Removing 6” RC DB lift

Hey guy, I’m aware this has been covered before and I have been searching for 2 weeks or so for a detailed right up. I bought this truck because it’s frame in mint and it only had 255,000 KM on it. Unaware of how terrible these DB lifts were.
My hopes are someone will see this thread who has endured the pain of removing these types of lifts and would be kind enough to give me a detailed right up and even a cost estimate if they had a shop do the fabrication. I am not a welder all my neighbors have welders but I want to make sure this is done properly so nothing isn’t straight.
I have a donor truck with a cracked frame that somehow has a perfectly rust free front end so I was going to chop out those crossmembers and transfer them to this one. Any help is appreciated and thank you in advance

 

Solid axle.....

It's doable to reverse but time consuming.

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld
Learn to love it
Or
Sell it

 

Download the installation instructions for the kit that's there.

Then you can consider what it would take to reverse that process.

At first glance it may appear easy, but it's not.

It is doable, but rather than just 'neighbors with welders' you'll need help from someone with well honed fabrication skills.

 

Bill thank you for the reply. I did exactly that while at work overnight. Got in touch with a local guy who our off-road community says does stellar work. He is willing to do it for me so here’s hoping. W

 

Not worth it but keep us posted what you end up doing.

 

Cost cost cost.
It’s going to cost you money.

It’s going to cost you time.

It’s going to cost patients.

Don’t forget all the other crap that will break or have to be replaced when you start taking it apart.

Do you have another vehicle to drive?

 

I will post a detailed thread on the process if this doesn’t end up being thousands. At that point I’d rather sell it and cut my losses.

 

Joe thankfully I do. Trust me this truck has tried my patience and given me some head aches that have lasted weeks. I listed this thing for sale a week ago on my local Kijiji (Canada’s Craigslist’s). I was hoping someone would pick it up quickly as I listed it pretty cheap. Then I could get back into a 3rd gen runner or wait to see if a decent 1st gen Tacoma popped up.

 

funny... I've been thinking of buying one of those lift kits. I want to lift my 04' Double Cab but I've heard mixed reviews about this lift kit. Care to explain why is it terrible?

 

If you want it for aesthetic it’s fine. If you want to make it functional, probably want 35’s (to retain some ground clearance), full length coil overs (king, fox or icon) Icon makes specific ones for a 6” DB lift but if I remember right they’re around $1850 USD, no strut spacers, new UCA’s that are built for these lifts (like the TC Heim joint UCA’s) if you have the money then hey I’d say do your thing. I’ve had issues with getting a good alignment because the stock UCA’s are limited and any UCA that’s built to go on these trucks runs about $1000 or more CAD. However I’ve attached a photo of a gnarly 2nd Gen that belongs to an owner at a local Toyota shop. He has the same RC lift but on a 2nd gen and it’s a monster. But deep pockets and lots of time my man..

edit: I shouldn’t say deep pockets. Investing money into it over time. Just like lots of builds you can make these lifts function better but I’m not sure it’s worth it short term.

 

So to summarize they aren’t bad depending on your application. They retain your suspension geometry minus the drive shaft angle but you won’t rip through CV’s left and right. I personally wish I’d just waited to buy a different truck as I work in the mountains and routinely need to pass through some less then easy terrain. So I need functionality over looks

 

Hey man, I’m years late to this but I’m in an extremely similar situation to you. I bought a lifted Tacoma pretty much on the basis that it had super low miles and a clean frame. Got a great deal on it, or so I thought. The lift has given me nothing but issues and I’ve had it for all of two months (not even) and I’m several thousand dollars into fixing it. But to answer your question, it’s very possible, but PRICEY. I’ve spent pretty much my entire time owning it doing research on this subject and finding out what it would take. In short, here’s everything you need to consider.

- does your truck have a regear? If so, you still need bigger tires to comply with it. You could find stock gears, but between labor and general price of those, it’s not worth it at least in my eyes. I ended up downsizing to 33s instead of 35s per the shops recommendation, which I’ll get to here in a second.

- How much are you willing to dump into buying OEM parts to do such a thing? I got very lucky and found at least 60-70% of what I needed off of Facebook for ~$220. But if you’re not so lucky you’ll EASILY be dropping another 2-3k on parts.

- After weeks of setting up appointments with various custom lift shops and 4x4 shops, I finally found somebody who specializes in fabrication work and 4x4 trucks that was willing to do it. All the other shops either told me to kick shit or to replace my entire frame. Without any parts included the work to rip off the lift, weld the crossmember and throw on the OEM parts is going to run me ~$1850. In total I think I’ve spent around $1300 on parts and $1500 on tires. But the number for parts isn’t exact as I’m also having them put in new CVs and ECGS needle bearing replacement while there under there, which ran me an extra $800 ish on the parts side. All in all it’s stupid expensive to get done. But in my circumstance it made sense to do it.

TLDR: it’s doable, but it takes a lot of time, money, effort, and looking to find everything. I’m free to answer any questions you may have, that being you even still active or curious. I’m getting all of this done next Thursday (27th).
Goodluck!

 

I will be starting this journey next weekend. I sourced all the oem stock take offs required from someone who just installed a drop bracket kit. My coworker who has been welding professionally for 10 years is going to fab the crossmember. Any issues you came across for tips or tricks?

 

Hey man, I’ve had my lift off for about two weeks now, and I do think it’s worth it. My truck drives significantly better. Sounds like you’ve sourced the stock parts which is good. If you’re still running big tires (33+) get bilsteins over a leveling kit. My 5100s were toast so I threw on a leveling kit to squeeze mine in there, and while it drives so much better compared to the lift, the front is still a little stiffer than I’d like because of the leveling kit. That’s just a little thing though. Overall my advice is to replace as many suspension components as you can possibly afford while you’re at it. It’ll save you thousands of dollars down the line in labor, or time if you do it yourself usually. I pretty much had brand new suspension entirely thrown in while the lift was being taken off and I don’t regret it at all. Even if your brakes may need to be done, just get it done now. You’re ripping up pretty much every part in the suspension system, so if anything is worn or tired JUST REPLACE IT NOW. So happy that I opted to do it. I didn’t end up doing my brakes even though they’re due soon, purely because I was out of money lol, but if you can just replace replace replace. And make sure they alignment shop knows what they’re doing, depending on the tire size your running, UCAs, rims etc, minor adjustments may need to be done that your run of the mill shop may not do right. That’s about all I got, I’m actually probably going to sell my truck for completely unrelated reasons which I’m super upset about, but getting the lift off more than doubled my kbb instant offer lol. It’s worth doing it for the resale alone. Goodluck man!