An Updated Look at the 2nd Gen Front Diff Drop

I have read through dozens of threads with hundreds of posts about the 2nd gen front differential drop. I ran it on my truck for a few months until I got my front skid plate which did not turn out to work with the diff drop. I have only seen 1 person post comparison pictures but the camera angles were questionable. So, while I was removing the drop I thought about documenting the changes with pictures taken from a static location. I am not advocating for or against the diff drop. There are pros and cons to doing it. This is for those, like myself, that were searching the topic.

Vehicle: 2010 TRD Sport with approximately 2 1/8" lift in the front, Standard ELO95 Dakar leaf packs at the time of the pictures.

Truck was parked on level ground with parking brake on and wheel chocked. I marked the location where I would place my phone so I would get the same angle on every shot. In hindsight, I should have used a tripod so I could capture the bottom of the inner boot fins.



While removing the diff drop, I did not jack the truck up. I removed one diff spacer at a time and did not use a jack. I bounced the truck by my Avid bumper guard before taking each set of photos. I do have the boot slide mod done so this is not representative of stock fin spacing.





I noted that the fins on the inner booted spread apart a noticeable amount with the drop. I measured a little shy of 1/2" of drop with the 1" toytec diff drop spacers. While it does not affect me (boot slide mod), I can see it potentially helping someone who is running stock boots on a 2"+ lift.