroad.com/product/dobinsons-pre-assembled-ims-tacoma-coilovers-2ndgen-3rdgen/
https://exitoffroad.com/product/dobinsons-2-3-pre-assembled-mra-tacoma-coilovers-for-2nd-3rd-gen/

 

Don't go past 2'-2.5' of lift. I know it's sounds like more lift is better, but it's not. 2.5' and above you'll likely need to also upgrade UCAs (for proper alignment), install the ECGS bushing (eventually the needle bearing will fail so most people recommend doing it when lift is installed) and lift the rear to level and/or add back some rake.

Can also look here for lots of info: https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/suspension.18/

 

2015 Tacoma TRD Sport daily driver.

Front: Bilstein 5100, OME Lift Springs (Old Man EMU), SPC UCA
Rear: Bilstein 5100, Add-A-Leaf
Wheels/Tires: Method MR305 NV 17x8.5 +0 offset, Toyo Open Country AT 3 285/70/17

 

looks nice! any head on shots to show how they sit in wheel well?

 

how much do you rub from off level parking lots to streets and max turns?