Got out this morning and snapped a few pics post lift. I will say this about the ride, while it is slightly stiffer than stock (as to be expected) it is still very comfortable and far smoother and more compliant than any of the 4Runner's we've ever owned, stock or modified. No brake dive, a sportier feel to the handling and all of the great attributes of KDSS retained.
Duggy's Garage in Houston did the work and they knocked it out fast. A promotion a few months back on the Ironman Foam Cell Pro kits made it a no brainer to save some money and go this route instead of the originally planned King's. The savings coupled with the fact that this vehicle will still be driven daily and see a lot of highway use I wanted as comfortable of a ride as possible and less maintenance than what the King's consisted of. I feel like we got all of that with this kit and with the adjustability and option to rebuild/service when needed. The Foam Cell shocks are massive in diameter. I went with Total Chaos UCA's because they've never failed me in the past.
The end result left us with 1/4-3/8" of KDSS lean on the rear passengers side, not as bad as some but still a little disappointing. I am not sure why these vehicles struggle with that even when the system is opened properly during install. Duc left about 1/2" of adjustability on the front so that we can crank the coil overs up a tad more when we move over to the 285's and the front bumper. The rear should settle in the coming weeks kicking some of the ass high look.
It amazes me how much plastic body clad crap is on these vehicles, it really masks the height, clearance and break over angles of these vehicles and quite honestly makes it kind of difficult to tell that the vehicle has been lifted at all. With that said, that is just another reason why I should move forward quickly with the sliders and front bumper. Has anyone trimmed the bottom and sides of the front bumper on a 2014+?
As of right now I will run the 255/70/18's on the stock wheels and eventually move over to the 285/70/17's once we get the rest of the parts for stage two of the build (sliders, bumper, winch, drawers). I test fit one of the 285's on the front just to see how it would look. I was initially concerned as I had originally bought this wheel/tire set for our black TRD Pro 4Runner and I wasn't sure whether or not they would look good on the white GX, but I think they will look great on there. Other than the 285's being wider (also on a wider wheel) there isn't a whole hell of a lot of height difference between the 255/70/18 and the 285/70/17. I was surprised to see how very little difference there is between the two which also made me question whether or not it's worth putting them on, maybe I should just run some wheel spacers with the current 255's and stock wheels instead?!
Hopefully I can get her off-road later this week to see how she does off pavement and if nothing else I can hit the beach and see the difference there at speed in that terrain. Up next are the sliders, drawers, front bumper and winch, LRA 33 gallon auxiliary fuel tank and hopefully I'll get around to installing the MTS and Crawl Control modules as well. Now if only someone would make a respectable rear bumper and tire carrier that compliments the look of the GX.
