Help me with this 2003 TRD Tacoma

I recently bought this ‘03 Tacoma for $9500. He wanted $12000 but I was able to get it for less. It’s a very clean truck, it’s been a South Carolina truck its entire life and not even a hint of rust anywhere. I don’t like the 6” rough country lift or the way it sits, is there any way I can level it out or maybe take it off and out on a 2.5” lift? The mud grapplers are decent, I’d never order another set but they honestly don’t ride as bad as you’d think. They have about 10,000-15,000 left in them. Only thing majorly wrong with the truck is it’s going to need brakes soon, slight play in the steering but truck doesn’t wander all over the road, and honestly that’s about all I can say bad about it. It has 248,000 miles on it and I’m taking it in to the shop for an oil change Friday and get them to give me a quote on the brakes and coolant flush. Any suggestions or questions would be welcome!

 

You appear to have a drop bracket lift and those are not easily removed. To install it they typically cutout the front cross member and weld in the drop bracket. So you'd have to do the reverse of that (and find or fab a crossmember).

All that being said, best bet at this point is to simply remove the rear lift and embrace the Carolina squat:

 

Definitely don’t want the Carolina squat lol so basically I’m stuck with this setup? They cut the frame you think? I looked under there but can’t see if they did or not.

 

Haha, I was just messing with you. But yeah I'd bet they cut the frame. Snap a few pics of that drop bracket and the area around it, and upload them, so we can see and hwlp you determine if thats the case. Maybe you'll get lucky and find it was bolted in, but that's typically not the case

 

Here’s some pics of the lift.

 

Yes, cross member is cut in place of the drop bracket

Option 1 - find a donor and cut it off to weld it to your truck. Been done before.
Option 2 - solid axle swap your truck

 

That sucks that they did that.

 

Would this work?

https://parts.lakelandtoyota.com/p/...MskB5_DuvWU6HIZAV1wJjAmPuZxwP71caAjPzEALw_wcB

 

no. the piece that got cut off is welded on and not removable unless cut. IIRC, the cut piece is not sold individually as it’s part of the whole frame.

 

That truck will need to go to a bodyshop and see what can be done. Your going to need a frame technician to see what he thinks. It can be done.

 

How expensive would repairing it be if it can be done you think? Would it be worth it or should I cut my losses and get rid of the truck?

 

Well, Im in the business. The crossmember you posted is incorrect. I believe its #3 in the diagram below. That part is $1009.13, plus labor. $2500 ish depending on frame rates where you are?

 

Thank you for giving me the right info. Yeah, I’m definitely not going to sink that kind of money into it. I might just drive it for a year, do the basic maintenance and send it down the road.lol

 

Correct, that quote is JUST to replace the crossmember, nothing else. But my quote could be way off depending on where you live.

 

I’m in South Carolina but honestly I doubt your quote would be that far off. It sucks because the truck is seriously clean and runs like a champ.

 

If you got to the Rough Country website you can download the PDF for the install. It will show you the portion of the rear crossmember and frame that were cut for the install and would need to be repaired.
I think it is part #4. The front looks stock.

 

Yeah, I probably wouldnt get into that. Its funny though, Im about to drop thousands of dollars of suspension replacement into mine.

 

I bought it to use on my farm to be honest, it’s not a daily driver for me. It’s easy to drop thousands into these things though.lol

 

Thank you!