Diff drop need or not need with lift ?

[shrub1]

I probably have a close to 3.75"-4" lift up front. I took photos to the best of my ability of before and after. I didnt see much of a difference. I am debating on taking it off. Its a ***** to put on the skid plate and I cant fit my new skid plate.

I'll try to dig up photos.

EDIT: I know photos are not super representative, but there seems to be no change in CV angles. I didnt really look at the difference in driveshaft, so I cant say anything to that point. I'll probably take it off this week and see the difference again if I have time before the weekend.

NO DIFF DROP

DIFF DROP ON

Hard to tell for certain, but that inner boot looks angry. Too much lift.
I agree though on the diff drop, it doesn't offer very much relief. I still run one though.

 

[ayeyothisiskyle]

Hard to tell for certain, but that inner boot looks angry. Too much lift.
I agree though on the diff drop, it doesn't offer very much relief. I still run one though.

I agree with too much lift, but I have 3" rear springs from icon and I thought that would translate to a 2.5" rear lift with my rear bumper + sliders. Its only hits that 2.5" when I'm fully loaded with the dog in the back. The large lift in front levels the truck nicely and I'm pretty happy with it.

To your CV boot comment, all the boots are angry. haha. I'be been running this setup for just over a year now with no ill effects. Multiple trips in between. Crawling, desert trails at 60mph, and thousands of highway miles. I'll count my blessings. ray2:

 

[mteolus]

I had my 3" lift installed by an outfit that specializes in Toyota's, mostly offroad stuff. They didn't do a diff drop and said I didn't need it. Have had no issues since the lift 20k miles ago.

 

[comtn4x4]

I have 75,000 miles with three inches of lift and no diff drop since the first 1000 miles. It was causing problems with skid plate fitment so I took it off. No issues so far

 

[Six_Actual]

Hi all,

I'm looking to check all my boxes in prep for my suspension setup.
There seems to be overwhelming agreement that the diff drop is not needed... Anyone care to update us on mileage/issues?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Kamalani Mahie]

Hi all,

I'm looking to check all my boxes in prep for my suspension setup.
There seems to be overwhelming agreement that the diff drop is not needed... Anyone care to update us on mileage/issues?

Thanks in advance.

3" up front, 2" in the rear for me. I didn't have the diff drop installed at first and no problems. CV angles didn't look bad. Decided to install the diff drop after about 20k miles. Couldn't tell a huge difference in CV angle but it looked a bit better from what I could tell. But that also could be my brain telling my eyes it looked better because I though it was supposed to haha. Anyway no problems so far with another 30k with it installed. Only issue I had to work around was my skid plate clearance. I had to machine 1" aluminum spacers for the skid plate under it to get it to fit better. So I have to deal with the spacers when I take it off but thats not often so its been completely fine. Even with bashing them on some rocks haha.

 

[Icculus]

No expert here just trying to add more info. On my 14 before I got rid of it I ran the 2.5/1.5 toytec spacers for 70K miles without the diff drop and never noticed any adverse affects. Take that as a grain of salt in a big ocean of salt, lol

 

[BlueRidge77]

Reviving an older thread here. There are a few threads on diff drops and it gets brought up regularly in lift threads. If I’m reading all this correctly, it provides little if any improvement for the CV angle but many choose to do it because they feel it doesn’t cause any harm other than some skid plate fitment annoyance. Though there are some out there concerned that “clocking” the diff may potentially affect lubrication within the diff…

If the CV angles aren’t really being affected much then not installing a diff drop shouldn’t help or hurt the drivers side needle bearings and accelerate the need to install the bushing? (I’m doing a 2” front lift so mine is minor and honestly, my diff appears lower than the wheel bearing so my CV shafts go up as the go out, so raising it may just change the angle from a negative to a positive…if that makes sense.)

Any new info on this that maybe I missed? Thanks.

 

[Whippersnapper02]

The drop is still not needed.

 

[usdmej]

can we talk about the actual problem that this mod claims to fix?

are prematurely failing CV axles even a common occurrence for 4runners?

 

[ahtoxa11]

can we talk about the actual problem that this mod claims to fix?

are prematurely failing CV axles even a common occurrence for 4runners?

The answer is "it depends" and define "premature". Yeah, super helpful, I know.

This is my opinion, but I think that staying at under 3" there is no significant lifespan difference for CVs. When I say significant, I mean most people wouldn't think there's a problem if the CV failed at 150k vs 200k miles, so I think a mild <3" lift will be within the variable margin of failure. This is probably especially true for those rigs that see little offroad use. Take it offroad and parts will simply need more frequent replacement and overall maintenance.

But the simple answer is, I have not seen a lot of CV failures here, even with those who wheel. Sometimes crap brakes though.

 

[Tuco S.]

I would say to anyone who is on the fence, it's a super easy install and it costs anywhere from $35 to $50. If it helps prolong your CVs even a little bit it's worth doing it.

 

[daytonaviolet]

I did the diff drop. I’m currently at ~ 3.5” so adding a diff drop can only help the CV angles. It took like 30min to install.

Revtek Suspension RTDD1-KB Differential Drop Spacer Kit for Toyota Tacoma and Toyota 4Runner Amazon.com: Revtek Suspension RTDD1-KB Differential Drop Spacer Kit for Toyota Tacoma and Toyota 4Runner: Automotive