Hello, I will purchasing a new crewmax within the next month or too, and was thinking about lifting it a few inches and putting some bigger tires ( nothing too obnoxious, perhaps 2 or 3" ). However, I have heard that when you lift a truck, you also increase the wear on the cv joints, and are also asking for more mechanical issues down the road. Is this true? I do not know a lot about trucks, and was hoping someone who has had a truck lifted in the past can let me know if they have been happy with the performance of their truck.
To lift or not to lift
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I have been reading alot about lifting because I going to add a 3" leveling kit to mine when it gets here. from what I have read is your CV joints will be fine if you dont go higher then a 2" lift but once you go with like a 3" + you will need a Diff drop kit wich lowers your differental making the CV angle almost back to stock, therefore not making much of a difference, I order a toytec 3" kit and it comes with a diff drop. another thing is bigger tires wich add more rotating mass on the drivetrain. this making it harder on the truck trying to move more load. But with this new beast they come stock with a 32" tire so I cant see going to a 33 or 34 will have too much effect on the truck. hope this helps!
Cheers
Jay
Cheers
Jay
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260 Posts
To NOT Lift
After i lifted my jeep cherokee i would never lift another vehicle. Put alot of wear and tear on alot of parts. its great if you off-road alot but it was my daily driver. I could see lifting the tundra 2" in the front to even it out but not much more that that.
Seems to me like 3" would make the front a tad to high IMO.
After i lifted my jeep cherokee i would never lift another vehicle. Put alot of wear and tear on alot of parts. its great if you off-road alot but it was my daily driver. I could see lifting the tundra 2" in the front to even it out but not much more that that.
Seems to me like 3" would make the front a tad to high IMO.
I lifted my Ford F150 (4" suspension lift). I had it done through 4 wheel parts and they did a great job, and it looked unbelievable, but... After 40,000 miles began to get tire "wobble" at 50 mph. I spent 1300.00 for a new front end.... 9 months later it began to do it again. They ended up fixing it for free but I got the sense that it was the beginning of the end for the truck (as a result of the lift) hence I sold it and waiting on a new CrewMax 4x4 limited. In hindsite, I would not do it again. Don't want the problems or potential unreliability later on.
If you got dough to blow do it. If you don't, I would seriously consider not doing it. It looks really effin cool when you lift it but in the long run its trouble waiting to happen.
I can't speak for the raising the front end a couple of inches.... I don't know what they actually do. I'm not a mechanic and don't know much about anything that has to do with the under side of the truck. I can only speak of my experience with a 4" suspension lift.
If you got dough to blow do it. If you don't, I would seriously consider not doing it. It looks really effin cool when you lift it but in the long run its trouble waiting to happen.
I can't speak for the raising the front end a couple of inches.... I don't know what they actually do. I'm not a mechanic and don't know much about anything that has to do with the under side of the truck. I can only speak of my experience with a 4" suspension lift.
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764 Posts
I have had nothing but trouble with lifts, precisely attributable to driveline angle changes and handling issues. And yeah, while you can drop your diff to reduce the CV joint angles back to stock something upstream then has to increase it's angle. Add to this the higher center of gravity adversely changing the handling and future alignment issues.
Presently I try to put on an aire of being "older and wiser" by not installing lifts (and many other aftermarket items).
Toyota spent hundreds of millions of $ engineering this product with all parts taken into account as a whole. I'm not going to pretend an aftermarket supplier can make it "mo better".
Presently I try to put on an aire of being "older and wiser" by not installing lifts (and many other aftermarket items).
Toyota spent hundreds of millions of $ engineering this product with all parts taken into account as a whole. I'm not going to pretend an aftermarket supplier can make it "mo better".
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7 Posts
Re: To NOT Lift
I lifted the front on my 2004 Dodge Hemi 2500HD 2" only. I used a poly spring spacer and taller Skyjacker shocks. I am still running the stock anti-sway bar. Yes...there are some probs with the Dodge but not the problems that you are discussing. The Dodge is a different animal but I really like the extra clearance that the leveling kit gave me. The sway bar is causing some bending of a small part and I will need to get an aftermarket sway bar that will accomodate the 2" lift and the new longer shocks had a small mounting/torquing issue but all in all...again, it is great. I am going to do the same thing to the Tundra just for the extra clearance. I will make sure to use the Kit that comes with or order the other kit to keep the transaxles aligned. Thanks for the inputAfter i lifted my jeep cherokee i would never lift another vehicle. Put alot of wear and tear on alot of parts. its great if you off-road alot but it was my daily driver. I could see lifting the tundra 2" in the front to even it out but not much more that that.
Seems to me like 3" would make the front a tad to high IMO.[/quote]
I lifted the front on my 2004 Dodge Hemi 2500HD 2" only. I used a poly spring spacer and taller Skyjacker shocks. I am still running the stock anti-sway bar. Yes...there are some probs with the Dodge but not the problems that you are discussing. The Dodge is a different animal but I really like the extra clearance that the leveling kit gave me. The sway bar is causing some bending of a small part and I will need to get an aftermarket sway bar that will accomodate the 2" lift and the new longer shocks had a small mounting/torquing issue but all in all...again, it is great. I am going to do the same thing to the Tundra just for the extra clearance. I will make sure to use the Kit that comes with or order the other kit to keep the transaxles aligned. Thanks for the inputAfter i lifted my jeep cherokee i would never lift another vehicle. Put alot of wear and tear on alot of parts. its great if you off-road alot but it was my daily driver. I could see lifting the tundra 2" in the front to even it out but not much more that that.
Seems to me like 3" would make the front a tad to high IMO.[/quote]
3" would actually make it perfect. because with the revtek 2.5 kit the frontend is still a little low and with the kit I ordered it has the 1.5" add a leaf. I could of went with the 1" block but I do alot of towing so I went with the leaf. I think with the 2.5" lift it still is a little low for my liking. thats my opions. yours may vary
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10 Posts
Im in the same boat as you, right now I have a 4runner with a 3in. sway-away lift on it and 33's, and a tjm front bumper and some other goodies. Looking back at the problems I have had that were related to lifting the truck, I will never lift a daily driver again. I had a ball joint nut slip of the threads witch shot the entire front right suspension in to the inner fender well causing close to $1000 in body damages not even including the new ball joint. Also i had to have a bushing replaced, I dont have the tools here in Colorado so I had a local shop replace the bushing. Well they stripped the shock shaft with their monkey brains, oh I mean wrench. They paid for it to be replaced but not it was a pain not having the 4runner. Those are just a few of my problems. But another thing to consider to get the same look with out the wear and tear on the drivetrain and other suspension parts is a body lift when they come available for the new Tundras. I plan on putting a body lift and slightly bigger tires and a few Ranchhand bumpers, nothing to extreme.
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265 Posts
Do these stresses discussed only apply when your in 4WD or is it constant?
I'm getting a CM SR5 this summer/fall and wandering if I should level it.
BTW here's a pic of a leveled CM:
http://extremetrucktoys.com/TUN 07 AFTER S.jpg
I'm getting a CM SR5 this summer/fall and wandering if I should level it.
BTW here's a pic of a leveled CM:
http://extremetrucktoys.com/TUN 07 AFTER S.jpg
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10 Posts
The crewmax looks good. Yes, these stresses are constant. Sorry to burst your bubble.
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