Suspension lift help

I have a 13' TRD Off-road crew cab and still running on stock but I'm researching to figure out what kind of lift I should put on my truck. I do some offroading (dirt/mud), pull a trailer on a rare occasion, and another big thing is I hunt so I don't wanna lose my hauling capacity on the bed. Ive read that a Long travel is an all around better choice for suspension lift but if I did decide to go that route; how much will it affect the suspension if I did haul camping gear, meat/carcass, etc.

 

Be warned that long travel (while awesome) is also super expensive. 3K at least for the components and at least half that to install. Also, if you are just doing light off-roading then long travel is probably overkill.

How much weight do you plan on hauling from camping gear/meat?

 

It would be hard to do long travel front and rear for 3,000. Long travel in the rear would include a custom bed cage.

I would go for Icon shocks with a new leaf pack( dakars or allpro expos) in the rear which wouldnt hurt hauling capacity.

 

Mid travel could be an option too. Like Nick said, go Icons

 

Stay away from long travel unless you plan to do high speed offroading. I'm into this type of stuff myself and expense wise it gets up there rear quick and really unless you have thousands to blow and truly dial your suspension in properly (proper bushing fitment, shock valving, limit and strap correctly..........) a midtravel set-up can perform just as good out of the box. Can't tell you the amount of trucks I've been in that have long travel kits and honestly most handled like shit on, but more importantly offroad. Sleeves undersized so bushing getting pinched, shocks not valved properly, coils preloaded too much, no hydros used so smacking into super soft crappy bumps, alignment all fucked up, the list goes on and on. You do long travel it needs to be something your passionate about, have the money for, and know how to do the install/maintenance work yourself. People that say long travel is the best usually don't have long travel and really know nothing about it, they instead just act like they do steering people in the wrong direction. Anyhow enough of my ranting

Honestly if I were to steer you in a direction based on what you described, I'd recommend an OME kit, but that’s just me. For you I'd say Icon COs might even be overkill and you'll spend about 1k on just the COs. There's a lot of people that will say go big or go home, well I can understand this to a certain degree, but at the same time I see value in building in stages. You might spend more and even waste money here and there, but you'll learn a bit more each time and use that knowledge to better prepare you for the next kit/add-ons.

Sorry for the novel!

 

Mademan925 Approves

 

No need to apoligize I value the input and its good stuff to know. Thats kind of where Im at; Im not quite ready to get the kit but Im saving up to it but it would be nice just to get started and get little height on the truck. So is there brands that you prefer over others that you've seen preform better?

Another question is I see a lot of guys put wheel spacers on there trucks, it looks good but is the there any kind of purpose for that and will it affect the build later on the down when I do put a lift and everything else on it?

Mademan925 & geekhouse23
Yea I get your point and even with long travel I'd have to get fiberglass wheel wells for the front as well. I'll have to look into that and do some research which Ive read a little about midtravel but not as much as long travel. So as far midtravel goes what would you suggest be the better brands?

Well, I mainly hunt deer and elk and an estimate on the most weight I would ever haul could range from 800Lbs. to a little over a 1000Lbs. due to the Elk. As far as how much I offroad it would be on occasion and where I live and hunt there are a lot of dirt roads.