Falls Lift Questions

[LandCruiser]

285s rubbing can be fixed easily if you install just a front spacer. You can remove the front mud flaps or cut out the plastic bulges in them and all you have to do is pull the front fender liners forward (there are two screws on each side and it takes 10-15 minutes).

 

[jbstrd]

I drove my '13 TE into the garage at 100 miles and lifted it. I drove around on the stock wheels/tires for another 750 miles then put 285/70-17 KM2's on it.

 

[Canazes9]

My TE does not have 500 miles on it , I want to trick it out with lift , new tires , wdw tint , rims.
To soon to do mods ? I wanna get this off road and get a trick look to it.
The dealer said the would cover spacers but not a suspension lift
Since I want to stay with stock size tires since I 've read 285/70/17's will rub even after lift and it will help with milage to .

Depends on what they mean by "cover". If he means the suspension is covered by warranty then yes, that's correct - Toyota won't warranty an aftermarket suspension (obviously). If he means getting a lift will void your warranty all together, whoever you are talking to is blowing smoke. Toyota can't void your warranty because you modified your vehicle.

285s rubbing can be fixed easily if you install just a front spacer. You can remove the front mud flaps or cut out the plastic bulges in them and all you have to do is pull the front fender liners forward (there are two screws on each side and it takes 10-15 minutes).

That may not be enough if you wheel it and get full stuff. He may need a body cab mount chop or a new set of UCA's that provide enough adjustment to prevent rubbing.

I am in the minority opinion on this, but I don't feel that you gain enough traction/clearance to justify the larger tires. I've wheeled my Tacoma off-road numerous times w/ guys that had 285's vs the 265's on my truck. When it came to traction, the differences between tire tread pattern were far more noticeable then size.

Increasing the tire size hurts gas mileage and a lot of people try to minimize that by putting less aggressive tires on. In my experience, a full MT 265/70R17 tire will outperform a 285/70R17 AT tire in Off-road traction every time. In my experience, the hit to gas mileage is less for a full MT 265/70R17 tire compared to a 285/70R17 AT tire. Theoretically there is a clearance advantage to a 285/70R17 over the 265/70R17 but I haven't noticed a time that the 1/2" additional clearance meant more than a more aggressive tread pattern in clearing obstacles.

Obviously, if the choice is between the smaller tire and the larger tire in identical tread patterns, the larger tire size has a small advantage off-road. Certainly there are guys out there putting the largest high end lift packages w/ the largest most aggressive tread pattern tires available and the advantages these full blown trail rigs have over lesser rigs off-road are real and undeniable.

That's not what I see most people doing. Most people are putting larger tire sizes on to achieve "the look" that they want and compromising w/ less aggressive tread patterns to try to minimize the loss in gas mileage. Certainly, I believe everyone should make their rigs what they want them to be, but if the question is asked with regards to which gives better off-road performance, I'll take a 265 MT tire over a 285 AT any day. And get better gas mileage day to day while doing it....

David

 

[LandCruiser]

I've articulated the front end in full lock off road and have yet to get any rub.

I do a lot of driving on fire roads at 50-55mph and larger tires keep the truck glued to the road, where the stock were sliding all over the place.

 

[Canazes9]

I've articulated the front end in full lock off road and have yet to get any rub.

Lots of people have had a different experience than you.

I do a lot of driving on fire roads at 50-55mph and larger tires keep the truck glued to the road, where the stock were sliding all over the place.

And you bought the exact same tire as stock, just in a larger size?

Or did you upgrade the tires while getting a bigger size and then attribute the performance gains to the larger size?

David

 

[<<<<]

I've 285/70/17 WITHOUT lift and rub is minimal. Fromt plastic inner fender piece and only in reverse at full lock. It depends on tire, Nitto TG works for me, BFG will rub more due to square cross section profile of that tire.

 

[BigredTEX]

It's never too early to start the mods. I took delivery of my TE with the 3" lift, UCA's, wheels and tires.

The stock size tires on a lifted T4R work fine, but it looks a little funny. Without increasing the tire diameter you are not really taking advantage of the additional ground clearance of the lift. There is a trade off with larger, more aggressive tires with fuel economy. I get 13 - 14 mpg, both city and highway. I've gotten as much as 20 mpg highway, but that was at altitude, down hill with a tail wind.

Rubbing can be an issue, but it is easily rectified with a little trimming of the front fender well liners. Some people have just loosened the bolts holding the liners and moved them forward a little to fix the rubbing. Not a major concern. I think you will be disappointed if you don't go with larger tires, at least 275/70's, with the looks and the overall off-road performance. I assume you are doing the lift to improve off-road performance. You don't need to go super aggressive with tread pattern, which is what really affects fuel economy.

Just my $.02.

 

[chmura]

You have to be careful.

Lots of people on here will say 285's will not rub and some say they will rub, etc.

There is a huge difference of someone putting on 285's and only driving only on the street than if someone with the same tires going off road and fully flexing the suspension. You have to ask yourself what you want to do and than go from there.

Or you can go 255/75/17 or 255/80/17 and get the benefit of minimal mpg loss, no rubbing vs the 285 tire.

 

[eddiebx]

IMO, it's never too soon for a better set of tires...the factory ones leave a lot to be desired, unfortunately. Do it, you know you want to :naughty:

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Depends on what they mean by "cover". If he means the suspension is covered by warranty then yes, that's correct - Toyota won't warranty an aftermarket suspension (obviously). If he means getting a lift will void your warranty all together, whoever you are talking to is blowing smoke. Toyota can't void your warranty because you modified your vehicle.

David

Toyota won't cover aftermarket components under the factory warranty.

Also David's statement is partially true.

They can deny a warranty claim IF they can PROVE the aftermarket component caused a factory component to fail. (With how Toyota is being about warranty these days, it can end up being a pain in the ass battle with them as some members have found out, even on factory items)

They can also deny a warranty claim IF you modify and/or damage a factory component as a result of your modifications. i.e. cutting mudflaps, trimming body components, removing parts, ect ect.

I'm not trying to scare you away from doing mods, please feel free to mod the truck how you like; its YOUR vehicle and we on the forum will be more than happy to help you get it how you want it. I just want to make sure you understand where your stand on the warranty side of things as it becomes harder as a customer/owner to deal with the manufactuer when it comes to factory warranty when you start modifying things. I would find a dealership and service writer you can trust and really work with who will go to bat for you if the time comes to file a warranty claim (my coworker who worked with our dealership for a while as head service writer knew his **** when it came to warranty and loved modifying his cars so I had him handle all my extended warranty claims because I could trust him to not get bogged down in their BS.)

I wish you the best of luck!

Post Note-

In regards to the tires, you need to take into account which 285's people are talking about. Even though the tires are the same "size" on the sidewall, the physical measurements can be different from one brand/model to the other.

P285 just describes the width of the tread surface, not the width of the tire sidewall to sidewall. Not all 285 width tires are the same over all width, and its usually the sidewall width that causes the rubbing issues which is not measured in the standard tire size.

The center number regards the aspect ratio which can be different because it is calculated as a function of tread width vs. tire height, but usually follows the rule that the larger the number, the taller the sidewall. i.e. a P285/70R17 tire is shorter than a P285/80R17 tire.

Finally, you have the wheel diameter which obviously impacts the size of the tire, a P285/70R17 is not the same size as a P285/70R18.

 

[Intruder]

My TE does not have 500 miles on it , I want to trick it out with lift , new tires , wdw tint , rims.
To soon to do mods ? I wanna get this off road and get a trick look to it.
The dealer said the would cover spacers but not a suspension lift
Since I want to stay with stock size tires since I 've read 285/70/17's will rub even after lift and it will help with milage to .

You do not need a lift to take the truck off road. In fact, take it off road stock so that you can get a feel for it then decide what kind of mods you want to do. A spacer lift is not recommended if you're going to take it off road. If you aren't going to get larger tires, then you don't need a lift - the purpose of a lift is to clear larger tires. You can always go with Bilstein 5100s if you want to improve your suspension without adding height. Either way, you'll want to replace the stock tires with an AT tire at the very least if you want to go off road a lot.

 

[Intruder]

I would find a dealership and service writer you can trust and really work with who will go to bat for you if the time comes to file a warranty claim (my coworker who worked with our dealership for a while as head service writer knew his **** when it came to warranty and loved modifying his cars so I had him handle all my extended warranty claims because I could trust him to not get bogged down in their BS.)

Totally agree. I found a service writer who has a lifted and modified Tacoma and he's been really good about not letting techs blame everything on my mods. When something wasn't covered at all he still managed to get me a break on parts and labour.

 

[Falls]

Cornfed suspension spacers

Does anyone use these anymore ? When I had my gen 4 a lot of people used them and I used then to level off my 10 TE .

The reason I ask is because they have a lower lift than the DS kit which is 2.5/1.5 , the CF has a 2/1 lift and I want to run stock SIZE (not stock tires ) and Im afraid the DS maybe a little to high and look goofy.

Just wondering
Mike

 

[thebwlife]

I'd do bilstein 5100's in front and rear. set front at 1.75 and daystar rear 1.5" spacer (people report only getting 1" out of them).

Then you get a real improvement and not just a look.

 

[Hawaiian4runner]

Cornfed is good stuff (as far as spacers go)

Does anyone use these anymore ? When I had my gen 4 a lot of people used them and I used then to level off my 10 TE .

The reason I ask is because they have a lower lift than the DS kit which is 2.5/1.5 , the CF has a 2/1 lift and I want to run stock SIZE (not stock tires ) and Im afraid the DS maybe a little to high and look goofy.

Just wondering
Mike

Not too much to screw up with manufacturing spacers. Cornfeds are as good as any other steel spacer out there. They make them at numerous lift heights and you can also get them custom cut. They are a little pricey for just being a spacer. In my limited experience, 4runner lifts about 1.5 to 2 times the spacer thickness.

 

[TOYSTRY]

Does anyone use these anymore ? When I had my gen 4 a lot of people used them and I used then to level off my 10 TE .

The reason I ask is because they have a lower lift than the DS kit which is 2.5/1.5 , the CF has a 2/1 lift and I want to run stock SIZE (not stock tires ) and Im afraid the DS maybe a little to high and look goofy.

Just wondering
Mike

My buddy is the owner of Cornfed and a good dude. There are a couple folks on here running them, do a search and you'll likely find them. He was gonna level mine out last year but I got lazy and didnt want to make the drive.

 

[Ducmonsta]

Does cornfed still use the "crush the coil spring" method? Meaning, you have to disassemble the coil over?
Other manufactures use a spacer on top of the entire coil spring assembly which is better IMO.

 

[TOYSTRY]

Does cornfed still use the "crush the coil spring" method? Meaning, you have to disassemble the coil over?
Other manufactures use a spacer on top of the entire coil spring assembly which is better IMO.

I think he does both, and it depends on the application (vehicle). Give him a shout (Dave) at (757)303-8286 or [email protected]

 

[Falls]

What is the "crush the coil spring method" ?

Would this be a 6 pc. set ? By that I mean rear , preload and top out or is it just the rear and a top out like the Daystar ?

I will call him on Monday , but looking for a heads up. I so confused about what to do lift wise.

 

[Canazes9]

Does cornfed still use the "crush the coil spring" method? Meaning, you have to disassemble the coil over?
Other manufactures use a spacer on top of the entire coil spring assembly which is better IMO.

Adding the spacer directly to the top of the coil is supposed to produce a nice factory ride because essentially it is the factory ride - just elevated.

No spacer suspension expert here, but I was under the impression that adding a spacer to the top of the coil assembly prevents the factory bump stops from limiting suspension travel. In hard hits the shock becomes the suspension travel limiter, resulting in a destroyed shock.

David