I Want to Lift My Tacoma

Does anyone have any good advice or warning for lifting my 2003 Tacoma. I'm wanting to go 3" with it. What is a good brand? A what method of lift is best?

 

There are a lot of options out there. If you could be more specific with how you intend to use your truck and what your budget is, many will be able to give suggestions.

 

This will be your best bet. If you just plan on driving around town with it a spacer lift is much more affordable but you will sacrifice ride quality for it. If you're looking to off-road there are a zillion options depending on your budget and how serious about it you want to be.

 

What @JPinFL said. Big difference between a pretty boy street queen lift and a functional lift.

But make the whole shebang easy on yourself. Just pick up the phone and call Marie @HeadStrong Off-Road and tell her your goals.

If what she recommends costs more than you can spend at the moment, save your money till you can proceed. Do it once, do it right.

Tip. The more you lift, the more risks you take straining other things. Using the lowest lift you can to accomplish your functional targets will both cost less from the start and in future maintenance.

 

I just changed from a Toytec 2.5 spacer lift to a bilstein 5100 lift in the front with a Toytec AAL in the rear. The truck rides night and day difference.

I don't do heavy off roading just the occasional deer stand trail and dirt roads on the way to hunting camps. My Toytec spacer lift served me well for 10 years and I'm hoping the bilstein will be the last thing I ever do suspension wise.

 

Whatever lift you decide on, my buddy Sean and I have a video you can use as a tutorial. We installed a complete Toytec lift for another member on T4R.org. Here's the video:

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Use the search feature above, it will result in hundreds of opinions/ knowledge instead of waiting for people to answer, etc.

Bilstein 5100s is a cheap popular option cause its a suspension lift (for the front) and many new an aal in the rear

 

True.

Sort of. If you use the normal (0) spring perch and OE spring it's just a replacement shock.

If you use alternate spring perch locations you create lift by preloading the spring.

Yeah, it's 'lift', and it's better than a puck, but it's compromising the spring travel/articulation.

 

You really aren't compromising much. It's like putting preload on any other shock like king, icon, saw, etc

As long as your not running into coil bind you'll be fine. The uptravel/down travel ratio may be tampered with a bit but definitely the cheapest and best average lift next to ome

You can switch coils also but a stiffer coil with no preload will ride stiff and rougher compared to a lighter # coil with preload

 

Agreed, unless one is adding a good bit of weight up front.

Are the OE coils progressive or linear?

Most coilover springs are linear, so the rate is the same through the entire travel range, meaning the negative affects of preload are restricted to potential binding and some loss of travel. Not much issue on a street/light trail truck, maybe an issue in harder offroading.

If the spring is a progressive rate, then putting preload on it would essentially increase the spring rate, since the compression (preload) brings it closer (or even beyond) the point that the rate increases.

 

Not sure about the stock coils. Linear would mean that say you have a #600 coil. The first inch compressing the coil would be 600#, the second inch there would be 1200# on the coil, etc

 

So adding preload does stiffen up the spring but you never actually loose travel unless you run into coil bind. The down travel just turns slightly into up-travel

 

Correct, as I think you are saying a 600# linear spring takes 600# per inch of movement.

 

Not on a linear spring. The amount to move it per inch never changes.

Pretty much, but that's not real hard to do the way a lot of the installs are done on OE springs. (top perch)

Again, not making the 5100's a bad choice in some situations, but pretty much the lowest level choice that's fairly acceptable.

Seems a 0 perch setting, no preload, on a progressive spring that gave the amount of static lift needed for what was trying to be accomplished would be good. The progressive nature keeps the street ride compliant, but as compression occurs off road, the extra stiffness becomes your friend.

 

trd coils are progressive.

 

A spring with preload (compressed 2 inches say) of a #600 coil will have 1200 force on the spring making it "stiffer" compared to the same #600 coil with no preload making it only have 600 pounds of force on it.

Ex) Two identical trucks with the same coilovers (one with two inches of preload, the other with non). The truck with no preload will ride "smoother" than the truck with preload

 

the weight of truck goes beyond the preload. at ride height both coils are compressed the same amount. only through the last amount of travel equal to the preload is the ride gona be "stiffer"

 

If one coil has preload (2 inch) and another does not ( 0 inch).

If the weight of the truck say compresses both springs 1 inch you would have different forces on the springs themselves. You would be at 600 force on the 0 ride height one. And 1800 on the other from putting more tension on it previously.


Why does a truck with lots of preload vs a truck with non feel different then?

Yes it's a linear spring but the forces on the spring are different as the spring compresses if you start with a different amount of tension to begin with

 

the truck is only so heavy. if theres 1200lb of weight it will compress the spring 2". if its preloaded 600# it will move it 1".

dont even think of it as preload as much as just moving the shock body down.

most harshness of a lifted truck is from lack of up travel and castor numbers being thrown off.