Lift "wear"

As I posted previously, my 09 died with 417 kms on the clock and I found a 13 with "only" 200K on it. My '09 was a 2.7/5 speed, the '13 is a 4.0/6 speed. I got the '13 for what I feel was a very good price so I was somewhat concerned about the frame. As he could not come along, my mechanic gave me some frame tips to look for, I ended up buying it and had it to him for inspection and, much to my joy, he said the frame was REALLY good. Whew!! Now I will continue the rustproofing. The truck apparently has a 3" lift and he stated that his opinion was that a lift that high changed the geometry of the truck and caused excessive wear on components such as axles and suspension. I very much trust my guy but, it this true?? If so, what upgrades should I make to prevent my investment or should I drop the lift? Thanks much

 

Approaching and over 3" on these trucks can cause excess wear to various suspension components - CV axles (due to out of spec CV axles angle) being among them. You can also get excessive wear on things like bushings and ball joints depending on the specifics of the lift, how it's driven, and so forth.

People mess with diff drops, aftermarket control arms with extended geometry, extended CV axles, and all kinds of stuff to get these trucks to 3" and above of lift without burning through factory spec suspension.

Depending on what type of lift, it should be straightforward to drop it back down to a closer to stock height.

 

This - my buddy owns a pretty popular offroad shop here in PDX. They've gotten to the point to where they won't perform a suspension lift over 2-1/2 inches on a Tacoma without making other modifications such as high angle CV boots, diff drop plates, adjustable UCA's, etc, moistly due to warranty issues and common problems popping up with the suspension later on.

Apparently they now just recommend staying below 2" of suspension lift and making up any extra height in your tires. In my case they had me run my 6112/5160 set up on the 3rd perch and run 265 70 R16 tires to get up to a combined 2-1/2" overall lift. I haven't had a single issue in 3 years, and I beat the crap out of my truck haha

 

Thanks Tacoman!! Given that mine sees only VERY mild off road, I had planned to go with a set of 5100s in the front just to get down out of the sky and stop straining my suspension components, 2" will be my max but more than likly 1.5". I will go from there bit by bit. Are you still running the OEM UCAs?
Thanks again