Help me with a Dobinson's kit for my '23 ORP

Hi everyone. I am now ready to do some real upgrades to my ride, and I have become convinced (rightly or not lol) that a Dobinsons's twin tube kit would suit me well. I don't want much in the way of lift. A 2" front 1" rear would be perfect I think. I don't do much "serious" offroading, but I do end up on some decently rugged NF roads a couple times a month. I have already added RCI sliders, and plan to add a set of (probably) aluminum skids in the future. Further down the line I will eventually get the balls to cut my bumper and add a winch/bumper. Tire size is not a huge consideration. I am comfortable sticking with the stock 265s, but may consider going to 285s for my next set. This will be my DD for a while, so pavement comfort is important. What I really need to know is what coils to order, keeping in mind my future upgrades, to maintain the 2/1 lift. Thanks everyone for the advice! Merry christmas too!

 

I recommend putting all your mods (current and planned) into a spreadsheet to calculate how much weight you add to front/rear to help you figure out which coils to buy. That's what I did.

For the roof rack, I did a 30% front 70% rear split on the weight. For the skids, I did 70% front and 30% rear. Bumper/winch was 100% front, sliders were 50/50, and spare tire carrier was 100% rear. Don't forget to take out weight you plan to remove (like factory skids and crash bar for bumper).

Once I knew how much weight I had added or planned to add front/rear, I used the info on Exit Offroad website to pick my coils based on desired lift height and expected added weight to get the right height, then ran my picks by @Crikeymike (the resident Dobinsons expert associated with Exit Offroad) for confirmation on my choices.

 

Appreciate the guidance! It’s tough trying to plan for mods that may be a year or more in the future.

 

Do the winch/bumper first. Once you get the added weight on, you can get the right springs and not be suffering in the meantime.

I had a shop install mine - 4 hours of labor, which is far less than it would have taken me.

 

Yeah, I feel ya. I tried to be patient and made the suspension one of the last mods I did. Mainly because I was still on the fence between aluminum or steel for the bumper and skids, and that had a big difference in weight.

When I did upgrade my suspension, I had most things sorted out. I had already done the roof rack, bumper/winch, sliders, and had skids on order. I had gone back and forth on full rear bumper but decided on a hitch mount so I knew the weight (I'm about to change it but still not a full rear, weight is the same).

I bought the 4runner for the long game so being patient and waiting until I finally made decisions on the big stuff (aluminum vs steel) was the key to only buying the suspension once and having it installed. The suspension is the only mod I haven't done myself, and that's because I have KDSS. If I didn't have KDSS, or felt comfortable changing springs on my own, I would have just changed them out as I went and not worried so much about final weights. I had the 4runner for almost 3 years with several mods before I did the suspension. The stock tires were worn out at that point so I made all the big changes