Lift Kit Guidance for 1st Gens

It means break out the wallet. LT = Long Travel suspension. It's overkill for most people but depending on how you use the truck it's a worthwhile investment. Lots of parts get replaced in this scenario, longer shocks, longer CV axles, longer UCAs/ LCAs. You'll be spending beyond $2000 on the front alone.

I see you purchased the Billy 5100s. I would roll with those for a bit and see if you like them. If you don't, sell them and look at something in the Fox/King/ADS shock bracket. I'm running a non-LT setup with Kings and it rides beautifully.

In the rear you're going to want to look at a whole new leaf pack from Deaver/ Alcan/ or Archive. With the added weight in the rear, your stock leaves will flatten even with an add-a-leaf (speaking from experience here).

 

Oh right... At first I was like "Larger Tires??" Kinda an expensive way to not lift your vehicle efficiently

 

Definitely would love to invest a good chunk of money into the old non-rusty bucket. Gonna have to wait til I have a decent job in a few years tho lol. And yea I talked with someone from a fab shop in Sacramento who told me the same thing about the leaf and weight in the back.

And can someone please explain what this "Free Heather" thing is in your little bios?

 

It's a long story, but Heather is a long lost member that was a great help to the forum. RIP Heather.

 

Damn… never expected a forum to bring people together like it has

 

When you are first starting off, bigger tires are actually a good starting point for increasing ground clearance. I know my tires alone add some clearance, but they won't fit without my suspension modifications. In my case, I chose my tire, size and wheels, then narrowed my "lift kit" choices to suspension kits that are documented to work with the wheel/ tire combination.

30" tire to a 33" tire is an increase of 1.5" in ground clearance. Combine that with a 2-2.5" coilover lift and boom, that's over 3" of increased ground clearance.

FWIW, bigger tires are also the only way to increase the ground clearance of your rear axle/ differential, even if you go with a new spring-over-axle leaf pack (Portals etc. are another ball game).

Billys also might be a good way to gain confidence in your wheeling if you go off the beaten path. LT suspension is cool, but it's only as good as the driver in the seat.

"Heather" or PHM was an active member in this sub-forum that was permanently banned. Some of us miss their presence and they had a very good build thread: https://www.tundras.com/threads/the-professional-hand-model-reinvestment-‘build’-a-chronological-story.46816/

 

We all like 20 year old trucks. There's something wrong with all of us. You can tell the people who dgaf, they post a problem them bounce. @shifty` likes them people.

 

One other question in regards to redoing my shocks/suspension and part of the reason I was planning on taking my truck to a shop, and that’s because I was thinking I should probably have my lower ball joints replaced. It’s been 180,000 miles, and quite frankly I’m not 100% sure they were ever changed. Looked up my car and it said there was never any recalls on the ball joints, and they show no sign of wear as of now. Thoughts on this?

And as for Heather, why were they banned though?

 

I guess when you put it that way, there is something a little wrong with all of us. My whole life I always hated spending money, but for some reason this damn truck is the only thing I’ve ever allowed myself to spend cash on. Must be something off in my head lmao

 

It's never a bad idea to change your LBJs. Oem only though.

PHM liked to voice his opinion on the .gov and other things and the thought police got him.

That's most of us. Fuck a $7-8-900 car payment and $$$$$ for insurance.

 

Yes, while you're doing the shocks I'd say definitely do the lower ball joints (OEM only) if you're not 100% on the history. If you can spare the expense, 8 new bolts for them aren't a bad idea. It's good piece of mind to do them unless you know for sure they were changed within the last few years.

Due to the design, the LBJs are under tension. LBJ failure can be catastrophic, and it's pretty well documented.

Post #169 here describes it pretty well - this is on a 4Runner, but all Tacomas, 4Runners, and Tundras of this period shared the same LBJ design. I don't want to get into specifics, but PHM walked the line regarding forum rules a little too much.

 

Fuck car payments and money for Insurance is fucking right. Most my buddies leased new mustangs, or basic ass Infiniti g35s right outta high school. Spent 5k on this truck and have put another 3-4 into it with maintenance and little upgrades and got a feeling this thing will far outlive their already dying vehicles

 

Not just that, the thing they're dumping money into monthly and getting no equity in return, their vehicle, is plummeting in value. Meanwhile, I've watched the estimate of my truck's value go up 10-12% since the pandemic started, and I haven't paid 1-2 monthly car payments on it during that period. And that's the lean estimate from CarMax, which resale was around $9,700 at start of pandemic and as of this month they mailed me saying it's well into $11k resale. we all know the reality is I could probably get $15k easy for this thing if I listed today, potentially more than that considering it's never seen the rust belt.

 

Yeah, but this place is like a flame to moths. No need to miss them, everyone comes back, just under a different persona. Or multiple personas in some cases. (I'm still the same, original "shifty" you'll find elsewhere on the intertrucks)

Bounce in, bounce out. Like someone tossed a fleshlight insert at your tent.

 

If you feel like it, you could do some OME springs with the 5100's on the lowest setting (or one or two clips up, depending on your trucks weight). IIRC @empty_lord did so and got a nice ride with 2" or so of lift on his RC.


Also OEM front lower ball joints are probably a good idea. Get new bolts, use blue locktite and properly torque them.

 

That is a great call.

 

It means 10K out of your wallet. A complete suspension build with bigger everything done right. But it's only right for a limited few.

 

The lower ball joints really weren't that hard. The upper was the nightmare.

 

I remember trying to search this point up in the past more than once and coming up empty, but couldn't be bothered to ask -

Can (you or anyone else) say how wildly the Emu springs differ from the OEM 4WD springs, ride-quality and stiffness-wise? Near the same? Stiffer? More comfortable?

I'm admittedly usually moving to a lower, sportier altitude and spring choice makes a radical difference in ride quality and comfort.

Big thing - other than supply chain probs - that's been preventing me from pulling the trigger on my 5100s is just that: Which spring to pair.

 

IIRC (depending on which spring selected) the ride quality will be similar to OEM. In this case most likely better than just using your original springs on 5100's.

Your using a longer spring, instead of compressing the original springs by raising the bottom perch on notches of the shock body, which further 'pre-loads' the factory spring.

When you pre-load a spring it will act like a stiffer spring. As reducing travel but having same wire diameter increases spring rate (tension).


Now, if the shock shaft on the 5100's is 2" longer than OEM, then this would be a non issue. I haven't checked specs. If that is the case, you're just moving the initial point of travel by raising the perch.

 

So you’re a gamblin man are ya? If you like the truck,….do the LBJ’s. ASAP.

 

I'm pretty sure Heather is among us.