Spacers vs. 5100 whats the real world difference?

How do they compare as far as ride, durability capability? And an added bonus question, what is the difference in ride, durability and capibility of rear block spacers vs. aal's?

 

My thinking is, adding spacers would be a fairly easy DIY project, But the 5100's would require a spring compresser. Am I right or wrong on this?

 

Spacers are for show, everything else is for practicality.

 

A 5100 lift doesn't have any of these disadvantages other than at the 2.5" setting your suspension will feel harsh because the coil is nearly over compressed.

A block lift is the shits. The block can break and then you are in for a fun ride. The Tacoma leafs are junk anyways. Go with a progressive AAL or new leafs entirely and the improvement in ride quality is amazing!

The short of it is if you are just lifting to look cool to your mom, then throw some spacers and blocks under there and mission accomplished. If you are going to drive this truck alot or even thinking about offroading go to 5100's or better yet true coil overs from Fox, King, Icon, etc.

 

Check out this thread:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/strut-spacers-who-started-with-them.359482/

Should have some good info more about the negative reviews of spacers. Personally, it's all about doing it once and doing it right. Spacers are too cheap ($200-$400) to be putting on a 35k truck. A better option would be to get 5100s all around, reuse the stock springs and get a progressive AAL pack in the rear. You can step up from there, but the kit I just mentioned is a good "starting point" lift kit.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have any further questions.

 

Check this out too:

http://www.tacomahq.com/66/tacoma-leveling-lift-kit/

 

Going off what Burghlar said with the shock bottoming out, here is some visual damage from spacers:



Source: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/block-pictures.255383/