Advice for Daystar Leveling Kit

[Luciendar21]

So I bought a Daystar Leveling Kit: KT09103BK. I was planning to install it this week, but I'm having second thoughts.

The idea was to fix a problem that started when I replaced struts and shocks earlier this year. In short, the front end was much lower than it was before I replaced the struts and shocks. I went with factory height Rancho RS5000s at that time. My mechanic mentioned something about removing spacers during that job. I thought he had mentioned wheel spacers providing extra width and clearance for the then 285/75R16 tires... but perhaps he meant he had removed spring spacers... which would explain a lot.

A few months down the road we also noticed severe wear to the inner corners of the front tires. The wear is bad enough that brand new (<1000mi) General Grabber AT2s are bald on the inner corner in the front. The wear was bad enough to make me question if the mechanic did an alignment when he did the struts/shocks.

Since I need new tires anyway, I bought the lift kit and planned to install it, then take it to get a full set of 4 new tires and a 4 wheel alignment... I also thought the installation of the front lift was much easier. Now I've discovered the front lift requires a spring compressor and removal (and preferably replacement) of front ball joints.

So... tl;dr: do I give up on these spacers and buy new springs/struts for the front... and if I do, which ones do I get? I didn't see any lift-struts specified by Rancho in their catalog. Or do I alternatively buy some spring compressors and a ball joint separator and do the job as I had planned?

 

[Luciendar21]

Attached are three pictures of the issue.

The first picture is of the original stance of the 4Runner when I bought it (with 285/75R16 Pro Comp MTs on Black Micky Thompson Classic Lock Wheels). I wasn't a huge fan of the wheels and wanted narrower tires for better highway snow performance so I swapped to the "OEM" wheels provided when I bought the truck and bought new General Grabber AT2 tires in 265/75R16 (note that the "OEM" wheels are actually Tundra wheels from the era).

The second picture shows the new stance after I had the struts installed, you can see that the front is much lower now.

The third stance shows the wear on the inner corner of the driver's tire. Both front tires are now bald on the inner 3in or so while the rear tires have less than 1/32 of ware.

I bought a set of Double-Y wheels in 16" and plan to put a new set of tires on them, Eldorado Mud Claw Extreme MT (They have a more aggressive lug pattern but still have longitudinal voids for hydroplane resistance and wet performance. They're also a cheap brand and thus cost much less than the General Grabber AT2s), along with a 4 wheel alignment... I just want to get the suspension squared away so I only have to get it aligned once.