Gound Clearance with 2-3 inch lift

K

Koddo

New member
Wanted to see the clearance people are having with a 2-3 inch lift (Icon, Sonoran, etc) and 275/285 tires. My stock 2010 TE seems to be lacking in the ground clearance dept. I swear the 2014+ stockers I see driving about have more clearance than me :Cry: Probably just stiff new suspension...

Feeling inadequate in my clearance department, I'm tempted to make the plunge and possibly buy the Sonoran Steel lift....since they arn't too far away! I went on some pretty gnarly mine roads and I probably scraped about 15-20 times....none that bad or jarring ...but enough to leave a little black paint in my wake.

My stock front ground clearance is about 8.75 and rear is 9.5ish.
 
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Lift won't necessarily help with scraping shit off road, since you're only gaining 2-4" at best. You need more armor if you're surfing rocks.
 
2-4" of extra clearance makes a huge difference. Like I said I was just barely scraping. So those extra few inches would be night and day. If I can go from 8.75 to 11-11.5 in the front end specifically that would be perfect. I know this is dependent on a lot of factors (wheels/tire size/etc) but just curious what people see with the setup mentions above. 275/285 75 on 17's 2-3 inch lifts.

Better skid plates would be step #2, need extra ground clearance to begin with first.
 
I see you are in Arizona. 2-3" makes a huge difference in the desert. When I had my 03 4runner it was dragging and banging on the bottom just like yours and I always had to slow down for every small rock to keep the front skid plate from hitting the rock. Approach and departure angle made the front and rear end hit to easy also. After the lift it was amazing the places it would go without dragging. Much more confidence inspiring. I still need to lift my 14.
 
If you want to avoid scraping crap, you're looking at least a 6" lift or learn to take a better path to avoid dragging your truck's balls over the trail.

That is totally based on incrementally lifting my 80 series over the past 10 years.
 
F*ck it. What you need is one of these babies :thumb:

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03_4x4Runner knows where I'm coming from.

Other answers have not been helpful :P. I guess what I'm saying is for the dirt roads I usually travel I know the sweet spot for ground clearance is the 11-11.5 range. This allows me to pick the best lines and not overly worry about every soccer-basketball size rock that is awkwardly placed in my line.

I've had wranglers in the past with 2.5-4 inch lifts and 35's. Wranglers have solid front ends....4runners have independent. I haven't lifted a independent front end vehicle yet...I assume that a lift changes the front ground clearance alone (before taking into account larger tires). And since its harder to fit significantly larger tires under a lifted 4runner (as opposed to a wrangler) I'm having a hard time estimating what the gain in clearance would be. Hence the question what a 2-3 inch Icon, SS, Toytec or other complete (nonspacer) with 275/70 285/75 17's will net me up front.

I really don't think this is a silly question. Just looking for an actual measurement from someone who has one of these setups...tons out there I know! This will help me determine the benefit to cost of this decision.
 
LandCruiser said:
If you want to avoid scraping crap, you're looking at least a 6" lift or learn to take a better path to avoid dragging your truck's balls over the trail.

That is totally based on incrementally lifting my 80 series over the past 10 years.
Click to expand...

I do not know where you off road but in the desert there are many trails where there are spots there are no other lines. You are forced to go between large boulders or cactus. At times you are going faster down a trail with a 6 inch rock in the middle. Normally you could clear it but with the front end bouncing up and down over the rocks it hits it relatively easy stock. 3-3.5 inch lifts seem to be the sweet spot unless you plan to tackle the really tough Jeep trails.
 
Exactly, or that. When you go down narrow mines roads there are no lines....there is a LINE. Different trail conditions that the other posters are maybe not familiar with.

We don't have the luxury of wide open 20 foot trails here in AZ. Many of the dirt roads I take are very snug for the TE. The old branch 'loppers get quite a workout...I can't put AZ pin-stripping on her yet!
 
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Height of lift

03_4x4Runner got it right the first time. The biggest difference will be in approach, break over and departure angles. As you approach an obstacle or rock, your fenders reach the rock before your tires do. The approach angle improves on that.
The rocker panels, frame and under frame components will be lifted, improving the break over angle. The amount of lift will obviously be the average of the front and rear lift.
Technically speaking, people will tell you you're not really gaining any ground clearance since the differentials and the suspension arms remain at the same height. Taller tires lift these parts only slightly. And the differential is the lowest point. Armoring the diff', rear axle trailing arm, rear shocks and front lower control arm will help.
A rock slider is far more important than the lift. Get that first to protect the rocker panels.
 
Koddo said:
Exactly, or that. When you go down narrow mines roads there are no lines....there is a LINE. Different trail conditions that the other posters are maybe not familiar with.

We don't have the luxury of wide open 20 foot trails here in AZ. Many of the dirt roads I take are very snug for the TE. The old branch 'loppers get quite a workout...I can't put AZ pin-stripping on her yet!
Click to expand...


ac4b07720cdda01877aaec0113027d0d.jpg
 
Colorado.

Lots of rocks. Sharp, big rocks.

1000-1500 foot dropoffs.

Dumbasses on side by sides.

The first time I decided to wheel my TE fershizzle, I put a 10" gash on the passenger door because I had no rock sliders.

The stock skids are near completely trashed and rusty. The dealer couldn't remove one of them when they spilled oil during a change.
 
Koddo said:
03_4x4Runner knows where I'm coming from.

Other answers have not been helpful :P. I guess what I'm saying is for the dirt roads I usually travel I know the sweet spot for ground clearance is the 11-11.5 range. This allows me to pick the best lines and not overly worry about every soccer-basketball size rock that is awkwardly placed in my line.

I've had wranglers in the past with 2.5-4 inch lifts and 35's. Wranglers have solid front ends....4runners have independent. I haven't lifted a independent front end vehicle yet...I assume that a lift changes the front ground clearance alone (before taking into account larger tires). And since its harder to fit significantly larger tires under a lifted 4runner (as opposed to a wrangler) I'm having a hard time estimating what the gain in clearance would be. Hence the question what a 2-3 inch Icon, SS, Toytec or other complete (nonspacer) with 275/70 285/75 17's will net me up front.

I really don't think this is a silly question. Just looking for an actual measurement from someone who has one of these setups...tons out there I know! This will help me determine the benefit to cost of this decision.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I also know where you're coming from. The trails here in Western Colorado & Eastern Utah (Moab area) are full of rocks. On the first off-road excursion in our 2014 TE with KDSS, I bashed the heck out of the stock skid plate, as KDSS trucks have less ground clearance in the front (1/2-3/4" less) than the standard suspension.

So I then replaced the stock skid plate with an RCI steel plate, which is MUCH stronger, but hangs down even lower (KDSS again), and ground clearance was reduced to about 7.5" in the front. Our next outing resulted in numerous rock hits on the new RCI skid, but only resulted in minor scratches with lots of noise.

I then added a Daystar spacer leveling lift (cheap!) which raised the front ground clearance up to 9.5-10" with the result that I now hit far fewer rocks on the trails around here. I may add Bilstein 5100 shocks next.
 
To answer your question - every inch of lift in the front adds that much clearance - in the center and at static height. One of the big downsides to IFS is that under compression it loses clearance. You'll find out quick when you drop off a ledge into a rock garden and had the front ifs drop down and bottom out on rocks. In general though IFS isn't for hardcore trails. For the rest of them it works pretty darn good.

I would look for a skid for the transfer case / exhaust pipe as a first order of business. The 5th gen is a low rider in the frame/body department and that transfer case output is an anchor under there. And it's made of aluminum that's easy to break in the rocks. As for the engine skid - I've yet to see anyone put a hole in the factory skid. If I do I might sacrifice more weight for a stronger one. So far it'll dent a bit, but I think it's a heck of a lot stronger than people give it credit for. Then again I have an FJ40 trail rig so my 4runner does mostly mild trail duty.
 
Thanks Rick and Jetboy...thats the information I was looking for. I didn't come to mind that the KDSS (which I have too) reduces the front ground clearance further. That explains why other stock T4R's look like they have more clearance up front than me.

Amazing the non-answers the rest of the people will give you here. Especially the ones that have the setup I'm interested in and would rather just post nonsense rather than just helping a fellow T4R'er out and take a tape measure to the front.

PS. those woods trails are tight but not a rock to be seen :P throw in basketball size rocks, 30-40 degree incline, and 2-3 foot ruts that snake through the whole thing and welcome to early 1900's AZ mine roads.
 
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