[digital]

94 Toyota Pickup 4x4

I will be installing 32'' BFG KM2 M/T's.

I used this guide to adjust my torsion bars Torsion Bar Adjustment - Trucks 4x4 @ Off-Road.com.

After adjusting the torsion bars, I measured exactly 14.5" from the top of rim to the fender.

My question is what should I do as far as adjusting the the hieght of the rear of the truck? Should I leave it alone or install something to compensate for the raise in the front of the truck?

Appreciate it.

[Jukelemon]

I would think you would want to have your truck level? As well, the rear needs to take on loads-if you use you truck as a truck. Perhaps an additional leaf in the rear?

Is the 32 a true 32" tire? The reason I ask is that I run a 31 MT and have plenty of room/0 rubbing issues. I cant imagine needing to crank the T Bars for a 32 but maybe you just want a different aesthetic?

[KLF]

You could do Add-A-Leafs, air-bags, or longer shackles, or a better more permanent solution is to replace the leaf springs. Fifteen year old stock leaf springs are gonna be pretty flexed out, probably sagging.

[digital]

Originally Posted by KLF

You could do Add-A-Leafs, air-bags, or longer shackles, or a better more permanent solution is to replace the leaf springs. Fifteen year old stock leaf springs are gonna be pretty flexed out, probably sagging.

Sounds like I may be due for new leaf springs, excuse me for my lack of knowledge but do they sell the leaf springs 2"-3" higher than stock or will I still need to add shackles if I buy new leaf springs?

Which brand of leafs do you recommend?

[Jukelemon]

Originally Posted by digital

Sounds like I may be due for new leaf springs, excuse me for my lack of knowledge but do they sell the leaf springs 2"-3" higher than stock or will I still need to add shackles if I buy new leaf springs?

Which brand of leafs do you recommend?

You gain lift by adding different springs so yes, you can lift the truck with springs. Consider as well you will need different shocks-longer travel.

[digital]

Originally Posted by Jukelemon

You gain lift by adding different springs so yes, you can lift the truck with springs. Consider as well you will need different shocks-longer travel.

I need longer shocks even if I only raised it 2" in the rear? what about the length of the shocks in the front if I've done the torsion bar adjustment and gained about 1.5" in the front?

[Family 40's]

Another way to increase height on the front while gaining a bit more flex performance out of the IFS is a ball joint spacer. You will have to either get an alignment typically around 80 dollars or do a drive way alignment when adjusting the torsion bars. When you crank to Torsion bars you also lose some flex and make your front end more stiff.
What I did is keep the torsion bars where they were added ball joint spacers and my front end ended up lifting to 16 inches from the top of the 15 inch rim to the fender. A few more things you can do low pro bump stops, and disconnect and toss the pointless sway bar, I don't feel a difference now that its in the garbage. Good luck and with spacers you need longer shocks and toytec lifts where I got my stuff from have exactly what you need.

[digital]

Originally Posted by Family 40's

Another way to increase height on the front while gaining a bit more flex performance out of the IFS is a ball joint spacer. You will have to either get an alignment typically around 80 dollars or do a drive way alignment when adjusting the torsion bars. When you crank to Torsion bars you also lose some flex and make your front end more stiff.
What I did is keep the torsion bars where they were added ball joint spacers and my front end ended up lifting to 16 inches from the top of the 15 inch rim to the fender. A few more things you can do low pro bump stops, and disconnect and toss the pointless sway bar, I don't feel a difference now that its in the garbage. Good luck and with spacers you need longer shocks and toytec lifts where I got my stuff from have exactly what you need.

I think this is what I am going to do. Do I need longer shocks all around or just the front? Did you get your shocks from Toytec?

What did you do to raise the rear? shackles?

[Family 40's]

Yeah I got the toytec lift with the ES1000 shocks. It rides pretty good. I ended up going with an Add a leaf, but already have 2 inch shackles on there. I have the ES1000 for all four corners. Some people will try to steer you away from add a leafs saying it will harshen your ride. But with my experience it is the short AAL that do that. I love the extra height that I have from mine and don't even notice a difference in ride quality. I decided ES1000 instead of the bilsteins because I plan on doing an SAS down the road and didn't want to spend the extra money to waste it. The shocks are long enough that it doesn't limit travel. Ill take some pictures today so you have an idea of where it will sit with this set up.

I was extremely happy with my combination of the AAL, Ball joint spacers with no adjustment to torsion bars, new shocks, no sway bar, and low pro bump stops. Another thing I decided keep my down travel bump stop stock and not shim the low pro so I don't have any CV bind. Here is an article that can help you with the Ball joint spacers:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...er_HowTo.shtml

[Family 40's]

Here they are: Low pro bump stops and the the pictures below the one on the right is the stock bumpstop on the down limit. If you plan on putting a low pro there make sure you have no cv bind, it explains it on that link i gave you.

[Family 40's]

Obviously my 31 10.50 looks kinda twinkie but the next upgrade will be wheels and 33 12.50. Hope this helps

[digital]

Originally Posted by Family 40's

Yeah I got the toytec lift with the ES1000 shocks. It rides pretty good. I ended up going with an Add a leaf, but already have 2 inch shackles on there. I have the ES1000 for all four corners. Some people will try to steer you away from add a leafs saying it will harshen your ride. But with my experience it is the short AAL that do that. I love the extra height that I have from mine and don't even notice a difference in ride quality. I decided ES1000 instead of the bilsteins because I plan on doing an SAS down the road and didn't want to spend the extra money to waste it. The shocks are long enough that it doesn't limit travel. Ill take some pictures today so you have an idea of where it will sit with this set up.

I was extremely happy with my combination of the AAL, Ball joint spacers with no adjustment to torsion bars, new shocks, no sway bar, and low pro bump stops. Another thing I decided keep my down travel bump stop stock and not shim the low pro so I don't have any CV bind. Here is an article that can help you with the Ball joint spacers:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...er_HowTo.shtml

Thanks for all the info and pics, very helpful.

btw: that link doesn't work?

[Family 40's]

no problem sorry about the link here is a nother one. And not to worry you get detailed instructions from toytec when they ship with your lift.
San Diego Off Road Solutions - Toyota IFS Ball Joint Spacers

[Family 40's]

I also meant to mention the low pro bump stops are about 6 bucks for 2. cheap upgrade alot of gain. just if you put them on the down limit make sure to check the cv shafts to ensure they dont bind and if they do make sure to shim those stops.

["N8"]

So in terms of what to do to the rear its dependent on how much you want to spend / what you want to get out of it. Add a Leaf sounds great for this sort of thing, but my friend says that directly after he put those on his his rear suspension started to suck. So in terms of just gaining a couple inches I would just swap in a couple extra toyota leafs into the spring pack.

Shackle length is a debatable thing amongst us interweb guys you'll hear a load of different things. Fact is its not super important. There is a geometrically perfect length of shackle, but you have to factor in mounting location which requires you to cut and reweld the shackle mount. In the end for someone not doing anything super big as long as your around or near 10% of your curved spring length your fine. (measure this center to center from the eyes.)

Now if your planning on spending a little money a bit more than 200$ could net you a set of old man emu springs. You would probably have to call or e-mail them so that you get the direct bolt on length springs with the amount of lift you prefer, but here's a link to those springs: CS009R HILUX 4RNR REAR (OME17) - OME Dakar Leaf Springs - Suspension Systems - Online Store - OldManEmu.com

Someone might suggest using lift blocks under your springs, I and a lot of other people would consider this to be a bad thing to do and I would suggest you ignore that particular suggestion.

Happy Trails!

[WarDamnEagle]

I'm assuming you've gone onto vendor sites and looked at what's on offer to lift your truck 2" +/-? Just in case you haven't done that, here's what is included in a complete 2 1/2" OME kit:

Cruiser Outfitters

[raydouble]

I made my own for mine.
Cut up a buddy of mines stock 97 Taco leafs
Only needed chopsaw, grinder, paint....best part - cheap
Spent like $2 on metric socket cap bolts and nuts for center pins.
Rear sits at 15" from top of wheel top fender.

stock 90' pickup


hybrid 6 leaf


extree

[Family 40's]

Awesome idea, I never even thought of that building your own springs.

I went with the AAL and it is great for me, plus I have not noticed a reduction in flex either. I am happy. I have plans to run a 2 inch body lift then 35's with 5.29's all round run the hell out of that for 5 years. Everyone tells me its a waste of money but I am excited about the set up. Ill keep all informed with the project.

[Mike C]

I had Add A Leafs in the back of my pickup for awhile, I would never buy them again. After a few wheeling trips, my leafs were all bent out of shape from the AAL's. Longer thin ones might have worked better? I ended up buying a set of 2" downey springs, and was much happier with them. The add a leafs were half the price of the full leaf springs, spend a little more and do it right.

[douglashuft]

the Downey 2" lift rear spring is a pretty good match for a cranked t bar or ball joint spacer lift. With a 1"body lift and a bit of minor fender trimming you can run 33" without rubbing. I would not bother with 35" until the sas. If you really need 35" tires then you really need to ditch the ifs.

["N8"]

I disagree I ran 35's on my truck for an entire year before I did my sas, and for all intents and purposes It was a great thing to do. 35" tires is definitely about as much as you can stuff into a minitruck without big suspension modification, but they will get you through quite a bit.

[Mike C]

I circled the end of the AAL and you can see how it is reverse arcing past it. The AAL I had was to stiff and short.

[douglashuft]

Originally Posted by "N8"

I disagree I ran 35's on my truck for an entire year before I did my sas, and for all intents and purposes It was a great thing to do. 35" tires is definitely about as much as you can stuff into a minitruck without big suspension modification, but they will get you through quite a bit.

Yes, you can fit 35"s but how often do you want to be swapping out all the busted front end bits? I thought this was figured out years ago. There must be a reason why you now have a sas.

[Mike C]

You can run 35's on IFS, breaking stuff all comes down to where you are wheeling and how you wheel.

[Family 40's]

Those were my thoughts, I am not a 16 year old with Daddies truck showing my buddies how funny it is to jump it... I agree with breaking comes down to how and where you wheel. I pick my lines well when there is a line to choose though North Dakota doesn't have rocks for me to climb on so they are out but I do a wheel every week in the winter. I wish I was still living in Washington where I an SAS first thing but I plan on being here another 3-5 years and an SAS won't be a necessity until I see rocks again. Plus I want to spend time with ifs because I do believe it requires you to be find better lines, plus if I had a solid front axle the things I see here in Grand Forks wouldn't even be fun it would make wheeling too easy.

[Family 40's]

Oh and toytecs aal are longer ones, I have no reverse arcing, I'll take a picture so you can see my aal the shorter ones are where you run into stiffer ride and reverse arcing like showed previously in this thread.

["N8"]

Originally Posted by douglashuft

Yes, you can fit 35"s but how often do you want to be swapping out all the busted front end bits? I thought this was figured out years ago. There must be a reason why you now have a sas.

Um maybe it was sorted out, but my .02 weren't a part of it. I never had to change out a damn thing in my front end. Least not till i cut it all out. But it all worked perfectly good when i started cutting.

Dono why you think something must have been wrong for me to sas my truck. There was a perfectly good reason for me to sas my truck. I had gotten to a point where my vehicles suspension system was limiting the things I could yet wanted to do.

All I did was keep up on general maintenance with the front end stuff. Replaced a couple tie rod ends when they wore out, but this was stuff I had to do all along. And to be honest there were stints of time where I didn't pay much attention to general maintenance, and still nothing broke. Wish I had tossed 35's under there from the get go.

I think that anyone who has seen me wheel my truck off road could attest to the strength of these ifs parts. You just gotta be ok with a little fender rubbing at stuff and turn, and things work great.

[Family 40's]

And thats why I want to do it because I believe in the quality of the ifs parts. Plus why spend money on an SAS when I don't yet need it. It will also be a bonus to show and document that it is ok to do with out spending too much money on replacing front end parts. And from working at a shop there is always going to be routine maintenance whether it be IFS or a SFA.

[digital]

Originally Posted by Family 40's

Oh and toytecs aal are longer ones, I have no reverse arcing, I'll take a picture so you can see my aal the shorter ones are where you run into stiffer ride and reverse arcing like showed previously in this thread.

Hey bud, I got my 2" lift kit from Toytec and just finished installing today, ball joint adapters, AAL's and new pro comp shocks. I also installed low profile bump stops only for the upper wheel travel as you recommended.

The kit came with an adapter - "BPV-K" is that for the brake proportioning valve? Anyone have a pic of it installed?

Thanks

BTW: I'll post pics as soon as I get my new wheels & tires which should be hopefully on Tuesday.

[Family 40's]

I actually didn't get the BPV-K but yeah that is the brake proportioning valve. I don't believe it is required for the pre-tacoma trucks but I could be wrong. Awesome though, I think you will enjoy the lift. Looking forward to the pics with the lift and wheels and tires. I myself can't wait to get a new set of shoes for the lil yota.