New Member Requests advice on a small lift?

Greetings all

I have a ‘20 Off Road Premium with KDSS and would like to bring the front end up to match the stock rear height .....level it out. It came with 265’s. Can someone recommend a lift that would work? I have read that some of the owners didn’t care for the rough country lifts as they claim to level the front, but come up short? I would like to run 285’s but it’s not a deal breaker.

Thanks!!!!

Airbus Driver

 

Get some Eibach adjustable front shocks and put it on the 1.6" mark using your stock coils. Leave the back at the stock height. You can add some Eibach shocks to the rear or just leave the stock rear shocks on for now. You'll be level front to rear and fitting 285's will be easy with the proper alignment, a small adjustment to your front fender liners, and a tiny trim of your front fender flares.

 

Eibach or Bilstein...

https://www.4runners.com/threads/bilstein-5100s-pics-with-settings.12877/#post-138153

 

Good advice above so far. On mine, I did a pair of Fox 2.0 coilovers in front, and actually lowered then to about an 1.25" passenger side, and 1.5" driver side to account for the typical lean (came set for about 2" of lift).

One thing to note though... the lower body line of the 4runner rocker panel seems to have a slight angle to it; so like in the case of mine, if you look at the frame or look at the front and rear fender gaps, it looks perfectly level... but if you look at the bottom body line, it looks a little front high.

 

Thanks gentlemen for the great guidance!

So no “lift“ really needed- just front shocks? Nothing special needs to be done with KDSS during install?

Like I said, I’ll probably just keep running my 265s anyway.

you guys rock

Captain AD

 

Bilstein 5100 and Eibach adjustable shocks both have an adjustable spring perch that allows you to lift the front of your vehicle to 4 different settings. So to level your truck, yes, the front adjustable struts are all you need.

Yes, there is a method to replacing front struts with KDSS. The attached files should help.

 

Thanks but still a bit confuzzled? You mention adjustable “struts” and adjustable “shocks”. Are the two terms interchangeable? Do I need both shocks and struts? Also the KDSS files you attach suggest a fair amount of disassembly. Does all that still apply if you’re still just installing adjustable shocks?

I’m fairly mechanically inclined but mostly limited to brakes, oil changes, alternators etc. I never have done any suspension work on my vehicles

Thx

 

I used shocks and struts interchangeably in my statement above. I try not to do that (to avoid confusion) but that one slipped through. My apologies.

Yes, the files I attached seem fairly involved but it ends up being a pretty easy process once all said and done. If you're fairly mechanically inclined, suspension work will be a breeze. The anticipation and not knowing exactly what you're doing ahead of time is the worst part. That goes away once you get in there and realize it's pretty easy.

Maybe @glwood54 will chime in again because he just did a lift on his KDSS using the same files as a guide. Perhaps he can give some pointers.

 

I did indeed recently install a set of Eibach front adjustable struts, along with the rear shocks, just so everything was the same front and rear.

There are numerous write-ups on forums and Youtube regarding the front strut assembly on a 5th gen 4Runner. I was intimidated by the KDSS system being involved, and was going to have a shop install my Eibach stuff, until I read up extensively on the process. I did the 'no spring compressor' method, in which you undo the connection of the lower control arms to the hub assembly, loosen the alignment cam bolts, and allow that LCA to drop, freeing up the spring on the strut to loosen, and be removed. Where the KDSS comes in, there seems to be various methods of dealing with that, in order to allow the lower control arm to drop. What I did was put a ratchet strap around the KDSS cylinder on the sway bar, first thing before lifting the vehicle or taking off the tires, ie. as it sits on the ground normally, then removed the sway bar links from the lower control arms. I then raised the vehicle, took off the wheels, and proceeded to follow the recommended 'no spring compressor' method of replacing the struts. When done with the struts, I put everything back together with the exception of the sway bar links to the lower control arms. That was done last with the wheels and tires back on, and the vehicle sitting on the ground, as it was when I took off the sway bar links. I showed some of this process here:

https://www.4runners.com/threads/glwood54-vs-stock-4r.12659/page-3#post-142135

To be honest, if there hadn't been a two-week delay with the shop being backed up due to COVID, and me sitting around with nothing to do (off work for 10 weeks or so during this time), I would have had the shop install these. It did turn out to be a great learning process, though, and I know for a fact that every bolt is torqued to spec, 'cause I did it myself.

My front struts are at the .85 setting, and I am perfectly happy with the look and performance.