Fat Bob's lift kit opinions?

why?

Why do you wish to have a lift kit?

Can you post a picture of the truck you are working with?
It soundS nice without the kit added.

 

Here she is

 

Hi All,

My Tacoma is a 2005 5 lug 4 cylinder.

I replaced the 15 inch stock steel wheels with 17 inch Rhino Warload wheels in gunmetal color.
The tires are Courser 235/65 R17.

The tires and wheels came from Les Schwab and came to about $1500.00 all mounted up. I went with this combo because my goal wasn't an aggressive off-road look. I wanted a sporty lifted look. I'm really happy with it.

Next, I bought a fat bob's leveling kit (243.00 front strut spacers, rear add a leaf and new rear shocks from fat bob's with accessory shock boots @ 6.00 for the pair).

The kit has 2 options for add-a-leaf, a standard length and a long length. Fat Bob's told me that the Standard will increase payload capacity by about 500 lbs and the Long will increase it by 1000 lbs. I didn't ask about lift height differences but i would guess the Long leaf will increase the lift a little more than Standard but not a lot.



I did the install myself. Fat Bob's sent the parts quickly but no instructions for the rear shock. Important notes from user "pugnaxx" were extremely helpful to me:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-5-lug-bigger-tires-and-fat-bobs-lift.412240/

Also, watching this video is a must. You can use it as your guide without any instructions from Fat Bob's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w_Hg8JoKLY

Some of my comments below are also mentioned by other users like pugnaxx but I had to spend a lot of time searching for the information that I describe below so i thought I would put it all in one place for you.

1. Big heads up about the struts. The instructions say to "rotate the strut 180 degrees". pugnaxx is right, that is weak and it cost him lots of time and agony. What you want to do is observe the original position of the brake line mounting tab that is connected to the strut itself. It needs to remain in that position and when you mount the strut spacers. You'll notice that you need to twist the strut 180 degrees in order for the strut spacer bolts to line up with truck body holes. I did this by inserting the top 3 holes of the strut into the truck body and loosely attach the 3 nuts on the strut studs to keep it from dropping. Leaving the bottom of the strut unbolted and not inserted allows you to use a long pry bar (I used an 8 inch 3/8 drive socket extension) to twist the strut 180 degrees with some force. Just insert the pry bar into the hole in the bottom of the strut and rotate it into the position that puts the brake line mounting tab back into the correct position. this also lines up the bottom strut mounting hole up with the mounting brackets on the truck.

2. The rear shock (if you buy them from fat bobs) didn't come with instructions. You see that the bottom hole on the shock comes with rubber inserts already installed. I had to remove them by prying them out with a fairly large flat blade screw driver then once removed you find new inserts they provide that look somewhat like a black rubber hourglass with a metal sleeve running through them. 1 for each shock and those can be pounded into the hole using a little soapy water and a rubber mallet. One good square whack seats them fairly well then a couple of final taps to center it. ---- When you assemble the top of the shock, use 1 cup shaped washer cup side up, one rubber bushing lip side up. Attach a new rubber shock boot if you bought one (good idea to keep dirt out of the shock) You can then loosely attach the bottom of the shock, push down on the top of the shock then line it up and let the top of the shock slowly rise up through the mounting hole in the truck body. Then, on the top of the shock slide 1 rubber bushing lip side down onto the shock and let the lip on the upper and lower bushings seat into the hole in the truck body. lastly, slide on the top cup washer cupped side down and then the nut (tighten to spec)

3. For the rear add-a-leaf. The instructions call for 2 C clamps but they didn't say what size. Use 8 inch clamps minimum. I bought 6 inch clamps and they weren't long enough. The problem with 6 inches is that when you loosen the clamps to insert the add-a-leaf you won't have enough travel with 6 inch clamps to loosen far enough to insert the add-a-leaf. I had to work around that issue by using a floor jack under the leaf and it was a bit of a juggling act. Just be sure to use 8 inch clamps.

1000 thanks to all of you tacoma owners on this forum. I could NOT have installed this kit without you. That is why i returned and signed up. I'm trying to return the favor.

Here are some pics. Enjoy and thanks again!

 

Nice first post.

 

Thanks Sausage King!