Whats this cranking of the torsion bars that Ive read about to gain lift?

Noob question I know.

 

torsion bars are used instead of leaf or coil springs. They can be adjusted (cranked) up or down. This changes the ride hieght of the front end of your truck. Also the harshness of the ride from my experience.

This is usually done to raise the truck up to fit bigger tires.

 

Looky looky:http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/torsion/index.htm

 

Note: an alignment is necessary after doing it! It throws the camber all out of whack!

 

Awesome, thanks guys.

 

if your thinking of cranking them up dont because mine were cranked all the way when i bought it ant the ride sucked and i tocv boots all the time and it was hard to change them

 

Here is a write-up on the topic:
http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/torsion/index.htm

 

It's a good way to gain an inch or two on 2nd gen 4Runners. Beyond that, you run into CV joint issues (if you don't have manually locking hubs). You will sacrifice a little ride quality but not much at that height. YMMV.

Ed