New Suspension on a Budget

I am new to this forum and recently purchased a ‘97 3.4L Tacoma a few months ago. It is in need of new suspension. What are your guys recommendations for a quality set up on a budget. I would not be opposed to a small lift of 1-2”. Thanks for the time.

 

This is probably the number one topic here.

The OEM suspension leaves much to be desired. Check out some of the member build threads for some ideas. There is also the vender section.

Beware all that enter here! Budget? What's a budget? Mods know no limits. My budget suspension was about $1,200, and that was going cheap with minimum lift. It also includes all the related hardware to improve the truck's ride and handling beyond what was delivered by Toyota. I went with OME 880 coils and wheeler's off road 5 leaf springs in the rear. Rough country shocks and struts. I did all the work except assembling the struts in coils. You can spend less. You can spend more, much more.

Good luck, and spend some time looking around. You are bound to find something you'll be happy with.

 

Thanks for the advice!

 

there are bushing options
there are shocks/struts options
you looking for a lift?
you looking for heavy duty leaf's but same height?

Alot you need to answer and give details on what you need.

 

I plan on spending $990 in total for my set up. Thats new general leaf springs, moog coils, billstein 5100's, lift shackles, bpv bracket, new u bolts, leaf spring eye bolts, strut top hats. Admittedly, I could reuse my u bolts and some other things. But I want to get rid of as many rusted parts as possible. Should net about 1.5" lift I hope, but ill be okay with 1.5-2". From my research, I'm doing it as cheap as possible while replacing everything that I can get to.
If I wanted to, I could get the shackle lift kit from Rough country for like $300 and be done with it but I didn't want spacers in the front. Just my 2 cents.

 

Fair enough. The General spring leaf springs that the previous owner put on are in good shape. I mostly need shock and struts and wanted to hear what people have used. I’m not really searching for a lift but if it would be a biproduct of the suspension I would welcome it. Sorry the vagueness

 

general leaf springs already run 900 shipped for me....you must have a better shipping.

 

Thank you for your 2 cents. If you get this done before me can you tell me how they turned out?

 

I dont know if I will or not. Gonna order the leafs today. Still gotta save the $370ish for the shocks. Maybe end of march if I'm lucky

 

What price range are you looking at?

The best all-around bang for your buck IMO would be OME 880 or 881 coils with Nitrocharger shocks. For the rear, you could get some new 5100's/5125's/4600's if you're keeping the same leaf springs. I'd go for the 880's in the front if the rear of your truck is stock height.

 

I’m just looking for the best bang for my buck. And the combos that people are using.

 

I had 5100s with OME 881 coils and the Headstrong 3 leaf AAL + 5100s in the rear on my previous setup, it was around $800 for the whole package if I remember right. Gave me about 2.5" in the rear and 2" in the front (with the 5100s on the 1st setting).

Running 2.5 Kings in the front now and 2.0 Icons in the rear (with the same 3 leaf AALs), I would highly recommend this setup over my first one as far as offroad durability goes, but it's considerably more expensive. My previous 5100 setup rode great for what it was.

 

Rocky Road Outfitters http://www.rocky-road.com/toyota.html has free shipping on "most Old Man Emu kits." I got mine from them, and I am a very satisfied customer.

 

Can say that again about the budget...I've been here a week and I'm about to slap down $500 on a bumper. After I said I wanted to keep it stock for a while after I picked my taco up.

 

If you feel your suspension is just plain worn out, you'd be surprised what a new set of shocks can get you as far as ride quality.

6 or 7 years ago, I got a set of 5100's from Downsouthmotorsports (vendor here). A set of 4 was like $300 (with a TW member discount). The front shocks are adjustable, so I set the fronts on the middle setting for ~1" lift, and that leveled out the sagging coils just fine. For the rear, the 5100's and a 1" lift shackle did just fine. Yes, it's a bandaid fix, but that's about what you'll get "on a budget"...

The other thing is that if you still aren't satisfied with the ride, you can then move to new coils and leafs, bushings, etc... without having "wasted" money on the shocks. It's not like you have to do it all at once. The 5100's will still work just fine with whatever springs you end up with.

The OME nitrocharger shocks are about the same as far as quality/ride, but I preferred the 5100s because they were height adjustable, whereas the OMEs are not.

If you want to go all in in a single shot, there's a full set of the OME shocks and springs for like $1200ish, iirc... That's all new shocks, coils, leafs and rear bushings at ~2" lift.

 

One other thing...

I'm normally a fan of the whole buy once, cry once thing, so if you plan on doing some serious offroading later on (or now) some might say to go ahead and find a buyer for a kidney, and crank out the Kings, Icon, etc... now.

but...

All depending on (of course) your budget, what you plan to do with your truck (off-roader vs. mall crawler), driver skill, etc... it makes perfect sense to go ahead and get some decent shocks now that offer a mild improvement in performance, but don't require you to sell a kidney to pay for it. To a novice driver, the 5100's/OMEs are more than enough shock to keep you entertained, and are cheap enough that even if you don't plan to off-road much, they're still a better deal (IMO) than body lifts, spacers, etc...

I have extended travel Kings, total chaos upper A arms, etc... on my truck now, but I don't regret getting the 5100s first. At all. I'd do the same thing again.

Back when I got the 5100's, my Taco was a daily driver, and I didn't wheel with it a ton, nor did I spend a lot of time/money modding it out since I always needed it to get to work the next day. Now that I have a new DD, this is my play truck, so I plan to spend a bit more time/money on it.

 

I have toytec front suspension, I just need the rear. I'm trying not to get too much of a lift or else I might have to end up spending money on upper control arms for the front.

 

Thank you for the advice. This forum and its members are awesome!