2.5 lift on 1st gen

Getting ready to install my rough country 2.5" leveling kit on my 2000 AC Tundra. Kit consists of pucks up front with blocks and shocks for the rear. I will be replacing lower ball joints with a new OEM set. Also replacing UCAs with either Freedom or JBA. What I'm trying to determine is what strut should I use with the factory springs,which UCA and what wheel spacer I need to avoid rubbing. My wheels are
17x9
Offset: -12
BP: 6x5.5
I was planning on running a 285-70-70 . Basically want a tire that has an aggressive look,fills up the wheel well,handles good on the road and doesn't rub. My truck is strictly a country road truck. Never goes off road.

 

Rough Country is garbage, it's cheap for a reason, and you can get into something substantially better for not much more money. If you don't plan to offroad at all, blocks in rear is fine, if you plan to offroad, skip blocks and skip strut spacers. If you plan to lift with struts up front, skip strut spacers, you don't want to mix the two, last guy who did that (ironically on Rough Country hardware) bent knuckles and fucked his shit up.

Before we get any farther, have you read the "Suspension, wheel and tires ..." section of this thread? https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

I think it answers most of your questions.

I don't think you'll avoid rubbing with 33s (285/70r17 is 22.8") unless you install aftermarket upper control arms that'll give you the ability to realign favorably. Wheel spacers likely aren't going to help you with stock upper control arms, I suspect you'll be playing a game of whack-a-mole with where they're rubbing. You will need to remove the front mud flaps because they'll absolutely rub. The wheel specs you have (which gives you a favorable backspace @ 4.53) are the exact same I had at first after 2" lift all-around, but running slightly smaller 275/70r17 tires , but and I was eating mudflap and rubbing in the liners. When I scaled back to my current wheel setup at 17x8.5" and 0 offset (i.e. 4.75 backspace), half my rub went away, and I was able to cut up my flaps to stop 99% of my flap rubbing, but I still rub the liners at compression while turning.

Seriously though, go read that Suspension info. Those aren't my words, those are actual real-world experiences assembled from years of modifications from members on this forum.

 

You’re not going to get any love here with RC stuff.

 

I am replacing UCAs with either Freedom or JBA. Just haven't decided which ones. RC is what I could afford at the time. I don't do any off-roading at all.

 

It's what I could afford at the time. I dint mind going a different I just have to be as budget minded as possible.

 

Freedom is shitware. More in that thread. I'd have saved up another $150 and went Bilstein 5100 myself over RC. But you know your budget better than anyone.

I just feel so bad that one guy, who probably did well over $2,000 in damage mixing spacers and lift, all using Rough Country products: https://www.tundras.com/threads/yikes-need-help.106033/

 

When you say spacers are you talking about wheel spacers or strut spacers? I am in the process of reading the entire suspension thread. All I want to do is be able to run a larger more aggressive tire on the rims that I have. I apologize but I do get a little confused on exactly what I should get when I read the suspension thread. Freedom and JBA are in my budget. I could afford to go with a reasonable priced strut setup instead of the pucks. I also read that you don't like blocks in the rear. From what I understand I would be better swapping out my leaf pack.

 

Is there a budget minded setup that you would recommend where I could fit a 286-70-18 or is there a tire size that would look better with the wheels I have? I'm new to trucks. I've always built mustangs so this is a while new area for me. I apologize for asking questions that I'm sure have been asked a 1000 times.

 

Strut spacers. Unless you know what you're doing, mixing strut spacers and lift can be disastrous. If you want a good example, the link you just quoted will give you 4 pages worth of nightmare fuel.

You may not even need a lift, just to level. Are my tires "large and aggressive enough" for your taste? https://www.tundras.com/posts/3358673

That's a 275/70R17 on 17x8.5" wheels (4.75" backspace). @abcinv is running the same size in KO2s with stock tires (17x7.5 @ 5.0" backspace) with virtually no rubbing. I don't think he's using wheel spacers.

 

I've owned plenty of trucks, but spent most of my life lowering or leveling them vs. lifting. But a lot of the fundamentals are shared.

Wait ... Now you're wanting to run 18s?

That's ultimately why that thread exists.

If you want budget, and you're strictly going to be mall/street crawling, Run a strut spacer in front, stick with a wheel that's 7.5" - 8.5" width and offset that puts the backspace in the 4.6 - 4.8" range, stick with an aggressive AT tire @ 31.6" (265/70r17) and send it.

 

I had planned on just using the pucks on the struts and different UCAs for better ball joint angle. This is the look I'm hoping for.

 

I should ask this now: Are you 2WD or 4WD? It's kinda important.

Yeah, you're not going to get that look without serious wheel spacers. That guy must have 2" wheel spacers on that thing. I'd add, it's squatted, and that's quickly becoming illegal, Carolinas already outlawed it, and Alabama is pushing legislation through to ban it now too.

Mall crawlers don't get a lot of love here. There's only a half dozen people I've ever seen go that route on here, and many, many dozens who went with a more traditional offroad setup. What you want to do is possible, but you're going to be heading into uncharted territory for the most part.

You may have better luck finding that look by browsing through the Custom Offsets gallery and picking thru builds you like to get ideas and build around the wheel/tire combo, since you're doing this purely for looks, and this may be the wrong truck to do that with due to lack of aftermarket parts. https://www.customwheeloffset.com/wheel-offset-gallery?sort=yon&year=2000&make=Toyota&model=Tundra

That said ... you won't be able to find out any authentic wheel rub info in that gallery, potentially not any wheel spacer info, and much of their lift kit stuff is cheap shit (i.e. Rough Country), and likely installed in a way that's dangerous, or will cause suspension damage in the long run.

Not trying to be doom and gloom here. I find a lot of the people who do stuff like what you'll see in their gallery don't give a shit about their vehicle, about what may happen to them or others on the road while driving.

I'm not sure I can help you out, and I don't want to sound like I'm dogging on you, so I'll wrap up & close out with this reply, and hopefully someone else can jump in and give some input.

 

I definitely don't want any squat. Never understood why people squat a truck. My truck is 4wd.

 

I live in the mountains of southwest VA and work in the coal mines as an electrician and repairman. So most of my driving is in the mountains. I was hoping to level the truck which from what I read provided around 2.5" of lift. I really should have done research before buying parts. I went on recommendations of vendors. So now I need to find a tire that will work with my wheels.

 

Anything over 2" lift in front will leave you squatting in the rear. There's usually about ~1.5" rake front to back on these trucks, +/- a quarter inch.

I want to say the ratio for strut spacers on 1st gens is 3x, like, if your spacer is ½" you'll get 3 x ½" (i.e. 1½"). How tall is your spacer? (This is also assuming I'm right on the ratio and it's not 2x or 4x)

This is what my truck looked like with 2" Toytec coilover lift, front and rear, with 17x9" wheels at -12 offset (exact same parameters you mentioned), and 275/70r17 aggressive AT tires, with SPC upper control arms, using stock alignment numbers (I really should've added +1 to +2 caster and probably would've rubbed less). This is with no strut or wheel spacers. Angles for pictures matter, they can really make a tire look beefy or skinny, as you'll see in this picture. The angle of the photo you shared is similar to the 2nd or 3rd pic here ... see how much meatier the tire looks?

​

 

I definitely see what you mean. The setup you have looks perfect to me. Here is the kit that I bought.

 

This is how my truck currently looks.

 

I misspoke, had to hit the 'measure up' thread. Stock rake is more like 1.5" give or take a quarter, depending how bad the fronts are and whether you're 4WD. I also got closer to 2.5" lift up front, and about 2" out back.

Do you have the RC kit in front of you, and can you measure the thickness of the puck (strut spacer) accurately?

 

Just to set expectations, lift doesn’t clear tires. The only thing it does it clears bigger tires at ride height. You will have minor rub with those tires most likely on the mud flap when reversing. I still rub at full compression.

My advice would be to return that kit, as most have said it’s trash. Get 5100s and set it to either the second or third notch. Lift the front up to level it out with the rear. You won’t need to lift the rear to fit tires. You can lift the rear with blocks if you want to keep the factory rake look. Should run about $250 for the bilstein 5100 plus labor. Just my 2 cents

also, UCA are highly recommended but you could get away with stock if you stay at 2”

 

Many will suggest COs and UCAs for advantages over stock UBJs, different spring preloads, and height adjustability. If a really tight budget, depending on intended use, instead of spacers and blocks consider Eibachs can get up to 3" of lift using stock springs (said to be approved for AC unlike some other shocks) although don't have a 2.5" but a 2.25" and 3" setting (YMMV), and on sale at Wheeler's were like $225 free shipping. Consider AAL in rear instead of blocks. At both +2.5" and +3" up front did not have to swap UCAs (although many will suggest it) and fit 33s with modest trimming.

 

I don't have them in front of me but I can get measurements. However after reading the comments I think I'm going to abandon the RC kit. And go with 5100s with my stock springs or possibly the 6112 kit. Then JBA UCAs and then figure out what to use on the rear.

 

Some people really endorse 5100s, and stock springs at 2.5" can level with Wheeler AAL, but keep in mind that for 4x4 AC V8 instructions show 1.1" setting max. That's why Eibach. Apparently built differently +0-3" without topping out and valved for smoother ride IMHO. May suit your stated purpose.

 

@shifty` is right, no wheel spacers. I am running pucks up front but will move to a proper lift when my shocks are toast (or when I have some extra cash laying around)..
No rub -

 

I run 5100s on my AC on the 4th (forbidden) notch and haven’t had any issues in 120k miles (on my second set). They ride fine and give me about 2” or so of lift, basically level. I run a 1.25” wheel adapter for a little poke and only rubbed on the mudflap near the pinch weld. I trimmed the area away and it’s all good now. 265/75/16s on 16x8s.

 

I think if you read the bold parts alone in their own sentence it highlights important points you're bringing up, and indirectly touching on -

• Lift may let you run bigger tires while rolling in a straight line, but you still risk rubbing contact while turning (in fwd or reverse, at speed or stationary), and during compression events while rolling, and especially while turning and compressing at same time (which is when I rub)
• Wheel offset is super important for a wild array of reasons: Higher offset tucks the tire in more, adding risk of your tire rubbing suspension; lower offset pushes out the tire for more "poke" (ala mall crawler look), but with risk of grabbing fender flare and liner
• It's worth adding, anything above 1" - 1½" and you'll need to drop more money on other things, like another $100-150 on extended swaybar links. Anything over 2" - 2½" and you should start thinking about new upper control arms
• Alignment can help reduce and even eliminate rub entirely, but some things (important ones, like adding significant amounts of caster) may be dependent on additional suspension parts (namely something with an adjustable and/or repositioned upper balljoint)

At least ... the above would be my takeaway after running through the process and picking up tidbits from side chats/learning from a couple of our more seasoned folks around here.

Important to mention here also, anyone on here with an '03 or '04+ reading the above text I'm quoting, check your brake calipers.

If your calipers are embossed with "13WL", some 16" wheels won't clear your larger calipers.

If you're an earlier-year model and your calipers are embossed with "13WE", you have an easy braking upgrade by installing 13WL calipers, the larger 13WL rotors to go with those calipers, and larger brake pads; use a 2006 Tundra as your parts reference; you'll need to trim the your dust shield a little bit, otherwise it's basically a bolt-up.

 

I’m rocking WLs on mine and clear the 16s fine.

 

Possibly because you're running wheel spacers up front. This poor fella wasn't so lucky... https://www.tundras.com/threads/lets-see-1st-gen-with-toyota-rims.40487/page-29#post-3415195