I was in Hawaii last year around this time and man… you are not joking, the amount of lifted Tacomas and 4Runenrs I saw jacked to the sky was nuts. You would think they are in constant fear of deep flooding. Very unique island style… really not sure why it’s a popular thing over there.

While you are right, personally I am not into body or cross member lifts… I only get into suspension modifications for the purpose of performance gains. Plus I do everything in my power to keep COG as low as possible. A very experienced off-roader taught me to keep lift the minimum amount to fit the largest tire you need for the application.

Every parking lot is like a Toyota dealership over here.

I'm going to say a lot of the 4Rs and Tacomas your see jacked up excessively are 2WD also. But I'm going to guess (because I don't know most personally) the ones that are 4WD and excessive go play in the sand a lot. We don't have much off roading options so sand is the next best thing.

Umm, they’re mostly owned and driven by middle aged beer gut guys wearing a big gold chain and Speedos. Same guys that used to wheel around in Hummers a few years back.

Don't forget we live in grass shacks too.

Fair enough. The product info has a 2-2.5” spring and a strut with a different spring seat to get you to 3”. But as others have mentioned, probably best to stay down low at 2” or so. So that’s my plan, methinks. At that height, might not need UCAs, but I’m going to allow for them in the budget.

At 2” you are fine with the stock UCA.

You can push it to 2.5”, any more and you really start getting into an area where your caster starts influencing behavior negatively.

Remember some people run aftermarket UCA to recover droop as well when paired with an “extended travel” shock. There are other reasons aside from just caster to buy them, but you can most certainly go without. I run stock UCA on my 4th gen.

If you can afford it now just do everything.

You’re correct on all points, except that I’d argue that a body lift is the best option if you want to keep CG as low as possible and lift to a minimum.

Body lift truly allows firmest of larger tires because it changes where your suspension travels in regards to the body. A suspension lift just sets the ride higher without changing overall travel range of suspension or body relation (unless you have a long travel kit, but let’s stick to most common scenarios)

Additionally, body lift is best for CG as the drivetrain and frame stay at the same height vs. suspension lift that raises all.


I ran a 2” BL on another rig and it worked well for many thousands of miles. No complaints.


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That makes sense. I think my opposition to body lift was flavored by people who take it to the extreme. I guess it could help keep the COG lower at the cost of ground clearance assuming the same size tire.

These are all tools, used wisely you can accomplish something to provide positive gains. Used incorrectly you can negatively impact performance. At the day it’s all a balancing act depending on the application.

From what I see you don’t need much BL to help with fitment of large tires that are within reasonable limits. A 33” tire is IMO a very optimized size for a general purpose rig, the real challenges come with trying to fit a 35. Personally I would cut my fenders before BL, but I also tend to favor desert running type rigs than crawlers.

Much of this is budget dependent as well... most of these "compromised solutions" get thrown out the window if you have the coin to do it right, which is a LT kit. As I stated earlier, most people are not willing to drop the coin to take it to that level.

The problem with lifting too high from a utilitarian perspective is that your travel is still limited by the A-arm suspension. All a lift does is make the zero point of that arc a little higher - sacrificing a bit of droop for more static ground clearance. Beyond about 2" IMO you start to lose so much of it that you either need to start looking at UCAs (get an extra inch or so) or you need to look into a long travel setup.

If it's a street truck, 3" is about as far as I'd go but ride will suffer. You'll still likely need some UCAs.

So if I'm understanding correctly, most 4runner lift kits do not yield more travel?
In my case my '17 SR5 (bought used from a Toyota dealer) sits level, has 285/70R17 tires (rubbed in one spot on inner fender) & has what appears to be a 1½" spacer on top of front coil over. Rear looks stock.
So if the factory suspension travel up front is, for example, 8 inches. And, again for example, it has 4" compression & 4" droop. I now have 5½" compression & 2½" droop?
A "long travel" coilover will still have 8" of travel?

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