Suspension Advice

What’s the best suspension to get to be able to have 5 inches of ride height? Also trying to fit 35s and planning to get a cab mount chop.

 

Unless you’ve got a 2WD, I’m not sure you can get 5” of lift without a lot of changes Maybe 3” suspension and 2” body. Body lifts on the 3rd gen’s are not common and not recommended. Looks like rough county has a 6” lift for 4WD models but I didn’t actually read into it.

check this thread out if you want 35s https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-those-that-wheel-and-love-alignments.594309/

 

I was thinking RC and Ready Lift are my choices, but i’ve heard a lot of bad stuff about RC.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rough-country-good-or-bad.724317/

 

You're not going to hear anything good about a 5 inch lift from anyone unless you drop big money on this

The guys on here are going to push for a 2-3 inch lift max because they want reliability and still have performance and they know their shit

 

I wouldn't necessarily say big sums of money are required to do a proper lift around 4-6 inches, but it's definitely true if you put $5K or more into it can get you a very capable setup.

With a little bit of thought put into it though, it's also possible to piece something together for ~$2.5-3K and still have it be decent...

What exactly is your budget?
Also, what is your general location and where you plan to go wheeling at / what terrain? (forest/mining roads, rock crawling (mountain trails), desert trails (maybe prerunning?), mud, sand dunes, etc.)?

 

My budget is up to around 2.5k, the most my truck is going to see is mud. i’m in the south so that’s the most off-roading i can do really. and most of it is for show i can lie. but i still want something capable of being a truck and capable off-roading.

 

+1 for advising to stick with a 2-3" lift kit (still plenty capable and looks more natural on this size truck)

If your heart is still set on that size, I'd do some research on Hawaiian style rigs and see what lift's they use - those guys and gals are the experts of high lifts. Although, I would imagine that their setups would exceed your budget. For your budget It would probably be best to stick to 2-3" lift for now or save up more to spend on a better system - cheaping out will only hurt your wallet in the long run.

It's also worth noting that once you start going into the +5" realm of lift kits, the modifications that have to be done are usually major and are irreversible.

 

With that budget, desired height, & use, you're probably looking at a Rough Country 4" base kit combined with Bilstein 5100 front shocks set at the #2 clip position (using your OEM coil springs). The Bilsteins make a nice upgrade from your factory shocks and together with the RC kit should net you roughly 4.5" - 5" lift up front.

The RC 4" has rear lift blocks that are 2" tall (a leftover from "leveled" trucks that were popular a decade or two ago), however this is a better deal than if they gave 4" blocks (blocks that tall can cause handling problems).
You can combine them with 2" leaf springs of your choice (Icon RXT, Dobinsons, etc., or use RC's own leafs). You also have the option of add a leafs for your existing springs, since they're fairly new still.
If you're into that leveled look, use the 2" blocks alone.

35s will need the CMC. You'll likely need to trim some plastic at the bottom corners of each of your fenders, but it shouldn't need much more than that if you stay conservative with your wheel offset & tire width.
You might consider 34s (285/75R17)... Those are only an inch smaller, but should fit with nothing more than a bit of heat gun application to the plastic parts of the front fenders if mounted on +6 or 0 offset wheels (no CMC should be needed either).


As for anything being "irreversible"...
The RC 4" kit does replace a factory crossmember on the frame (which is true of all kits with drop-down crossmembers for the front). If one thinks they might actually want to reverse it someday, it's easy enough to do if you save the original crossmember and other parts (knuckles, etc.) removed from the truck.
It's worth noting that it is also easier (and cheaper) to weld the removed crossmember back on than it is to replace fenders that have been cut, fender flares & liners, and any other items that were all cut in lieu of lifting the suspension to fit a set of tires (such as what the people in the thread hyrule_trd linked above are doing). There's also repainting them too (unless you're lucky enough to find used ones the same color as yours)... So keep that in mind as well.
From what I've seen, few people ever reverse their lift... The ones that do are usually returning a lease, and these lifts are generally pretty basic shock or spacer lifts that don't involve cutting any parts of the truck.

OP, if you can stretch your budget another $800 or so, I'd then suggest the BDS basic 4" kit, again with a set of 5100s.
While the RC 4" kit is quite good for the money (one of few RC products that are), the BDS kit gets you sturdier brackets & knuckles (and overall is a little better-engineered). No doubt that would be the better one to have if you intend to keep it for awhile.