4-inch lift kit

Yes, you can whip out a tape measure and measure that extra inch of ground clearance, but it is such a small change that in an offroad world, there are far more variables that would make that change unnoticeable. Especially since OP is 2wd, which you were so helpful in pointing out, he's not going to be rock crawling with the thing, and certainly doesn't need to worry about front diff clearance.

You also have disadvantages with higher lifts, most notably a higher center of gravity. And given the mass of the vehicle, that higher CG is going to have a greater change to vehicle dynamics than a measly inch of breakover.

I'd take the performance gains from a good quality set of King coilovers with 3" lift over a 1" higher lift any day of the week. Especially when we're talking about POS 4" lift kits like Rough Country, there is absolutely no comparison. Kings, Fox, ADS, etc... will walk circles around Rough County, Max Trac, or anything with spacers, and even Fabtech.

4" of lift is a completely arbitrary number. In practice, 3" is much easier to achieve, and you definitely see a law of diminishing returns the higher you go, unless you SAS, and even then people try to stick as low as possible (CG).

You do make very valid points about the alignment, too. Most people with more than 2-3 or so inches end up needing aftermarket UCAs to re-gain factory alignment specs.

 

You absolutely can’t lump a maxtrac spindle lift in with those other examples and if you are you clearly don’t understand how a lift spindle works - it is free lift with zero consequences to geometry or suspension cycle. As I stated before if you combine a lift spindle with a pair of kings it will outperform a truck with kings pre loaded to obtain lift that is just not even disputable. The cog argument is complete bullshit because it does not account for the fact that a truck with pre loaded coil overs has a decreased track width and not only does a spindle lift give you 4” of lift with better geometry and suspension travel it also widens your track width by 3/4” per side. So your entire cog argument is blown.

If you don’t understand this go place a block of wood next to both of your front tires and then start to jack up your truck and watch your track width narrow.

 

Look, there are lots of variables. I'm just a fan of the fewest mods that will achieve the greatest performance gains. To me, that's a set of coilovers in front and a leaf pack and shocks in the back. Anything more than that you start getting into the law of diminishing returns. Not to mention the added costs for those diminishing returns.

My intention was not to say that a spindle itself is a POS, I was simply listing off 4" lift kits that either use cheap shocks or low quality parts (i.e rough country) or use blocks and spacers to achieve the lift (i.e. the max trac kit link). Block lifts and spacers are dumb, period.

Spindles themselves are perfectly fine, but as I said, the ONLY advantage they give you is height, and as I said before, height isn't everything.

IMO, you'd be better off in all respects sticking with a 3" coilover in the front, new leaf springs in the back with matching shocks. Then get it aligned to see if you need new UCAs to fix the alignment, which will likely widen the track as well. But I'd give you a dollar if you can drive down a trail and tell me if you have 1" wider track or not.

You're talking about fractions of an inch, and like I said before, while you can measure it, it's not likely you'd be able to notice it while driving.

 

The problem is that you are basing everything you say and believe on just your own level of knowledge or experience but you’re still saying factually inaccurate stuff, there is no opinion here just facts :

1. spindles don’t just give you height they also give you :

• track width increase = better handling
• zero loss of geometry = better alignment = better handling
• the after market spindles are 10x stronger than the oe spindles which are a know failure point
• improved traction and handling because your CO’s are sitting in the middle of their stroke instead of being pre loaded reducing down travel

2. An alignment or an uca will in no way widen your track width

3. do you want my paypal address for that dollar ? it is highly likely that you are not aware of understeer and oversteer conditions if you are making that statement and you dont understand that your own truck with a narrower from track width is a detrimental handling characteristic. anyone could absolutely feel the difference between a truck easily initiating a turn or pushing a corner.

 

If you have the perfect setup for the Maxtrac 4 inch lift. Plan on a budget of $5000 to $6000 if you do it yourself. That will get you tires, rims, shocks, leaf springs, extended brake lines, Spidertrax spacer for the rear to even out the stance. I have been driving with my lift kit for almost 100,000 miles and couldn't be happier. I just replaced the tires in October and got over 90,000 miles out of them. I could have gone well over 100,000 on the tires had it not been punctured by an allen wrench. Don't go cheap or you will regret it.

 

This is after 90,000 miles of use

 

I have 120,000 miles on the truck now and it's just getting broken in. I need to plan a rebuild on the shocks at some point but it still rides fantastic so I am not in a rush.

 

My suspension set up is almost exactly like yours. Fox coil overs w/ total chaos UCA’s and Fox w/reservoirs and ICON Add a Leaf in rear. Looking at my options to level/raise my front end since I’m looking for more front clearance. Im getting an RSI camper shell also getting a BAMF Hybrid Front bumper so that’s going to add more weight. Called a shop and they said my options were to get a spacer lift or brand new suspension. Would a spindle lift be something that would help?

EDIT: Still new to the scene. After reading up apparently 4x4 spindle lifts aren’t really a thing. What would you guys recommend?

 

Hay I have a question can I use a 4Runners maxtrac spindle on my 2019 Tacoma I called maxtrac and they told me no cause of the hole for the ball joints are different?