200 Body Lift

[4wheelgreg]

Hey guys , getting close to starting my 2019 LC build , basiclly down to ordering tires and rear bumper .
I have made body lifts for off-road trucks including 200 land cruisers for a few buddies but they were gutted desert trucks .
I have seen a few post with guys using non OEM bolts , it is possible to add a 1” using stock bolts Could go 1.500 I think that might be pushing it with stock bolts .
I still have a few un answered questions , I have not torn into my truck yet , still up in the air .
I was thinking 1” would be perfect for clearance ,
Just not sure on what will stretch , not concerned on the bumpers , front is TJM and what ever rear just add a extra 1” when you cut the rear wings for spacing and that gap would be filled .
Big concerns would be does the steering shaft slide ?
Transmission selector are we shift by wire or do we have linkage ?
Radiator / Fan and AC hose lines ?
I think everything else would stretch , not sure if I’m missing anything ?
I’m use to old school lifts , these have a little more stuff .
I have already figured out how to add a extra inch or so using the stock OEM bolts so thats not a concern .
Just kicking it around .
Any insite would be appreciated

 

[KLF]

Gas fill and other hoses?
Brake lines?
Maybe the lines for the KDSS, although most of them are mounted to the frame.
Make sure you can get the crank into the spare tire winch

 

[grinchy]

I had these loose last weekend, I think you could get between 3/8 and 5/8" on the stock bolts. Walk around and measure the exposed thread and that'll be a pretty good guide. Most of the bolts had more, but in my example the two behind the front wheels in the front seat wheel wells didn't have too much at all. Might need to extend just those two to get up to 1".

 

[grinchy]

There are two plugs in the right rear which need to be unplugged / unclipped

 

[grinchy]

There is also a ninth bolt securing the body to the frame in the center of the rear crossmember in front of the rear wheels. Have to pull the second row to get to it.

 

[4wheelgreg]

Bolts have a top washer to prevent spinning , there is plenty of thread on all the bolts , you need to look at the mount has a whole has upper rubber , Tube and lower mount rubber . If you change the bolt to frame ratio , you need to machine a 1” I figure would be plenty for me .
So if you move the body up 1” under the factory body mount the bolt is still long enough , if you remove or make custom lower rubber mounts 1” or less there is a extra 1/2 of thread , so if you make the lower mount 1” shorter that will offset the extra you put on top making it possible to retain the original bolts , all your doing is changing the offset ratio to the top .
That is the easy part I have a machine shop so making the mounts are pretty easy just use 6061 aluminum .
Not sure once you undo the bolts there is enough room to push them up to slide in the spacer .
Still a lot of measuring and figuring .

 

[Willy beamin]

Calling @MScruiser - drop some science Andrew

 

[4wheelgreg]

Your basiclly using a shorter lower mount and possible a longer mount tube using stock bolt is easy .
My biggest concern would be
Steering shaft if it slides out , I really don’t want to get in to lengthening or Borginson .
Shifter linkage .
Fan / shroud aliginment
Rad and AC lines
Brake / Gas / wiring should stretch

 

[MScruiser]

@Willy beamin It has been so many years since I did this, I don’t rightly remember. I can tell you that anything above 1 1/2 inches, you were going to probably run into some issues with the Steering and shifting linkage. At 1 inch, I could definitely feel the difference when I went to shift it. I would be worse if you went over the 1 inch mark. At 1.5 inches, which I did try briefly, I believe the steering shaft was stretched pretty good. No issues with throttle or brake control.

P.s. @Willy beamin , I am parting out a 1996 80 series hit me up if you are looking for parts.

 

[TeCKis300]

From the 100-series, 0.5" BL can be done with practically no new hardware except lift pucks. .75" might be good on stock bolts too. 1" called for the addition of new bolts.

1" inch might be possible with stock bolts on the 200-series, and it looks it from the threads left, but it'll be interesting if you can get enough compression of the body mount bushing to get the nuts to start threading? With the weight of the body, should be doable?

You might be able to use a 100-series kit and have 80% of the parts covered.

Backing up, what size tire are you trying to run? Or what offset? The stock body can accommodate pretty darn large tires up to 35x12.5s with the right offset. Lower offsets will put the tire into the fender which could be accommodated by a BL. My opinion, but less BL may be more.

 

[CharlieS]

For education sake, what does the body lift help with? More room for larger tires? Longer travel suspension? I'm sure the answer is probably obvious, but it is new to me. Thanks in advance.

 

[Willy beamin]

For education sake, what does the body lift help with? More room for larger tires? Longer travel suspension? I'm sure the answer is probably obvious, but it is new to me. Thanks in advance.

Head room in the wheel wells. only beneficial if your shocks don't top out before that.

 

[afgman786]

@MTKID might have some insight for you

 

[Tex68w]

Body lift, barf

 

[MTKID]

Your basiclly using a shorter lower mount and possible a longer mount tube using stock bolt is easy .
My biggest concern would be
Steering shaft if it slides out , I really don’t want to get in to lengthening or Borginson .
Shifter linkage .
Fan / shroud aliginment
Rad and AC lines
Brake / Gas / wiring should stretch

View attachment 2608637

Shift linkage was no problem and I’m at about 1 5/8” in that area. I did mark it’s position, did my BL, tested the shifting, then loosened and moved it and retested. It seems to be falling into the shift gates as easily as it did before the body lift. *Make sure the vehicle is on level ground and the tires are blocked so if you accidentally slide it out of park, it doesn’t roll while you are under it. Ask me how I know.

 

[MTKID]

Even for a 1” BL I would be a little hesitant to leave the fan shroud uncut. I had done a BL on my 80 & 100 and I didn’t cut the 80 shroud and thought it was no issue since there was clearance all the way around. However it made contact many months later when I was very twisted up on the trail. Maybe the 200 is stiff enough that this wouldn’t happen

I choose to cut mine but it is a 1 3/4” lift at the front. Again, I choose to merely cut a moon shape from the underside. Wasn’t easy. Personally, I purchased a new shroud and made a cardboard template that I then taped up to the shroud on the truck and marked, then cut it using a Dremel flex shaft.

On the 100 I used the radiator drop brackets but I preferred to keep the radiator higher for my 200 build plan. Radiator hoses all seem fine but there are two additional lines low and in front of the radiator that I moved up in their brackets on each end.

 

[MTKID]

Brake lines didn’t seem to be a problem.

Fuel lines didn’t seem to be a problem, but you mentioning it makes me want to crawl back underneath and trace them.

For the steering shaft, I’m not certain. I loosened what I thought was the only joint. It’s easily visible from the driver’s side behind the splash gaurd. However, I didn’t mark it and I’m not certain how much it moved. I wish I had watched it more closely.

There were two wiring additional connections on the frame in front of the front passenger tire. I loosened them before lifting.

And I think you already mentioned it but you’ll need to put a spacer between the rear bumper step and the frame crossmember it had previously sat on.

I had already raised up my spare tire mount to tuck it up underneath further, but now I could go higher and I plan on it.

Here are a couple photos in case this thread becomes the place to find Body Lift answers...

Position 1 (from the front as the Toyota manual shows)

Position 2

Position 3

Position 4

I purchased four more of position 3 OEM bolts for my tapered 1 3/4” front to 1 1/4” rear body lift. But I needed a longer bolt for #2 and #3 and used large hardware from Tacoma Screw with factory washers installed.

Position 2 non-OEM bolt

Position #3 non-OEM bolt

Hope this helps,
Micah

 

[MTKID]

And the 9th body mount to crossmember bolt should allow a 1” lift no problem. It’s a captured nut underneath so just remove and reinstall when you’re done.

Here’s what my perspective was when cutting the shroud...

There’s not much room in there but it seemed like the simplest solution...

 

[MTKID]

I shaved some at the bottom of the front bumper foam but it was still really tight so mine is currently removed. If it’s a minimal lift this should work well.

The curved bracket behind that aluminum “bumper” core is riveted and one simple way to do it would be to drill out the rivets and move it up to the next hole, drilling one additional hole up high.

You can also see the "J" shaped bracket that I unbolted to relieve tension along the top of the frame rail just behind the font body mount in this picture.

I hope this gets me off-the-hook for creating my own thread

 

[MTKID]

Bolts have a top washer to prevent spinning , there is plenty of thread on all the bolts , you need to look at the mount has a whole has upper rubber , Tube and lower mount rubber . If you change the bolt to frame ratio , you need to machine a 1” I figure would be plenty for me .
So if you move the body up 1” under the factory body mount the bolt is still long enough , if you remove or make custom lower rubber mounts 1” or less there is a extra 1/2 of thread , so if you make the lower mount 1” shorter that will offset the extra you put on top making it possible to retain the original bolts , all your doing is changing the offset ratio to the top .
That is the easy part I have a machine shop so making the mounts are pretty easy just use 6061 aluminum .
Not sure once you undo the bolts there is enough room to push them up to slide in the spacer .
Still a lot of measuring and figuring .

View attachment 2608531

I like the way you are thinking of reusing the OEM bolts. As long as you keep some rubber below the mount that should be ok.

You will have to get access to the top of positions 2-4 to push the bolt up high enough to slide the body lift block in.

And I also choose to disconnect this critical wire loom at the firewall during the process and then reconnected after I was done. I’m not sure you need to mess with it with a very small lift...