Rishi

In 4th gen coilover 3" lift kit, Revtek uses two spacers:
a) Preload Spacer for more lift (sitting between strut top plate and spring, compresses the spring, thereby causing the shocks to extend to get the lift)
b) Top Out Extender for much smaller lift (sitting on the outside of the top plate, and does not compress the spring, but acts as a true spacer between the entire strut and the 4runner support). See http://www.revtekindustries.com/prod...d=4&modelid=10

Donahoe Racing has a 2.5" spacer that appears to be equivalent to a Top Out Extender. They don't use any Preload spacer. So the entire 2.5" lift comes from the Top Out Extender. See http://www.donahoeracing.com/prod_ph...p?productID=23

In my opinon the Donahoe lift kit would be better since it maintains the complete compression and extension range of the factory strut. The Revtek would pre-extend the shocks, thereby reducing the extension range, but on the other hand allowing more compression range for the shocks (assuming the springs don't bind).

Can you please post your comments and opinon, comparing the two types of spacers. Which one is better. I know the Donahoe won't rust, but apart from that what are the pros and cons.

Thanks

bulldog-yota

Pre load spacers will stiffen your suspension a bit and limits the ability of the strut to fully compress. In severe cases it can cause coil bind.

Top spacers just lowers your strut by that amount. The issues is still that the strut now operates that much lower, so your bumpstops will not protect it as much as in the stock suspension. But it wont affect the "stiffness" of the ride. The advantage of the top spacer is that it allows your strut to droop lower than stock, thereby increasing flex slightly. However if you add too much, you can bind the A-Arm ball joints or they can hit the coil itself.

Each has its pros and cons, that is why Revtek and Daystar uses a bit of both to give the lift. This helps to try and stay within the operating limits of the stock suspension. I doubt the Donahoe spacer is just a top spacers. Normally spacers that reaplces the top plate also has a bit of pre load in as well. So they do preload an topout in one spacer. It is a cleaner design than dual spacers. Why dont you phone DOnahoe to see how the spacer was designed? They can give better info than we can speculate here.

The Revtek spacers have been well tested on the 4th Gens by now and most users are happy with them. I dont know of anybody who has used the DOnahoes yet, but they area good company so I dont think they will put a poorly designed product to market.

This topic can be discussed at severe length and debated till the cows come home, but pending on what you are looking for either might work for you.

Rishi

I've been checking out Revtek and Daystar spacers, and it appears Revtek uses a thick preload spacer and a thin top out extender, while Daystar has the opposite i.e. a much thicker top out extender compared to the preload spacer. The Revtek gets 3" lift, while the Daystar is for 2.5".

IMO Daystar should achieve a ride quality closer to the stock original, while Revtek would significantly reduce the downward travel of the wheels (since the thick preload eats up the downward travel by the amount equal to its lift). Would Revtek spacer create problems driving over potholes due to the reduced downward travel of the wheels?

If you have experience with these spacers, which one would you advise for 2.5-3" of lift, for off road.

Thanks

r0cky

No. Revtek spacers do NOT create problems driving over potholes - the downward travel after the Revtek lift iis not going to differ much from the downward travel after the Daystar lift. I prefer the Revtek lift, as in the number of months that I ran it, it consistently gave 3" of lift.

Oh, and the downward travel will be limited regardless of where the spacers are placed in relation to the coils.

r0cky

Also, it doesn't look like Donahoe's spacers are made for the 4th gen.

Seriously, I know this has been said many times, but the currently available spacer lifts for the 4th gen.s are:

Cornfed
Revtek
Daystar

I think most people would rank Cornfed as #1 due to the design and material. But otherwise, they are pretty much all the same - they do the same thing, yield the same results, change the suspension travel in the same ways, etc.

bulldog-yota

rishi as I said many people will have different opinions on this.

first question do you have XREAS or not?

Yes you are correct in terms of down travel and preload. more preload less down travel. The daystar has more topload so the strut actauly droops more. But to be honest as long as the sway var is there you will not gain with wither in terms of flex. But downward travel on rough roads I would give the Daystar the edge. I use the Daystar as it was closer to stock and cheaper than the Revtek. SO with XREAS I woudl recommend it, even though it will give less lift than the Revtek.

If you dont have XREAS, you can get the Revtek. I t gives more lift and it includes rear shocks for extra flex offroad. This will help quite a bit offroad. But to be honest if you wait a while you can get OME for slightly more than the Revtek, and it includes coils and shocks for front and rear. It will seriously kick a Revtek kits butt. Search for the OME thread on 4th Gens. WHat does Revtek price now for the kit?

r0cky

[deleted due to incorrect information]

bulldog-yota

OK let me start. Travel at the wheel is different to travel at the strut. Secondly the 4th gen has about 8" of toal travel in the front. STock it has about 4" to maybe 5" or so of down travel. Add to the fact that the daystar has more top load and less preload (about an inch less) and in total lifts .5" or so less than the revtek. SO in total the Daystar would easily give 2" more down travel than the Revtek in the front. The daytsr get s closer tobinding the ball joint than the Revtek does due to having more downtravel in total than the Revtek (teh bigger top spacer) SO for the purposes of the discussion the strut travel is the limiting factor. next up will be balljoint binding and a-arm hitting strut coils. Not an issue with either.

Currently the Daystar kit is like $240 and the Revtek is $490, so less than half the price. OMe will cost $800, but you have to remove XREAS, that is why I asked the question of what he has.

FirstToy

I picked Daystar because it doesnt preload the spring as much, is a good height for XREAS considering you are using stock shocks, is a quality product and costs very little.
Not much more than that need from a spacer kit.

r0cky

okay, cool, I'm wrong, thanks for the correction.

sounds like Daystar is a good choice.

r0cky

(but i really do also hear good things about Cornfed)!

sschaefer3

If you look at the DR spacers and the Revtek spacers they are exactly the same. Look where the shock mounts on the DR, you will see that most of the meat is below that point and around 3/8" is above the shock mount level.

Cornbred for the last year or so has copied my "Frankenstein" formual and changed his spacers to be exactly the way I configured my setup. You can even see the photo of my old spacers on my patio on his site that obviously they took from my site.

Daystar is a bit different and splits the load with a larger top out which has to be used with a stock length shock or parts will collide.

With the Tundra coil option now out there, spacers really are a thing of the past for a 3rd Gen. The 4th Gen with the X-Res, spacers are still really your only choise.

Rishi

Just wondering if the balljoint doesn't hit the strut coil at full downtravel with Daystar, why didn't Revtek also do something similar (use thicker top out extender). This way we could get more than 3" lift with Revtek (assuming a differential drop is used to reduce CV angle).

I have non-XREAS 2003 4runner 4x4 V6.

Next BIG question: (none of the spacers limit the upward travel, so all of them will allow the bumpstops to hit)
a) what is the stress on the balljoint when the bumpstops touch at full uptravel (compression), for each Revtek and Daystar.
b) How can tires bigger than 265/70/17 be used since the spacers don't prevent the bumpstops from touching at full uptravel.

Thanks

r0cky

as bulldog wrote, "not an issue with either" (as far as the a-arm/balljoint hitting).at one point in time i had near 5" of lift and still never had the upper arm hit the coil.

sschaefer3

Right, 4th Gens do not have the longer than stock front shocks the 3rd Gen do. The spacers depicted are 3rd Gen spacer.

sschaefer3

I can only comment on 3rd Gen, but my asumption would be that Revtek wanted a kit that would work with ALL shocks. I wonder if Daystar even knows that their kit only works with stock or stock lenght shocks.