T100 suspension and tire setup

[a4ronsmith]

fired up just picked up this 96 t100 manual 4x4 w manual lockers

Looking to put 32s on it along with new suspension and possible lift. the truck will be going down to Baja about 2-3 times a year and mild off-roading here and there. curious to what anyone thinks on suspension to keep it oem shocks or add a leaf or any sort of lifts. if anyone has any good setups out there lmk!

currently stock all around on 31s
oem kyb in the front

 

[svsisu]

fired up just picked up this 96 t100 manual 4x4 w manual lockers

Looking to put 32s on it along with new suspension and possible lift. the truck will be going down to Baja about 2-3 times a year and mild off-roading here and there. curious to what anyone thinks on suspension to keep it oem shocks or add a leaf or any sort of lifts. if anyone has any good setups out there lmk!

currently stock all around on 31s
oem kyb in the front

View attachment 4116920View attachment 4116921

Nice Truck and good find!

If you want 32" tires I would go with a lift. I have 235/85r16 (31.7" x 9.3") and no lift. I get some rubbing on the front mud flaps at full lock. I replaced the stock shocks with the stock height yellow Bilstein shocks, which are decent shocks at a good price. I don't have the PN on hand, but should have them somewhere if you wanted stock heigh shocks. Looking back I should have gone with a small lift...

Here's some PNs and info I have from when I was thinking about doing a 2" lift using the Toytec Lift Kit:

Toytec IFS2-AL - 2" Basic Lift Kit for 86-95 Pickup and T100

Upgrade your 86-95 Pickup/T100 with Toytec's IFS2-AL 2 Lift Kit. Enhance performance and style with trusted suspension parts.

toyteclifts.com

And using Bilstein 5100 shocks to go with the 2" lift:

Front
Bilstein 24-185745
Collapsed: 11.67
Extended: 17.95

Rear
Bilstein 24-185752
Collapsed: 16.06
Extended: 25.63
Make sure you check those Bilstein PNs to ensure correct fit.

Also, NW Trail Innovations makes a nice steal front and rear bumper kit for more protection and adding a winch:

T100

nwtrailinnovations.com

And there is a lot of great info in the thread from @ERG80 T100 thread:

Build Thread 'ERG80's 1997 T100 SR5'

Jun 10, 2012

I found a T100 and this is my build log. Its a white on tan 97 SR5 5spd rust free New Mexican truck with 204,000 miles. It has a reasonably detailed service history and many major items were fixed within 10k of me purchasing it (rebuilt trans, front end rebuild, timing belt, brakes, TB and MAF cleaning, solid compression test all performed at toyota specialist shops with an A or higher BetterBusinessBureau rating). I drove it home from NM to TN and it was smooth and relatively powerful the whole way.

Here are a few plans I have for the truck:
Baseline
New radio that works...

• ERG80
• Replies: 279
• Forum: T100 / Highlander

• 

 

[dbleon]

Keep it stock in my opinion. I removed a 3” trailmaster bracket lift on mine (done by previous owners) to go back to stock. It looked funny and gained absolutely zero extra ground clearance or articulation.

If you must have 32” tires, yes there are some options.

1) A ball joint spacer lift in the front and add a leaf or lift pack in the rear. ( The BJ spacer has its pros and cons.. supposedly is harder on ball joints, changes suspension geometry, requires cutting into “clearancing” upper control arms, requires longer shocks maybe.)

2) body lift (depending on height requires mods to steering shaft, radiator, etc )

3) solid front axle (not sure if a kit still exists for the frame brackets) . Obviously this is a permanent extensive modification with welding and custom parts)

Aldo, you have to consider the inherent lack of strength in the front differential with bigger tires. They are known to grenade. Word of others say 33’s are pushing the limits of the front differential with any kind of serious wheeling



All in all, weighing all the options, I personally think a stock suspension setup with a slightly larger tire, and perhaps a little body lift is the best approach for functionality, longevity, and simplicity.

If you are doing more serious offraoding like crawling along boulders, then perhaps the vehicle choice itself should be the variable in question. Or maybe a SAS swap could work well.

If you want a strong, reliable, do it all truck that gets decent mpg, has decent acceleration and is plenty off-road capable in stock form, then you have picked a good example.. as is…. even with 31” tires

Beautiful truck, enjoy