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After nearly a month of meticulously reading through this forum educating myself I finally pulled the trigger on lifting my 2014 TEP. I also supplemented my research with a visit to Toytec in Colorado while on vacation and got lots of useful insight from Drew.
My truck is a daily driver but I also take it into the mountains almost every weekend and needed some extra clearance in addition to wanting to level out the factory rake.
Instead of a doing a 3/2 lift and adding a higher probability of CV boot issues at that height, I opted to go with the 5100's on all corners with the fronts set on the highest perch (2.5") and used a 1.5" Daystar spacer in the rear. In theory, this seemed like a good sweet spot with a little less cv angle.
Once installed at my local shop (GAS in Woodstock, GA - owned by another 4runner enthusiast, great shop) I took my after measurements. This revealed that I achieved closer to 3" of lift, not the expected 2.5". The rear gained closer to 1.75", not 1.5" as advertised by Daystar (although my research showed this was common).
The drivers side front also sits higher than the passengers side front after the lift (based on my before/after measurements-- not a result of lean). As a result the inner CV boot looks to have 2 fins touching on that side but it's similar on both. Although I have seen much worse on these forums, I'm concerned about this because it's a daily driver and I don't want to get stuck replacing or rebooting the CVs every 6 months.
Based on these photos, does this look like something I should be concerned about? I'm including photos taken 3 days apart to show some variation. Wheels are straight.
Is it true that the 2.5" lift setting on the 5100s is actually increased another 0.5" inch or so due to the shocks being longer than stock? I have read conflicting information about this and wasn't sure if the longer shock was already factored into the perch height calculations. I was really hoping for no more than 2.5" up front.
I just ordered the Toytec diff drop kit, but I'm also considering just re-doing the lift and dropping down to the "1.75 inch" perch and swapping to 1" Cornfed rear spacers. Expensive approach, but it might be the best solution. Alternatively, I just do the diff drop and hope it makes enough difference on the CV angle.
Could the alignment be to blame for the fins touching on the inner CV boot drivers side or is that just because of the higher lift height adding more angle to the geometry? I was watching them do the alignment, but when I returned from a phone call that distracted me the truck was off the rack. I got the report that it all aligned pretty close to spec, but that the printer wasn't working so I couldn't get an alignment report. The truck drives straight and doesn't have vibrations, etc so I wasn't too worried about the lack of an alignment print out. Now that I'm trying to trouble shoot why the drivers side lifted higher, I wish I had a print out to see how the alignment spec'd out on both sides.
Most importantly, does the inner CV boot look normal (i.e. not a ticking time bomb) and I'm just overthinking this?
Thanks in advance.
My truck is a daily driver but I also take it into the mountains almost every weekend and needed some extra clearance in addition to wanting to level out the factory rake.
Instead of a doing a 3/2 lift and adding a higher probability of CV boot issues at that height, I opted to go with the 5100's on all corners with the fronts set on the highest perch (2.5") and used a 1.5" Daystar spacer in the rear. In theory, this seemed like a good sweet spot with a little less cv angle.
Once installed at my local shop (GAS in Woodstock, GA - owned by another 4runner enthusiast, great shop) I took my after measurements. This revealed that I achieved closer to 3" of lift, not the expected 2.5". The rear gained closer to 1.75", not 1.5" as advertised by Daystar (although my research showed this was common).
The drivers side front also sits higher than the passengers side front after the lift (based on my before/after measurements-- not a result of lean). As a result the inner CV boot looks to have 2 fins touching on that side but it's similar on both. Although I have seen much worse on these forums, I'm concerned about this because it's a daily driver and I don't want to get stuck replacing or rebooting the CVs every 6 months.
Based on these photos, does this look like something I should be concerned about? I'm including photos taken 3 days apart to show some variation. Wheels are straight.
Is it true that the 2.5" lift setting on the 5100s is actually increased another 0.5" inch or so due to the shocks being longer than stock? I have read conflicting information about this and wasn't sure if the longer shock was already factored into the perch height calculations. I was really hoping for no more than 2.5" up front.
I just ordered the Toytec diff drop kit, but I'm also considering just re-doing the lift and dropping down to the "1.75 inch" perch and swapping to 1" Cornfed rear spacers. Expensive approach, but it might be the best solution. Alternatively, I just do the diff drop and hope it makes enough difference on the CV angle.
Could the alignment be to blame for the fins touching on the inner CV boot drivers side or is that just because of the higher lift height adding more angle to the geometry? I was watching them do the alignment, but when I returned from a phone call that distracted me the truck was off the rack. I got the report that it all aligned pretty close to spec, but that the printer wasn't working so I couldn't get an alignment report. The truck drives straight and doesn't have vibrations, etc so I wasn't too worried about the lack of an alignment print out. Now that I'm trying to trouble shoot why the drivers side lifted higher, I wish I had a print out to see how the alignment spec'd out on both sides.
Most importantly, does the inner CV boot look normal (i.e. not a ticking time bomb) and I'm just overthinking this?
Thanks in advance.
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