Leveling kits causing wear and tear?

Been looking to give my ‘05 sr5 a little face lift with a 2.5 inch leveling kit but I’ve heard mixed opinions. Just curious if anyone has experienced any problems with kits regarding premature wear and tear. Vehicles a little old, however it’s in great condition for its age with 150k. Any thoughts or opinions would be appreciated!

 

Welcome, this is just my opinion, i think any good lift with proper installation should not cause premature wear. But taking it off road more after the mods may cause more wear and tear.

 

You mention leveling, which implies lifting the front roughly 1.75" or so. I think general consensus around here and the other site is that you won't cause premature wear by keeping the lift at 3" or under. Once you get over 3", then CV joint angles become a concern.

Leveling is a very common mod. Even stock Pro's come with a 1" lift in the front without doing a diff drop. What's more likely to cause premature wear (as SlvrSlug said above) is the offroading that inherently follows lifting your rig

 

Why is being a little low in the front such a big deal? Used to be the norm back in the day.

 

Opposite spectrum people are doing this too.

 

That was done with a totally different purpose, mostly to help with weight transfer.... With high torque rear wheel drive muscle cars, sudden increase of power like when launching in a drag race would cause weight to shift to the rear springs and at the same time cause the front end to lift. Some people went after that same look even with lower torque cars just to resemble the cars that did it for performance reasons.... the same way people with 2wd mall crawlers make their trucks/suv look like an offroad vehicle.


This would reduce approach angle and ground clearance in the most important area of the 4Runner. The front. Not a good thing. Im against squatting a truck/suv as well. It originated as a way to increase offroad approach angle, but was taken way too far and now its a symbol of ignorance on lots of young guys mall crawlers. A slight increase in lift on the front is actually beneficial off road, but i still think a lifted but level vehicle looks best.

 

I lessened the rake on the last few Toyota’s I have owned. Not exactly leveled but with a 1/2 to 1 inch of front lift. Even though I have done this, I believe that the more you change factory geometry the more unreliable you make it. Toyota knows much better than anyone of us on how to design a truck. Additionally I believe age and mileage makes a vehicle wear a certain way and when you change that the potential exists for problems. For example I had a 89 4Runner with original rear leaf springs (350k on odometer). I swapped them for a newer set which were factory as well and I had all kinds of vibrations. I had to replace quite a few parts (on axle) to get it smooth again. I like to keep lift moderate to avoid as many issues I can...cause I once lifted a 03 Tacoma “the right way” with springs and shocks but had nothing but problems. Ultimately though do what makes you happy OP and researching usually helps you fixes most of the headaches that come with leveling or lifting.

 

I agree. I figure that the engineers at Toyota have been designing purpose built off road vehicles for decades (how many old National Geographic programs have you seen with a old 40 series Land Cruiser driving through a jungle and back somewhere in Borneo). Anything I could do to “improve” it would probably be counter productive. My guess is that the higher back end is purpose built to carry a load and still not be signaling Mars with the headlights. How far off level is it (and how much body ground clearance do you still have) after you load all your camping and recovery gear in the back? Then, on Monday, how comfy is your ride commuting back to work?