I added a 3" to the front and you're right, the front 'looks' higher, mostly due to the fact that the hood is higher than the bed and the wheel well space is slightly larger now. with the 1" add-a-leaf to the rear and your back on par.
__________________
2008 CM 4x4 silver
Bedrug, Lorado cover, aluminum shiftknob, sport pedals, Daystar leveling kit, Nitto Terra Grapplers 285/65/R18. Garmin GPS, Audiovox backup camera rear view mirror.
Mine sat 4" higher in the back when it was stock. I have a 2" lift in the front of it now and it looks better but still doesn't look level. I do think the back being higher than the front looks better and that if I did a 4" lift in the front to make it truely level, it would look weird. Is my truck unusually high in the rear? The front fender sits at 36" and the rear sits at 40" stock. Do the reg cabs sit higher in the rear than crew maxs or something?
Your wheel well heights match every Tundra I have measured.
__________________ 07 DC SR5 TRD 4x4 5.7 TRD exhaust, 46K miles, 17 mpg city after battery disconnect reset. Truxedo Lo-Pro with deck rails. Front Susp: Stock coilovers, 4" lift (http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forum...6-4-inch-lift/), swapped extra spacers for Bilstein 5100s on lowest setting, wheel well height still 41.5." Rear Susp: ProComp ES3000 #326510 (2.25" taller than stock), 1.25" blocks plus PRG mini-pack (http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forum...and-new-truck/) gives 2.25" total lift, parking brake cable bracket spacers, wheel well height 43." Front diff and rear ds drop; trailer hitch electrical harness tucked up above bumper. After 20K miles swapped 305/65/18 BFG AT for 285/75/18 Toyo AT, still on stock 18x8x60 offset TRD wheels, about 1/8" clearance to sway bar. Like the extra height but miss the width. Next time either 305/70/, 295/70, or 35x12.50/18. Added 5th 285/75/18 Toyo AT as spare. Bed Bounce: Stiffer E-tires are worse than stock P-metric; biggest improvement from PRG mini-pack, slight improvement from shocks. Still a stiff ride but tolerable now. Best things about this truck: 5.7 and transmission, interior size and comfort, very quiet at high speed. Worst things about this truck: bed bounce, no VSC in 4wd, mileage sucks above 70.
You are correct, kinda... If you actually measure the wheel wells than yes you are correct, but if you add a 3 inch spacer to the front, the truck appears to be lower in the rear. IMO I don't like that look. I added the 2" front lift (I measure the spacer and it was only 1.5") But I got 2.5" of wheel well lift out of it. And I thought I would be pleased, but after a week or so, I hated how it looked, so i added a 1" toytec block to the rear and now im happy.
your the only one i have heard of of adding a spacer lift and getting more lift than advertised. i am assuming that you got an alignment and let everything settle and then measured.
I believe my 2" added more to the truck than 2", but I didn't measure before the lift. I didn't buy for the difference, I bought for the end result, which is what I wanted.
There is nothing wrong in wanting to lift your Tundra purely for looks. I have no intention of taking it off-road-ing, ever! I bought my Tundra to haul my horses. I intend to add a lift kit to improve the look of the truck. My only consideration is that it doesn't affect the ability to get my horses safely from point A to point B.
Replacing the OEM springs and shocks is a complete waste of money for me. A simple leveling kit is all I need. My horses will no further appreciate a lift kit comprised of replacement springs and shocks than they would a truck with spinners and neons. The purpose of my leveling kit is purely aesthetics, and has nothing to do with enabling the truck to have bigger tires/wheels and therefore better ground clearance...
If looks is what you're after then it sounds like the spacer and blocks will be your best and cheapest solution. I don't believe in doing things to my pickup because of looks and everything that goes on my pickup must serve a purpose other than "looking" cool.
Example... I see guys all the time riding on 22in wheels in their 4x4's with rubber band AT or MT tires and I just don't get it because the only purpose is to look cool, but it deminish the off road capability of the pickup. When I go hunting why my brother in law and we see a guy limping up Elk Camp in a SMO (Show Me Off") truck we all get a kick out of it and it generates a few laughs and punts.
In my eyes fake lifts and over size wheels with rubber band MT tires on 4x4's does not look cool and does not get my respect. This is no different than all the young kids driving around in their Honda Civics with huge over size whale tail spoilers and side skirt kits that in reality slow the car down due to additional wind resistance and weight, but hey they think it looks cool and that's all the truly matters. Who am I to judge what you all do to you're trucks. Sorta like the kids now a days who wear baseball caps with the flat bills that are pushed up. The purpose of the bill is to keep the weather out your face and the sun away from the eyes not to look cool.
What really cracks me up while I'm ranting is when these same people make fun of me for running 17in wheels on 34in MT's (My 05 Ram i sold for the Tundra last week) because I'm not rolling on 24in Chip Foose wheels on my rig. I welcome anyone to take a test run up Elk Camp in their 22in wheels with your rubber band MT tires... just don't forget to bring 4 spares.
I think my problem is that I'm way too old school almost kinda Cowboyish in that I'm not impressed with "Bling", but more impressed with "John Wayne" style grit! Kinda funny considering I'm originally from San Francisco.
Last edited by Sequoia2003; 03-06-2008 at 03:09 PM.
For the record, I wasn't planning on leveling for "looks". I do a good bit of hunting myself and have scraped my front end countless times on steep ascent and descent angles. My truck is not 4WD, but I do push it to its limits. I'm just looking to get a bit more clearance up front and be able to clear some slightly larger, beefier tires (BFG AT 285 or 305/65/18 most likely) to help me in the woods. I hope I'm not coming off as defensive, just wanted to clear the air a bit.
I looked into the defference between the two types of leveling kits (spacer above strut assembly vs. pre-load spacer) quite a bit before I had mine done. The bottom line is the type that puts the spacer above the strut assembly can over-extend your lower control arm and increase the CV joint/ball joint angle when the suspension is fully extended. The pre-load spacer will not do that. Although when your truck is just sitting there or during normal driving conditions your truck will not know the difference between the two types of lift. The CV/ball joint angles will be the same for each type of lift as long as they are the same hight lift.
My Revtek leveling kit is a 2.5" in front and 1.25" in rear. After the alignment and it settled in it gave me 2.25" higher in the front than stock.
With all that said a level kit is going to be more harmful than a true lift kit. A true lift kit will equalize all of the increased angles of your suspension except your driveline angles.
The bottom line is the type that puts the spacer above the strut assembly can over-extend your lower control arm and increase the CV joint/ball joint angle when the suspension is fully extended.
By fully extended you mean when the front wheels are in the air? Or possibly even when you go over a big hump that gives your gut the feeling its floating? If its the first case only, most trucks would never experience that and it wouldn't matter which type you use right?
By fully extended you mean when the front wheels are in the air? Or possibly even when you go over a big hump that gives your gut the feeling its floating? If its the first case only, most trucks would never experience that and it wouldn't matter which type you use right?
I guess I was thinking if you were 4x4ing over uneven terain or like when you said if you hit a big bump. The suspension may not ever be truely fully extended in these situations but I think it might get close to fully extended more often then we might think, unless all you do is dive your truck to church and back on Sundays.
Re: Harmful level kits?
Linear Mode
