Lifting for dummies.

Hey guys, new to the community and I’m about to pick up a 2012 SR5 sometime this week!
I’ve been looking at how to lift a truck, and there’s an overwhelming amount of information out there on all the different parts that you could use, but not what I would actually need. I’m a weekend warrior with some overlanding, mudding and camping and I’m on a budget.
Can someone point me in the right direction? It’s incredibly confusing trying to sort out what I need to use vs what’s available.

 

Take it off road first. Good chance you don't need a lift or anything else to get where you want.

 

What’s your budget?

 

Where I want to go, it’d be nice to have a lift, and I also want bigger tires. I’m also in a unique position of strength with the dealership and I want to work out a lift into the deal, but I don’t want to rely on them to tell me what I need.

 

Probably around 1000CDN....ish. I want to work something into the deal with the dealership.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeFzmdHsCaw&t=202s Watch the video,then think about whether you really need a lift or not. That is a bone stock SR5 by the way. If you are mainly after the appearance,get a set of bilsteins 5100 and SPC upper control arms if you plan to lift higher than 2" and put bigger tires on your vehicle.

 

Dealership will most likely only install a spacer lift which I think you’d be unhappy with, unless it’s a private party dealer.
I’m running Bilstein 5100 front shocks with Headstrong 3” coils, Fox 2.0 shocks in the rear paired with 2” icon coils. That setup is roughly about $1000 USD. You can go with 5100 shocks and a bilstein 1.5” coil in the rear and that would bring your cost down around $250-$300 I believe. I also added SPC upper control arms (~$450 USD) which is something you’ll want to consider for proper alignment if you chose to go past two inches of lift.
I’m also a weekend warrior, hitting trails on my weekends and so far I’ve been absolutely happy with it. Handles amazing on and off road, zero complaints. Just keep researching! I would suggest avoiding spacers at all costs though if you want to do some over landing. You’ll appreciate the added performance of a full suspension lift on trails and ride quality.


EDIT: another full suspension lift I’ve seen around here that’s popular and fairly cheap is the Eibach Pro lift kit. I think it runs about $700 USD which is what your budget is. Might be worth your while to check it out.

 

Chances are for that budget any dealership worth it’s salt will install a spacer lift and call it good. They’re never going to agree to anything worthwhile. Since you’re quoting CDN $, I’ll recommend my choice, which I hope to install once the company is open for business - ELKA. Great suspensions and Canadian to boot.

 

You won't get any thing worthwhile with $1K CAD at the dealership and they will most likely recommend spacers. Get bilstein 5100s from 4Wheelparts and have them install it for you.

 

All you need is a set of KO2s I run stock 265/70/17. That truck would not have gotten stuck with Crawl Control on

 

I'll try and share a quick version of how you can lift it.
1. Spacers - these bolt on top of the existing struts and on top of the rear coils - just adds height, doesn't change the ride at all.
2. Adjustable height front struts and rear spacer - adds height to the front by preloading the stock coils, and rear spacer on top of stock coils adds height with new struts and shocks, helping ride quality. Some "kits" change the rear coils out while keeping the stock front coils.
3. Lifted coils, struts, and shocks - this is a proper suspension upgrade. Struts, shocks, and upgraded coils work hand in hand to improve performance on and offroad while also adding lift.

I agree with the others, it's best to drive it how it comes - stock - and get used to how it is for a while and figure out what you want to upgrade. Depending where you go and how you drive, you may not need extra clearance, just better performance, so new struts and shocks only could fix that up for you. Or if you want to visually change the truck (which is what most people tend to do), they add lift, wheels and tires to get a certain look they like.

 

.

 

My thoughts from a previous thread on the topic and a suggestion for a good quality, $800 US suspension setup:

https://www.4runners.com/threads/20...-no-idea-what-i-am-doing-lol.9938/#post-93696

 

That’s exactly what I needed to know, thank you so much!