Solid advice on both posts!
I'll add one more opinion: Slow down, read, research, give yourself a little time to really make a good decision. You can spend anywhere from several hundred to well over $5,000 on a lift. I'm not a fan of spacer lifts because they prevent your front factory bump stops from working properly and can subsequently lead to damage/destruction of your front struts.
Most people lifting a vehicle for the first time don't know enough about what they really want. They rush their buying decision and end up redoing their lift - sometimes several times!
David
[MENTION=66520]T4R_Finally[/MENTION] I agree with David and Eddie on this, given your description of wants, budget and willingness to get into the details of the setup, less is more. There are two big issues that are generally not fully addressed when this type of request for input comes up.
1) Tire size, tire type (e.g. LT with aggressive, squared shoulder vs. P-metric with street-friendly rounded shoulder), wheel width, wheel offset, shocks, springs (or spacers) and UCAs are all part of a connected system, and therefore, each variable has heavy interaction with one another and the ultimate result. Most people on the forum have changed multiple variables at the same time (especially when lifting 3" in the front and wanting to minimize installation and alignment costs), so it's nearly impossible to isolate the overall result to a single variable. Reported rubbing even after a 3" lift on the front liner, mudflap or body mount will have less to do with the lift itself and more to do with the wheels, tire size and tire type. The same might apply to how the vehicle drives after the lift. Tires, proper alignment, etc. will again also impact how the vehicle drives.
2) Satisfaction with the change (s) is highly subjective. What may work for some, won't for you.
I get that you've ruled out changing the wheels. You want to fill in the wheel wells a bit with bigger tires (e.g. 285/70/17) and you also want a road-friendly tire. You want some lift while staying within $400 or so to make it happen, without having to also invest on new UCAs to get you back into spec alignment (namely caster). New UCA's is not only more cost upfront ($400 for the LRs, which is the least expensive option), but you then have to deal with additional maintenance, possible squeaks, not to mention in the case of the LR's, various redesigns due to failures (I'm still not certain of the reliability of the design).
The other point worth bringing up regarding spacers, particularly 3" for the front, is that the stock springs are already intended for a smooth ride (i.e. soft, which is why many complain about nose dive under hard braking). When you jack up the front by another 3", you impact the overall vehicle dynamics, which is why many talk about having done a spacer lift at first, been reasonably happy with the results (confirmation bias), only to come back 6 months later to say they scrapped the spacers for an upgraded coilover lift.
I guess the bottom line is that with stock wheels and P-metric, road-friendly 285's, you'll only have minor rubbing on the front liner, which can be addressed with moving the liner forward (very easy to do, exactly what I did when I first bought the 4Runner). With the Bilstein 5100's in the front set to any of the available options, you'll go from leveling (.85"), to minor lift (1.75"), to a bit more lift (2.5"), while still staying within the minimum caster spec after alignment, so you don't have to worry about UCAs. You also get the benefit of upgraded shocks for the same cost of spacers. After you decide how much lift you really want in the front from the 5100s, you can then decide what to do with the rear to make it look right.
Sorry for the rant, but I've seen you post numerous threads now asking similar questions, and while I get that doing endless searching through the forum is not a lot of fun, you do need to invest some energy and effort and not just post for individual input via each thread.
ray:
