How to go about lifting and adding 17's to 2020 tacoma sr5 2WD?

My Taco is completely stock and is sort of a pavement princess but I occasionally hit the mountains and trails for hiking/camping. I want a slight lift on it, thinking of 2" spacer in front and 1" block in rear to level it a bit but Im wondering what yalls take is on spacers? From what I gather, seems like 2" spacers or less are pretty safe when you want to keep the integrity of the way it drives while stock. Also spacers and blocks just seem affordable.

Also, where in the world do you go to get spacers installed? Do I just buy them online and find a dude with a shop that will do it or does anyone have experience with a more legit business like Les Schwab or something similar? Thanks in advanced.

Extra credit: if anyone can recommend a slightly bigger/more aggressive tire that would accommodate my lift, id appreciate it! My stock tires are wimpy as heck looking. Not looking for anything that overly compensates, just a slight all terrain upgrade.

 

Spend a tad more and get a 2" Bilstein 5100 shocks up front, and a 1" rear block.

265/75/16 or 265/70/17 Duratracs are the mist aggressive A/T tire.

 

You can run 17” with no changes. There are stock 15, 16,17,18” rims… it’s the tire size (diameter and width) that matters. Stock size for 17” is 265/265/17. Spacers are used to correct aftermarket rim offset or tire width issues, so again aren’t typically needed unless you go extra wide or have an offset issue to correct.

 

Seems like the shocks you mentioned generally come with both front & back shocks as opposed to just the front. Can you point me in the direction of finding just the front? Also wondering if you think some 2" spacers could do the job instead since I can't stress enough how little off roading I would do. I baby my Taco, my wife even makes fun of me for how slow I pass over speed bumps lol

 

If on a budget spacers will work but not optimal. If you can set aside enough to get the bilstein 5100 lift I would especially if you plan on keeping it for a long time.

 

Spacers are for Mall Crawlers only. If you are doing any off roading and you don't want your spine sticking through the back of your neck when you are done on the trails then just save up for a set of Bilstein 5100's all around. They are only like $200 each and it will be a night and day difference. They would be considered the entry model for off-roading but they are highly capable regardless. There are a thousand Youtube videos on install, it is NOT hard. I am not a car guy and I did all of mine including new rear springs, U-Bolt flip Kit and bump stops. And I am about to put on 17's (just ordered Ray 10's) with Pizza Cutters (Falken AT4W 255/80 R17). This is basically a 33" tire which will also provide about 1" lift and should fit without any mods or minor mods (Some people have had slight rubbing but was easily fixed with heat gun). I've been studying this for over a year on TW and have read just about every post there is. The amount of information here is crazy if you have the time and tenacity to read it all.

Note: I did not do 510O's but rather 6112's up front and 5160's in rear on my Tacoma. That was about a $2k upgrade. Love it! I did put 5100's on my Sequoia however and they are awesome also.

 

You can buy the shocks individually. The ride quality is 100% better than a spacer lift. If you baby your Taco, you'll appreciate the nice ride over a spacer lift ride. Your front brake dive also disappears with the 5100's.

Another thing you could do is just raise the 5100's 1" up front and avoid the block in the rear altogether. Still looks lifted @ 1"

 

For tires a ~32" tire (265/75R16 or 265/70R17) will fit fine with no modifications needed and minimal performance loss.

I would just find a way to set aside whatever money is needed for a budget friendly suspension swap like B5100s or similar vs a spacer lift if you plan to lift all around. Up front a small top spacer (0.5") to help level is probably fine if that's all you want but anything more IMO and you'll end up regretting it long term. Spacer blocks in the back make you lose suspension down travel if you don't also change to appropriately sized shocks, and coil top spacers in the front either risk bottom the shock or require extended bump stops that cost you uptravel and make you hit the bump stops much more often. Both of which result in more wear and tear on the suspension and worse ride quality, more so during even mild offroading.

I used to run rear 1" rear blocks with a 1" front preload spacer and 0.5" top spacer (Wescott lift), and in my experience it objectively made the truck worse other than it sitting higher with slightly better ground clearance and looking cooler. You don't need to spend an arm and a leg on suspension like Fox or Kings, but something more budget friendly and scaled to your actual use like B5100s or TRD lift will be much better than just spacers alone.