Is a 6 inch lift worth it?

The trans crossmember is just as substantial as the one ahead of it (and is why it has so many bolts & braces holding it in place... Only reason it's bolted on is because removal of it is required for trans service). I'll give you that the other two are less supportive of anything.

However I'm more going off the reasons people perpetually give for why it's bad ("it devalues the truck", "it's not reversible"), which applies equally to the cutting out any crossmember (same for cutting parts of the body as well).

I will also return with a similar argument; like the bumper crossmember, the crossmember removed for the lift is being replaced with a much more substantial (made of ¼" plate) crossmember as well. Yes, it being just bolted in as-is doesn't do much for support, but if it concerns you and you wanna make it even stronger than it was originally, you weld in the crossmember, then plate/gusset it to the frame right above it so that it can't move at all. The addition of sturdy skid plates that tie everything all together will also help prevent the frame rails from moving relative to each other (acting like an X-brace if you will). There are plenty of ways to mitigate this concern if one puts their mind to it.
Like with the inspection thing, we so far have only one report of a frame bending because of the crossmember and a truck being totaled because of it, yet no pictures of the truck were ever posted that I know of, so really we don't even know how bad of a wreck it actually was... It might've been a total regardless.
Generally when airbags deploy, it becomes a total nowadays anyway, so the frame may not even enter into the picture.
If someone here has pics of a lightly-damaged lifted truck w/o airbag deployments that insurance totaled because the frame bent, please feel free to post them (I know there are at least a couple insurance adjusters on here).

I've never once said 'its no big deal' (maybe you're confusing me with someone else). I always mention this fact to people asking about a drop-down lift that you have to replace the crossmember. What I may have said at some point is it's not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. Doesn't mean its not important... But with probably tens-of-thousands of DB-lifted trucks (not just Tacomas) having been on the roads over the last 3-4 decades, seems we'd hear about these issues more often if they were as common as people here lead it on to be.
Certainly it is a risk one does have to consider.

My drop-downs are 3.25", my lift is 4.5" (25.5" fender to hub)... This means I'm at 1.25" of "IFS lift". If I were to raise it up to 5.25" total lift (2" IFS lift), I'd then have 13.7" or so under there.
4.5" lift has been working well for me, so that's where I've left it at.

 

If I wanted the amount of lift a drop bracket provides with no suspension gains, I’d run portals. No one wants their center of gravity that high for off-roading. For every inch you go up you lose climbing and off-camber ability. The people who have run portals on the Rubicon say they are great for raw clearance, but that their buddies with suspension lifts did better overall. You mentioning the Rubicon is disingenuous because you know the vast majority of Tacomas on the Rubicon do not use drop bracket lifts.

While I haven’t been to the Rubicon — have you though? — I have tried plenty of steep and off-camber routes, even with a camper. Unless you run rollerskate wheels with high negative offsets, you would flop here like a fish.

 

lol

I wouldn't mention a trail as a reference like that if I hadn't ever been on it... Indeed I have been on Rubicon twice (though not with my Tacoma, but a 6"-lifted Ranger before I got the Taco). Other than getting the diff caught on a rock once, that Ranger made the entire trail unassisted (very possible the Taco will see Rubicon too sometime after I get a crawl box).

It is partly because of those very Tacomas runnin' around with short lifts and watching them get caught up on things why I built mine the way I did (although more so it was simply falling back on my own decades of rig-building experience and knowing what works). If I was to guess (without poking around some Jeep forums), this is likely a big reason why Jeep drivers are so down on Tacomas... They're always spinning their wheels and pluggin the damn trails.


I hate to say it, but your truck with that camper almost guaranteed has a much higher CoG than mine does with 4½" lift and Softopper... Once again you haven't had, so you wouldn't know.
Is that Escalator? Moab is still on my bucket list of places to go.

 

You are wasting your time arguing with a 6" lift "cut your frame" Drop bracket evangelist. Every time a lift question comes up it's the same thing. For God's sake it's clear the OP has no idea and is trying to learn and upon the on going conversation is NOT asking about how to build a Moab rock crawler and bring in his welding skills or $$$$$ to do so. The OP just wanted some practical lift advice - sorry - a 6" lift and cutting the frame ain't it.

My experience I would bet is pretty much the same as yours. Yes, we have all seen monster Tacos with 40s and F150 solid axles and so on and I am sure cutting the frame was part of the build. But like you I have been around tons of Tacoma off road rigs built my very knowledgeable off road builders and shops that do run their rigs on extreme trails to include Moab and Rubicon (have I done that ? - no, but have run some pretty difficult trails and obstacles) and no they are not cutting the frame and doing a 6" lift. And talking to those folks the CoG point is brought up in discussions as important. Hey - if someone wants to make sure they clear their skids and still drag their diff over the rocks and swear they are not putting more stress on steering and suspension - and CoG is not a concern . . . . OK - they should go for it but they shouldn't get upset when the majority off road enthusiasts ain't buying it.

 

Nah, it was six pages of guys arguing about stuff the OP didn't even really ask about lol

 

"Evangelist" Thats funny!
I know of many others on here doing some good hard wheeling with their Tacomas raised 4" or more and having great success with it... But I also know that most of them tend to stay in the shadows because they know damn well these threads always turn into raging shitshows.
I'm one of few willing to do battle here because (outside of the crossmember) everything here is so easy to shoot down lol.

All anyone has to do is simply say "I didn't want to cut my crossmember" while leaving the rest of the BS at the door, and then that would be the end of it.

and no I don't ever expect to change anyone's mind who has a fixed opinion on this, mostly it was for OP (and of course for anyone else who might come across this thread in the future) to have some actual reliable info out here about these kits and so can better decide for themselves what is possible for their rig (rather than be barraged with a bunch of one-sided hatred of it).

OP has not said one way or the other what his intentions were other than he was already willing to deal with his crossmember... He probably was scared off after his (what should have been a) simple benign question sparked this dumpster fire.

Anyway, I agree this has played out sufficiently now... Happy trails guys. Hopefully no one got offended. Rest assured if I'm out & about on the trails and see one of y'all caught up somewhere, I'll be more than glad to pull out my strap and give ya a tug.

 

Sometimes we talk about a tangent on Taco-World. And sometimes we talk about Tacos on Tangent-World. ;-)

 

Hey I enjoyed every page, what can I say haha

 

Eh, I'm not ashamed of my 6" lift, and I didn't shy away from any trails here in Colorado. There are multiple ways people mod their trucks, and if someone wants to do a 6" lift, I'm not going to talk them down. I'd still have my lift if I didn't have plans to run even more aggressive trails.

 

I mean who wouldn't?!? But you just compared a $16-17K+ mod to a $4k.

 

who even cares about the cut crossmember. it was easily welded back in. does even affect value imo because next owner wont even know the difference. weve just personally had bad luck with them time after time on multiple different trucks. if you think drop bracket lift bs is bad you should see body lift bs. (my truck has a 1" body lift but nobodys ever noticed. shhhh)

 

Nah, body lifts are a great way to gain approach/departure angle, offcamber breakover angle, and tire clearance without raising the center of gravity much, since the frame, motor, transmission, TC, etc. all stay at the same height. Had I been thinking ahead, I would have installed a 1” body lift before I purchased my front and rear bumpers and sliders.

 

I think really it just depends how well the lift install was executed (and this easily applies the same to non-DB shock lifts too).
Simply bolting things on as they come certainly can leave room for improvement...
(my RC 4" kit had some welds that looked maybe a bit iffy... So I beefed those up, reinforced a couple other things, and put my own higher-clearance skid instead of the flimsy (unreinforced/incomplete coverage) stamped piece RC gives you. Also went Fox 2.5s instead of RC's crappy shocks along with a set of RXT leaf springs (I'll admit though the rear N3 shocks were still better than the stock Hitachi shocks lol).
I've had the kit 4 years, it's been on a dozen or so decently-hard trails here in Ca., and have been completely happy with it.
I'd do it all again if I had to (although I might switch to BDS instead, mostly for the knuckles... Not that the RCs have had an issue, but BDS' are certainly beefier, and also has better welds).

Also agreed about body lifts (one of my other rigs has a body lift).

I think what happens... Someone gets the idea something's no good, they mention it to someone else (who then puts his own twist on it), it gets parroted to the next guy (who also adds to it) and so as it moves on down the chain, it turns into a convoluted mess like this thread.
Maybe someone legitimately had an issue with something... But that doesn't mean everybody else will have the same issue or that it can't be worked out...
Social media of course makes this parroting all so much easier & quicker, and so has exacerbated it multiple-fold (and was why my comment earlier).

Anyway, cheers guys. It was fun. (and no hard feelings) See you on the trails!

 

Have you had your current ones gusseted? That’s the route I went, and they’ve handled 37’s, 38’s, and 40’s.

 

This has been on my mind for sure... But no, not yet.

Appreciate the pic, that gives me some ideas.
Any of the back side?

 

More times than not, anytime the "lift" debate comes up, there's a pecker measuring contest soon to follow. 6 pages says I'm probably not wrong. Entertaining, hell yeah!

Thanks for the coffee spew on this one. Classic!

I'd wager 90% of the lifts in general are in the category of more form than function. But the other 10% are hard-core off-roaders, crawlers, rock climbers, bouncers, mudders, and the like. They're serious about this shit and rightfully so. There's room for everybody at the end of the day! Enjoy your Taco, whatever the flavor!

 

Not readily available, if I remember, I’ll try to get a few at some point.