To lift or not to lift

[SeguineJ]

I know, it is kind of a dumb question but I am trying to see if it is really needed. So by what I have read, my current ground clearance is 9in. That is all I know and understand. Now the TRD Sport comes with the little upgraded suspension yada yada. Do I really need to lift it? Is it more a preference thing at this point? What about stance? Also preference. My Chevy was lifted a few extra inches and stanced slightly. Nothing crazy.

So what should I be looking into? Should I just run with what I have and get more aggressive capable tires?

 

[Cavo]

Well, I will getting mine for better articulation as well as the ability to handle all the extra weight from my roof rack, eventual front and rear bumpers, wench, etc.

In the end, what you have will take you most places, unless you plan to add much more weight and do some serious off-roading.

Always upgrade tires.....the most important upgrade IMO

 

[Preston Tiegs]

I've been toying with the same question myself. My 4Runner has similar clearance. I've decided to wait a couple months, and see how I do stock. Instead, I threw on some 32" BFG KO2's.

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[4xFar Adventures]

Run what you've got and get a good set of AT's for now would be my advice. Get used to the truck and its capabilities, then decide where you want/need to go next in terms of mods. When I got started, I was upgrading something almost every month or two. I could have saved a lot of money (but lost some experience) swapping all those parts. If you can figure out how far you want to take the mods first and then form a plan, you'll be well off.

 

[RichardS]

You've got to lift the vehicle for the right reasons. I would never recommend doing a cheap body spacer lift for the sake of obtaining the 'overland' look. If you are going to lift, replace the suspension. Old Man Emu makes a great suspension for a fraction of the cost of fancier bypass shocks. It's tried and true and I love the simplicity. You'll get 2.5-3" of additional ground clearance. That will allow you to fit larger tires without modifying the body or fenders wells. I went from 265s to 285s. Literally a game changer for what a rig can do. My recommended mods are always suspension, tires, and sliders in that order.

As far as stance, people commonly use Spidertrax spacers which cause the wheels to stick out further from the body. It's superficial in most cases. Spacers are aluminum and you are introducing a dissimilar metal into the equation. Failures are catastrophic, the wheel can literally fall off.

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[ohiowrangler]

I adding expedition/camping to my trail riding/camping. I run a jeep with 5" of lift with 35" tires, after putting on it's side and roof, there's a lot to be said for a capable vehicle with a low center of gravity. If I did it again I'd lean towards traction and stability. Ron

 

[SeguineJ]

So I saw some discussion on T4R about it. Tire wise then, if I left the stock sport rim, stock suspension, what's the best size to go? I know it'll make the truck look beefier since it'll be bigger, I figured eventually I'll do a lift once I need to account for the weight increase but that's not till the bumper go on. My hope is basically to not have to buy tires now just to buy them again later cause I need a bigger size. I'm trying to be cost effective here.

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[MA_Trooper]

I didn't see it mentioned so I will go ahead and be the bad guy. It is possible to upgrade shocks and springs without lifting. If weight is your concern but you have the clearance you need, why lift it? Lifting changes how the vehicle drives. I say run it the way it is, with some bigger tires if you want a little extra height. But the TRD stuff is already pretty beefy and will handle a lot more than most people give it credit for. If you find that you need more height after a year of running it the way it is then address it then. But lifts are expensive, when done right, so why spend the money if you don't know you need it?

 

[CDN Offroader]

I would argue against upgrading the springs and shocks if you aren't gonna lift it right away. Just a waste of money if you decide to lift it a year down the road. The TRD should be fine until you figure out what you want to do. These trucks are very versatile out of the box. The Taco Is similar to the FJ, a 2.5-3" lift should allow you to put 33s on there pretty easy. That, with a good set of tires, will get down almost anywhere you want to go, without switching to a dedicated offroad rig.

I'll +1 Richards suggestion on the Old Man EMU shocks, I have the OME 3" lift on the FJ and it is very smooth on road and off. While driving down forestry roads this summer, I was doing 100km/h(60mph) comfortably, I had to slow down and wait for my buddy in his F350, he couldn't go above 60, as it was like driving on washboard for him.

 

[RichardS]

So I saw some discussion on T4R about it. Tire wise then, if I left the stock sport rim, stock suspension, what's the best size to go? I know it'll make the truck look beefier since it'll be bigger, I figured eventually I'll do a lift once I need to account for the weight increase but that's not till the bumper go on. My hope is basically to not have to buy tires now just to buy them again later cause I need a bigger size. I'm trying to be cost effective here.

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Folks without lifts go with 275s (stock are 265). I run 285s without any body modifications and OME suspension and stock TRD Pro rims. Trend is moving towards 295s. One cat runs legit 35s, but he's done some major work and undoubtably has bump stops in the rear.


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[TXpedition]

My 2 cents for whatever it's worth:
Your vehicle is very capable in it's stock form. Get to know how it handles on and off the trail the way you have it.
Save up some $ little by little, while you decide what exactly you want to modify.
You might realize you want better camping gear before you want to lift.
Like someone mentioned before, get yourself some good tires first. (Go up 1 size and you could gain some height)
If you decide you are going to go farther and farther off the beaten path and need extra clearance, THEN get a lift.
Here is a handy calculator for tire size: http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/infoTireMath.do
I went from 265/70/17 to 285/70/17 sized tires. I gained almost an inch. I also went to an E rated tire for hitting the trails.
I kept my suspension stock while I fitted other mods and wheeled the heck out of it. When I ended up putting skid plates along the bottom, the weight increased and I started bottoming out on the trails.
So, 2 years later I finally got myself a Toytec Boss 2.0 suspension lift and I love it! Great for trails and overlanding.

The point is wheel what you have and think about how you want to use your rig.

 

[HEYElliott]

Lots of good points in here but here's my thoughts:
Body lifts arent all bad; they give you more room for tires and flex without lifting your center of gravity. (I have a combination of 3" bodylift and 3" susp lift.
Lifts arent for everybody, if you want to retain good daily driver economy and feel, keep it stock height and get some good tires (as mentioned above)
If youre driving down logging roads and not really rock crawling or anything a lift wont necessarily benefit you.

Have fun out there

 

[Colorado dude]

Lots of info here. Well In my experience in lifts is as much as needed and as little as possible. I would go with a nice set of 33"s and run it till you have to. By that time you have saved up some $ and upgrade once. Good luck


Slow is smooth, smooth is fast

 

[Justin Forrest]

So I saw some discussion on T4R about it. Tire wise then, if I left the stock sport rim, stock suspension, what's the best size to go? I know it'll make the truck look beefier since it'll be bigger, I figured eventually I'll do a lift once I need to account for the weight increase but that's not till the bumper go on. My hope is basically to not have to buy tires now just to buy them again later cause I need a bigger size. I'm trying to be cost effective here.

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265/70/17 for stock height/rims. Depending on manufacturer of tires you may contact upper control arm at full lock. Good tires and armor like skid plates and rock sliders will get a lot of places. You could probably fit a 275/70/17 but you'll be trimming in the wheel well for sure.

 

[ohiowrangler]

"Colorado dude" A very wise man, a man I respected very much, used that phrase " slow is smooth, smooth is fast". I thank you for that memory again, Sir. Ron.

 

[boss324]

I would argue against upgrading the springs and shocks if you aren't gonna lift it right away. Just a waste of money if you decide to lift it a year down the road. The TRD should be fine until you figure out what you want to do. These trucks are very versatile out of the box. The Taco Is similar to the FJ, a 2.5-3" lift should allow you to put 33s on there pretty easy. That, with a good set of tires, will get down almost anywhere you want to go, without switching to a dedicated offroad rig.

I'll +1 Richards suggestion on the Old Man EMU shocks, I have the OME 3" lift on the FJ and it is very smooth on road and off. While driving down forestry roads this summer, I was doing 100km/h(60mph) comfortably, I had to slow down and wait for my buddy in his F350, he couldn't go above 60, as it was like driving on washboard for him.

Lol what with you guys with the FJs! Full-size = 2x slower off-road...hah

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[SeguineJ]

265/70/17 for stock height/rims. Depending on manufacturer of tires you may contact upper control arm at full lock. Good tires and armor like skid plates and rock sliders will get a lot of places. You could probably fit a 275/70/17 but you'll be trimming in the wheel well for sure.

So what add ons would I need to start being concerned about stress on the suspension? Bumpers obviously. But are skids gonna be a lot of weight? I plan on doing sliders as well. Like at what point do I need to worry? I just want to do this right. I don't plan on getting rid of this truck at all.

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[Ironhide Fx4]

So what add ons would I need to start being concerned about stress on the suspension? Bumpers obviously. But are skids gonna be a lot of weight? I plan on doing sliders as well. Like at what point do I need to worry? I just want to do this right. I don't plan on getting rid of this truck at all.

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You can add all the bumpers and sliders you want before you do a lift. One thing you will want to consider is waiting on tires. If you get tires now then you'll want larger ones with the lift.

Adding a heavy front bumper will drop your front down a bit. Mine went down a half inch. That isn't necessarily an issue.

 

[Justin Forrest]

So what add ons would I need to start being concerned about stress on the suspension? Bumpers obviously. But are skids gonna be a lot of weight? I plan on doing sliders as well. Like at what point do I need to worry? I just want to do this right. I don't plan on getting rid of this truck at all.

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Some of it depends on the material used. Aluminum skids are much lighter than steel but more expensive. You can put all the armor you want on without a lift but the handling and braking will become a issue at some point. Come up with an idea of how you want to use your truck. Find people doing similar things and look at what they are using.

 

[MA_Trooper]

Some of it depends on the material used. Aluminum skids are much lighter than steel but more expensive. You can put all the armor you want on without a lift but the handling and braking will become a issue at some point. Come up with an idea of how you want to use your truck. Find people doing similar things and look at what they are using.

+1 on this. It's hard to give advice on this topic not knowing how you plan to use your truck. In all honesty, I've seen a lot of vehicles with bull bars that just don't need them. And that is fine if that is the look they want, but when you consider that adding the bull bar adds wait and sometimes requires suspension upgrade, it quickly becomes a very expensive exercise in making a truck look cool. So you have to decide what look you want and what you want to do with the truck and also how much you are willing to spend to achieve those goals. Personally, I do as little as I can to make the vehicle do exactly what I want it to do. But that's just me. Tell us how you drive it, how much time you spend on pavement vs dirt vs rock/mud. Do you want comfort or straight off road prowess or a mix? Are you getting yourself in winchable situations? How often do you find yourself needing more clearance? Where, geographically, do you drive it off road (is there mud, rock, slick rock, sand). Do you see where I am going with this? We can all impart our own personal opinions on you but ultimately, without knowing what you specifically intend to do with the truck, our advice is really quite useless as it pretty much pertains to what we think you will do. Or perhaps what we hope you will do.