Cheap lift, would it work?

Hey guys, my budget is kind of limited, but I thought I remembered someone mentioning a cheaper way of lifting a tacoma and I thought I would see if anyone had tried.

I have a 1st gen (1996 3.4 4x4)

So I'm only looking for about 2" of lift on my truck, and from what I understand you can swap out front coils from 99 4 runner (it might have been the rear coils I know they upgraded them that year to reduce sag) and get about 2" of lift in the front

And in the "lift on the cheap" link in the FAQs sticky I saw a guy say he swapped out his rear leafs with those from an older toyota pickup (I think it was a 94) and gained ~2" in the rear of his truck.

I was just wondering if anyone has tried this or if anyone can confirm compatibility with my truck?

 

Can't comment on the 4 runner coils for application but as far as the rear goes you'd be waaaay better off throwing a couple Chevy or Ford truck springs under your existing leafpack, I'd avoid using any toyota leafs that are '90 or newer , you'll be right back to looking to lift again, generally I'd say from 95.5 & up to be avoided, but i say '90 just to cover your ass...

I'm glad to see that your trying to do it right thru suspension at least & not the usual spacers etc:

 

Any specific Chevy or ford truck that would fit? I don't want I have to do any fab work to make them fit unless it's really easy fab work. How hard is it to take the leafs apart and add to them?

And thank you, I didn't really want spacers as I still want a good ride, and I'd like to get functionality out of it too.

 

Sure thing dude, no worries I def. know what working on a shoestring is.. easy fab, just need to cut the donor leaf ends to match the factory spec, in this case for a 3 leaf 1st gen (I dont count the overload as a spring) the bottom leaf is 24" from centerpin to rear shackle & 18.5" from centerpin to forward hanger, for a length of 42.5" overall, dont let that confuse you tho'.. just subtract 3.75" off each end of existing bottom leaf & cut that amount off each donor end , this should get you 21.25" from centerpin to rear shackle & 15.25" from centerpin to forward hanger for an overall length of 36.5" for the first donor, then repeat the subtraction from that & you'll end up with 2 far superior donor leafs that will get you 2.5"-3" of lift with a ride you wont believe was possible/added load capacity, better on/off road ride quality


(if my math isn't too fucked up haha)

You can do this MOD for less than $100 (probably way less than that even) click on the lower link in my sig for more info

 

Oh, early 70's - 80's chevy half or 3/4 ton trucks will be fine, most important is width & the chevy's are almost dead nutts perfect for that

 

I'm on tapatalk mobile, so I can't see the link in your sig, anyway you could post up the link?

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/suspension/194386-tacoma-spring-refurbishing.html

 

That's very interesting, but I have an issue. The PO of my truck swapped out the stock springs (mine is a 4x4) with 2+1 springs the length of witch I don't know, how can I work around the POs handiwork?

 

Get me a couple good pics of your current setup , both side views & I'll tell you what you need to do......

 

Alright, I'll try to get some pictures later tonight. Surprisingly these springs don't seem to be lower than other 1st gens I've seen, so I'm wondering if maybe the PO already did some leaf spring mod

 

on the 4runner front coil topic, I recently through the front struts/coils off my buddies 98 4runner v6 onto my 97 taco 2.7 and gained a solid inch in the front over the old ones. I dunno if you would get the same lift or not where you have the v6 but if you can find some cheap take offs might be worth a shot.

 

Passenger side:


Driver's side:

Nice, that sounds good, I know in 99 they revised the springs (maybe just the rears) to prevent sag, and in the 4runner community people with other year were swapping for lift, I'm just not sure if the rears are the same as the fronts, it's good to know that the front springs fit though, thank you

 

Were you able to make anything out of the pics of my rear leafs 4wd? (Other than they are rusty lol)

Also I just found out people are using Tundra springs and shocks for lift on tacomas, and I was thinking maybe I would just put some 2wd tundra springs in to get an 1.5-2in of lift and possibly some billy 5100s made for the tundra too, or maybe a cheaper alternative on the shocks, anyone have experience with this sort of lift?

 

Sorry for lagging, Haha, yeah you have a bit of a rust issue for sure , from what I see, I thought you had stock springs at first now I'm a little confused, in first pic you have what looks like 3 springs minus an overload, but appears to be 2 leafs collapsing on what looks like an overload thats been flipped over, other pics look like stock leafs minus 1 (2 leafs with overload) I agree tho' theres something not quite right going on, stock 1st gen 6 luggers have 3 leafs & overload, now for the front if you get some 5100's (I run the 5100's for 1st gen tundras) you can use your stock coils & get your 2.5" lift by moving adjustment clip up to highest setting

 

So would I be better off just getting new leafs in the back? And if so is there anyway I can et lift out of them without spending 450-500 bucks?

Also would my ride suffer from just lifting with shocks in the front? I was thinking of lifting with springs just to get a little better ride while lifting.