HIGH-LIFT Hood Strut by Spiker Engineering mod for 1st Gen Tacoma

Introduction:

A few months ago I was tagged to goto a thread with someone needing help in testing out the install of a high-lift gas strut hood kit by Spiker Engineering @SpikerEng (web site: https://spikerengineering.com/ ) for a 1st Generation Toyota Tacoma. More specifically, as much as possible, an early 1st Generation Toyota Tacoma, which mine happens to be a 1998. I offered my help to Leon in using my truck to be used as a test bed to confirm clearances were good in certain areas along the inside hood-edge making note if the battery is of any concern of being an obstruction to the gas strut assembly when fully closed. As well as going through the instructions sheets and giving any input and/or any changes that I think would be of help to improve install for future customers.

This is how it came packaged... as you can see, very professional looking and great care with their product. The mounting hardware, instructions, and the gas struts. HAHAHAHAHA, I was hoping for a sticker as well???


Discussion:

So, I will first discuss 1) packaging and tool prepping 2) reading the instruction sheets and doing a pre-check before any drilling or installing 3) watching the suggested video that the instructions suggested will help in visualizing your own install 4) the install itself on my ’98 Tacoma and what I think would be helpful tools to have and finally 5) my thoughts about the product.

1) Packaging and Tool Prepping:

So, when Spiker Engineering shipped me the kit, which was fast and extremely well packaged with tracker provided, I emptied the contents of the box and unfolded the instruction sheets noticing a components inventory check list of what is included with the kit. Reading a bit further, tools needed for the install. I inspected the gas strut assemblies as well as the ball stud mounting brackets. You will find that the construction of these gas struts and the ball stud mount brackets are very sturdy looking and feeling. In short, a very professional looking kit for sure that, once installed, you will be proud to show off.

As for the install, a basic hand rivet gun, razor blade, electrical tape, a ratchet type load bar, right angle power drill (will discuss this further), basic tool set (i.e. screwdrivers, ratchet socket set, etc), a sharpie, and a drill bit set. I also found it helpful to have digital caliper, but definitely NOT necessary.

2) Reading the Instructions and Pre-check

I made sure to read the instructions as it is not all that long and it has some good example pictures of what to look out for during your install. It helped to look at the future work area while reading and understanding the instructions, which I will discuss why it is important to do a pre-check. But with that said, I recommend simply taking the time to read the instructions first and looking over the “future work area” as it really helped with my install and I was able to avoid a possible problem if I had not taken the time to do a visual inspection first while reading the instructions (i.e. the pictures below will show how my setup was at the time before install).

Also, as part of my pre-check, I propped the hood using the stock hood prop and made sure my ditch lights, as well as any other brackets/light assemblies/etc were not going to be an issue if I was to raise the hood as high as possible. Then I “unlatched” the hood prop from the hood itself and raised the hood as high as possible without “over raising”, if you will. Or put simply, I raised the hood until I could no longer raise/open it and just stopped where it stopped. This also helped me visualize what it would look like.

3) Suggested Video Before Install

Within the instructions, it will direct you to a url for a video to watch of an actual install. There is one thing in the video of the hood bracket itself installed backwards, but the instructions, as well as I, will point out how to install the hood bracket correctly. In either case, taking the time to watch the video really helped with visualizing the install that much further. I keep stressing this point because once you start drilling holes, mistakes are not going to be very forgiving. So, measure many, MANY TIMES and drill once!!!

4) The Install Itself

NOTE, NOTE, NOTE: It is VITAL to have the hood the same "desired" height when installing the struts!!! It even says so in the instruction sheets!!! I used a ratcheted loading bar, which worked quite well. Just be sure NOT to move the ratchet if you have to store it away to work on the mod another day???!!! What you want to avoid is having one strut "off angle", if you will, because you don't want the struts to be "out of sync"!!!

Anyways...

For starters, as stated just above, I used a cargo load bar to consistently keep the hood propped up at the desired height, which in my case, was as far as the hood would open taking notice of my ditch light brackets and such.

I did the driver-side first taking notice that my custom wire harness I did a few years back for my KC Lights, fog lights, etc were likely going to be in the way and from the looks of it, it looked as if there just might be just enough room, but rubbing was still going to take place for sure. I simply took the time to relocate my custom wire harness.


I moved and partially re-wired my harness. It was not really all that hard to do, but just that alone took a few hours. Since I could only realistically do this after work, the amount of daylight hours were highly limited for me so I had to work on it across a couple days. In the end, the wire harness ended up looking really clean. NOTE: you will notice the ball mount bracket already installed in the picture because I took this picture after the fact just to show how much more room there was after my wire harness relocation.


I took a razor blade (NOTE: the sharper the better) to cut away the excess body filler. Cutting it was easier than I thought. I pressed the bottom ball mount bracket up against the edge noticing that if the bracket was moved too far back, the curvature of the paneling would start to raise/skew the bracket and make it cockeyed not fully letting it sit flat and flush properly (see locations P1-1, P1-3, P1-2 in the picture just below). I moved the bracket forward just enough until I could feel it seat/flatten properly.


Notice how much more flat the bracket sits (see P2-1, P2-2, P2-3). At this point, I took a sharpie to mark the hole centers.


I had already cut the filler, but take notice on how "flat" it is (see the location marked P3-1 in the picture below). This is what you want so that the bracket will rest against the metal edge as much as possible. Also take note of the curvature towards the back. For mine, I moved the bracket forward until it sat flat/flush against the sheet-metal. Then start drilling your holes at the marked points. I would start drilling a little bit and then check how the hole placement would look before completely drilling through the sheet-metal. NOTE: This is important because you do NOT want the holes off-center as much as possible!!!


This was the razor cutter I used to cut away the excess body filler. The blade handle made the cut very clean and easy to do.


Keep in mind that at the hood hinge, you will need a fairly small length drill body to clear the hood so you can drill the holes!!! I found that a right-angle drill worked well OR one could simply use a smaller drill body, which I did not have a smaller drill body to clear the hood hinge area. I personally liked the right-angle better anyways.


A hand rivet gun, like what you see, worked very well. I'd get something similar to the right angle head just like the rivet tool you see in the picture. For me, I was able to control the "pressure" each time the handles fed the rivet into the gun. Just make sure to keep a constant even pressure against the surface/pieces you are riveting together.


I drilled, riveted, and installed this end of the gas strut tube to get the next point to be drilled... the hood ball mount bracket. Raise the gas strut until it reaches the highest point possible on the hood.


The correct way to install this bracket is how you see it here. Those flat RED lines simply show the "curvature" part of the hood-brace and I simply made the bracket flush against the curvature and as flat as possible (see the picture below marked location P5-1). NOTE: before drilling the hood holes, make SURE to wrap about 10-15 layers of electrical tape roughly 3/4in away from the tip of the bit. This way, if the drill happens to "grab" the sheet-metal while drilling, it doesn't punch a hole through your hood!!! Mark your holes with a sharpie.


The picture below shows how it should look when finally assembled on the hood end.


The picture below, is to show how much clearance there is from the negative battery post to the gas strut on the driver side. I'm estimating a clearance of at least an inch or more, for sure. If your body is flexing THAT much, then you have more things to worry about (see the picture below marked P9-1). When you close the hood, the gas strut tubing is approximately this distance from the negative battery post as well as the battery body. In short, I firmly believe that there is quite the clearance and nothing to worry about. As you can see though, if I didn't relocate my wire harness, it would have been pretty cramped and maybe even damage the gas strut, the wire harness, or both. So, I simply took the time to do it right as much as possible.


Okay, now for the passenger-side, I have my PA Horn that is connected to my CB on that side of the truck and I have future plans to put other "items" in that general area. So looking at it ahead of time and making sure that the hood-strut tube has plenty of clearance taking notice that, just like the video and instruction sheets, the window washer tube needed to be relocated, which was NOT a big deal to do. The clip can be a bit of a PITA to disengage, but it is definitely doable.


Here is the passenger-side window washer tube. Just pop it out and moved it over to this spot for now (see location P7-1 in the picture). I will likely move it again to make it look a little bit of a "cleaner look", but as you can see, I have LOTS of DUST in my engine bay!!! "Don't judge me..." As you can see, the bottom mount has been installed at this point. Basically the same procedure.


This is the top passenger-side hood strut.


I had originally installed one of the gas struts and noticed that the label/sticker was facing "inwards" and didn't like how it was going to look. I wanted it to look as "professional" as possible and have the manufacture labels facing "outwards" to give it a "cleaner look" to show off and people will notice the label quicker that way of who the struts are sold by!!! Notice how the labels face outwards at locations P10-1 and P10-2 annotated in the picture.


The two pictures below are just showing the left and right-sides with the hood open.




Before... btw, take notice of the factory hood brace. IF, that is, IF one wanted to for whatever reason, you can still use your factory hood brace!!!


After... notice that there is no factory hood brace AND there is much MORE work area that opened up along with the fact that the factory hood brace is not in the way. This is max hood lift, which is what I was aiming for!!!


Below, this is on 4 July 2019 up at the "Parking Lot" halfway up Santiago Peak here in Orange County, California. I wanted to get some "scenic shots" and decided to check out my hood struts to see if they took some off-roading abuse. The trail is a fire-road type trail, but there are quite a few sections that still "contort" your vehicle and bouncing around for sure depending on how fast you are traveling. The struts held up just fine (closed of course ). I have since been up on that trail a couple more times and still in good working order. I have another off-road trip coming up with SOME "rock crawling" involved (i.e. definitely not your fire-road type trail). NOTHING too intense, but a medium trail with a decent boulder field nonetheless.

Anyways, here are the pictures taken on 4 July 2019.






Again, just showing the factory hood strut holding the hood up...


And just the gas struts holding the hood up...


5) Final thoughts about my newly installed HIGH-LIFT Hood Strut(s)

I LOVE these HIGH-LIFT Hood Struts and HIGHLY RECOMMEND them as part of your next Tacoma mod!!! I've already opened my hood a few times and you just simply unlatch the hood like normal, do your latch release, start "lifting" the hood and within a couple inches or so, your hood will "lift on its own"!!! There is plenty more working space with no factory hood brace being in the way!!! I'm constantly working on my truck, well, when time permits, but the point being is that having the HIGH-LIFT Hood Struts makes it that much easier to deal with when working in the engine bay of a 1st Gen Tacoma.

I give a great THANKS to Spiker Engineering and Leon for letting me be a part of this development phase.

Please visit their web site: (here is their website again...)
https://spikerengineering.com/

 

Write ups and informational threads are why I love this forum so much. Great job on that OP! Enjoy your new high lift hood.

 

Thank you for the kind words AND THANK YOU and everyone else that serves to fight and protect my/OUR FREEDOMS!!!

 

Thank you for this write up @WileECoyote

I just placed my order for these today and will be referencing your write up at the time of install.

 

AWESOME!!! You're very welcome brotha!!! Thank you for the kind words!!!

If you have any questions, just ask and I will do my best to help!!!

I've been wanting to "update" with a couple more pictures just to clarify SOME things, but really nothing too significant compared to what you already see in the write-up. It was my "first" write-up, so I tried as much as I could to do things in chronological order.

My advice, when doing the top mounting brackets on the hood itself, make SURE that they are both at same height level. Also, it does say in the install sheets to "compress" the gas struts to work them a little due to natural stiction of a new gas strut.

Other than that, just take your time and do it right. Pretty easy job, but I'm always nervous when drilling holes into my truck!!! HAHAHAHAHA

Just like that saying goes, "once you fire the gun, you can't bring the bullet back..."

 

I'm a firm believer in the measure twice cut(drill) once motto.

I ordered the kit specific to the later model 1st Gens. I’ll let you know if I have any questions when I tear into it.

Thanks for the helpful tips.

 

Yeah, they make some good products, can't wait to see what Leon develops next

 

Andrew, @WileECoyote has some great installation tips in this thread, hope they help you in the install. Keep in mind that like you said, your kit is for a late 1st Gen, so it's a bit different than his early 1st Gen kit. But same idea .

Everyone is nervous to drill holes in the hood (as they should be), so to make it at least a bit less scary, the Spiker kits now include a drill bit stopper to make sure you don't drill through the top of the hood. So it's (almost) foolproof.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions during the install.

 

Thank you - I'm still using your truck's photo on the website for the late 1st Gen struts, as you know . Great way to show off my products. Speaking of products, I am still working on the scangauge/ultragauge mount for the late 1st Gen, but it's a on a bit of a backburner for a number of reasons. I'll get there eventually though.

 

No worries man, I know when it comes out it'll be the coolest on the block

 

I did the same mod, but with the Redline kit, very similar to this kit.
Love it.

 

Yup, that's a good kit too, most folks say that these struts are one of their favorite mods.

 

Looks good, might pick up a set of these myself pretty soon after I get a few other maintenance things out of the way.

heads up @SpikerEng for some reason I can't get to your guys' website...when I click the link in your sig it says "failed to open page" same when I click the link in @WileECoyote 's post

 

Ryan, suh brudda!!!

I just clicked on the link in my own post and it worked for me just fine??? I don't know what could be the issue on your end??? But for me, the link works.

 

It's weird, I just tried it on Chrome and the site loads up just fine, but on Safari it won't load at all (just get an error message)...dunno if that's an issue on my end or what, but it works just fine on Chrome it seems

 

It is working fine for me@eon_blue using mobile chrome and edge.

 

HAHAHAHA Chrome scares me too because it is, technically "open source"!!!

It's "Russian collusion man, I'm tell'n ya!!!"

 

Thanks for the heads up, and glad it now works for you. I tried it in Chrome and Firefox, they both load up fine. I'll need to get to a Mac to try it with Safari.

 

See, now THAT is your problem right there... "MAC"!!!

 

Yup, I can hardly spell Mac .