Lift or level advice ?

Hello everyone I am here and new to this site so sorry if I text horrible but anyway I am deciding on either lifting my truck with 3 in or doing a simple front level. I don’t plan to go mudding or anything to extreme it’s a 3rd gen prerunner build that will later on hopefully have a long travel to it also but that’s far from now but anyways I live in Hayward CA (Bay Area) I’ve gone to many shops either one sells wheels and tires but no lift or does but way too expensive I found a place in San Leandro that’s willing to sell me a set of brand new toyo A/T 20’s and fuel baja wheels with also a rough country lift kit all for 3,200 but he’s willing to do it for 3,100 if in Cash idk if that’s reasonable price or ripping me off I can get easily maybe 2900 or 3000 if I go with a simple level but idk if that can help with future semi offroads ?

 

Get the 5100 bilstien shocks all around set them to zero notch (stock height) And pair them with OME springs 887 up front. should give you a 2.5 inch lift. And get the Deaver single AAL (add a leaf) for the rear (to lift it)... I don’t think you’ll need new UPPER CONTROL ARMS since it’s not more then a 3 inch lift you should still be able to get alignment in spec worst case buy new UCA if you need them. Drive like that for a week, so your new lift can fully settle then get a alignment. All for 700 in parts... and labor depends on what shop installs them. Much cheaper then 3000$
No matter what. And you’ll get a comfy lifted Tacoma done the right way.

http://www.headstrongoffroad.com/store/p401/Coil/Bilstein_5100_Kit_(HS16BK-1).html

 

^^ What he said

 

Seconded

 

What about the strut assembly ?

 

Lame

 

That is a nice set up but that will still be around 3,000 range the wheels will be around $900 and toyo tires around 1g and that set up with even struts will be around the same range as I said butler likely. I will need to save up even more then for what it looks like lol everything is pretty pricey maybe that’s what I get for not getting the pro model

 

The set up is 1,300 range btw sorry I didn’t mention it

 

My suspension, wheels and tires were all less than $2000

 

it depends.. what are your goals. if your planning on getting into some serious off roading and need the clearance then lift, If your looking for a more attractive stance then the stock look and spending more of your time on the pavement and very little to no time on anything more then maybe dirt trails then level. it also depends on what kind of ride quality your looking for...how often do you need to load your bed with gear by hand. Speaking from experience.. I did a 6" lift on my old truck and regretted it daily when i needed to hump my gear into the bed..

Some of the mining sites, logging roads and construction sites i train at need 6" clearance under your vehicle to acess some locations . so i leveled mine out and got that clearance far more cheaply then i would have replacing the whole suspension. But then again im not doing any serious off road rock crawling either any more. Im on dirt paths and running across fields and accessing "off road" areas.. but if we need into a really rough area for work now we just Helicopter in us and our gear instead of driving in.

 

Under 3,000!!! What set up and where lol idk if it’s because of brands or just cause of the Labor is a lot who knows but the wheels and lift together comes to 3100 again If cash if anyone lives near the bay that knows a good shop lmk . And not too extreme since it is a pre runner build sadly 2 wd but still gets me to where I want fortunately and what I Mean like desert roads uphills and just what a prerunner is known to do you know ? a simple 3 in seems fine and affordable I might just go with bill stein coil overs or the set up on top ‍♂️ But if any more advice please lmk if a good and affordable in Cali ?

 

Tacoma's don't have strut assemblies. Regardless of what catalogs call them. They have coil-over-shock assemblies.

 

Yes I’ve seen coil overs and thinking to start off to use those ? I’ve seen fox which indeed are expensive as hell !! But worth the money like for rear is like 900 for both and another 1000 in the front but sure helps out when needed but I will most likely buy the set up from up the feed for starters I will maybe head out to 4 wheels parts near me

 

Anyone got pictures of this setup? I want to see the ride height. And will i be able to run 285/75/16 tires with this? If not what if i go with a wheel that has 4.5 backspacing

 

for all you pros out there, how does this set up look? Is there a better route to go for ~1500? or should I just stick to the one listed above and save some cash ? I plan on doing a good bit of off roading once I get off this damn island in a few months and looking for a quality set up. I don't know the performance of the above mentioned set-up and im relatively new to suspension. Any insight would be helpful . I added the heavy duty leaf pack since I will also be ordering my high clearance bumper with swing out soon.


Coil/Bilstein 5100 Kit w/ Dakars (HS16BK-1-Dakar)
Coil Selection: 2887
Strut and Coil Assembly: No assembly needed
Upper Control Arms: Add Light Racing uca's
Dakar Leaf Pack : Heavy Duty

 

Bump