Coilovers/shocks/leafsprings to correct for lean?

Hi all, long-time lurker first time poster. So, I've read up on the tacoma lean and I understand that the truck just carries weight forward on the driver's side due to placement of battery, fuel tank, etc. I currently get about 1.5" of lean. It's a base model '09 4.0L 4-door with the automatic 5-speed. Truck is heavier than stock, but not excessively so (brush guard, aftermarket rock sliders, and aftermarket skid plate - guy that owned it before me was a real "do it yourself" type), and it currently sits on stock shocks and coilovers. After reading around, it's unclear whether my slightly-heavier-than base truck would lean less with the coils on an assembled Bilstein shock and coil, though my hunch is "no." I've included some pictures for reference. Close-up on tires are front driver-side and then front passenger-side.

My questions are:
1. What coil-over + shock combo would you suggest to correct for as much lean as possible without utilizing a small spacer on the driver's side? Or, is a spacer just gonna find its way into the equation? For clarification, I would rather keep the truck stock height, but am fine lifting up to 1".
2. Will stiffer leaf springs contribute to leveling the lean, or would they simply increase the rake of the truck?

 

Lets put it this way... Your truck would not have had (much of) a lean when new. At worst it would have been like 1/2" difference, which is hard to tell by just looking. What you are seeing now is 16 years of uneven sag on the factory springs. Literally any new suspension will mostly solve your problem.

To answer your questions:
1. You will need to increase the preload on the driver side somehow. Depending on which shocks you get, that can mean simply tightening the preload collar a bit more on that side, or adding a small spacer somewhere. If you go with the popular budget option 5100s (or 4600s), you'll be adding a 1/4" (which gives ~1/2" extra lift) spacer on top of the top hat. It would be the same approach with OEM shocks. The spacer is fine as long as it's small like that.
2. Not really. You would have to go so stiff that the extra weight is not enough to compress the leafs on that side, which means horrible ride quality. And you'd end up with a significant lift. Usually you just compensate for the lean from the coilovers.

 

I use a 1/4" spacer on driver front tophat and Toyota's 1/2" block under driver rear leaf, for lean correction. In the past with shorter springs, I adjusted my front driver Bilstein 5100 up an extra notch in place of a tophat spacer.

 

If you're in AZ I have a set of 3rd gen 4-leaf packs we can throw on there to help the rear. Those are a common swap to fix some of the 2nd gen leaf spring issues, especially if you still have the stock 3-leaf packs. Else, these trucks have some lean and any extra weight seems to magnify that. Spacers can help get it level again but be sure to inspect your bushings all around wherever you can just to make sure they're in good shape before you go fixing other problems.

The Bilstein 5100's can be set differently to compensate for the lean (typically 1 clip higher on driver side). If you order them preassembled, you can ask them to do it this way out of the box to make the install simpler.