18. What about SPACER LIFTS, A spacer lift is where you insert a puck, spacer or some foreign object into or on top of your coil, to force the vehicle to sit higher off the ground. These can be made from plastic, steel, aluminum or polyurethane. Spacer lifts are what they are. It was my first lift and the rear spacers keep me happy for 6 months or so and the fronts for less than 9 months. If a spacer lift is the only thing you can afford, so be it. It is better than nothing, or is it? After you read the drawbacks of a spacer lift, maybe stock would actually "work" better off road.
Benefits of a Spacer Lift:
A. Lifts the truck 1-3" higher
B. Very Inexpensive
Downfalls of a spacer lift:
A. The biggest one is that they re-use your stock coils, which is not really a good thing if you are looking for a lift. 96-98 4Runners were 3/4" to 1" lower than the 1999 model year, 2000 was along the lines of 96-98 and 01-02 4Runners were the lowest yet, over 1" lower than the same model 1999 4Runner. When your starting out 1" to 2" lower your 2"-3" spacers are only going to get you 1" or so above a 1999 4WD 4Runner bone stock. Replacing the coils is a far better way to actually gain lift. Take a look at our front coil comparison for yourself. Also take a look at this photo showing all the different heights of 3rd Gen 4Runner coils, Obviously you can see only model 1999 is going to get the full advertised height increase. All other years will get less as the coils they were given by the factory are shorter. Same motor, model, wheels, etc.
B. Spacers placed inside the spring pack preload the coil for lift, make it live in a smaller area, by reducing the area it is allowed to live in you in turn reduce upward travel. So you now have less travel than stock, that is not a good thing when you start with so little. Also making the coil live in smaller area without adjusting your a-arms bump stops to compensate will over compress the coil and cause it to stack and fail at a very fast rate. Ask around and see how many people had coils sag or drop with spacers over time. Spacers placed outside the coil pack, these typically add material to the very top of the assembly only and increase the shock length which will lead to excessive droop, if not used with the very short factory stock (black) Toyota shocks as the 96-02 4Runners do not have the droop stops of the 86-95 Trucks and 4Runners. This excessive droop will cause the outer CV to bind and literally rip the star out of the joint, resulting in a broken CV axle and a dead truck. Front shock length is critical on these vehicles. This can be fixed with limiting straps, but why not do it right from the beginning.
So with less travel because the coil will stack sooner, it seems to us that spacer lifts actually reduce the effectiveness of your vehicle off road. The purpose of our lift kits is to gain the lift without loosing any of the travel the factory provided, as they did not provide much to begin with. It's a cheap way to lift a truck, but don't expect much in the actual performance area. If you are looking for a long term solution, I would aim higher than a spacer lift. Our experience with front spacers. Our Experience with rear spacers.
Some more interesting Data about the lift these spacer kits give you. Company One Advertises: 3", Company Two Advertises: 3", Company Three Advertises: 2.5" and Our Kits set at 2.0" all produce the EXACT same front lift in the end. There is a point of no return on the Toyota IFS, you can only go so high or it self-destructs' all good lifts go to this height. Which can be called 2" by some or 3" by others.
