Pro Comp EXPK5055B 4" suspension lift kit feedback for new guy
 

So im a newb, but i have an 86 singlecab pickup and i wanted to know if anyone has installed the lift kit listed above and if so id like feedback on whether or not it would be a good buy. If not, any other lift kit ideas would be appreciated seeing as how i cant find any others that come with new TBs, or ones that are made for front TB yotas. I could only find ones that were for front and rear leaf springs like from skyjacker and various others. My truck has a 4" body lift on it now that came on it when i bought it but id like a suspension lift to get more clearance and articulation for off roading here in alaska.

thanks

Any feedback would be appreciated seeing as how i noticed there are 62 views to this thread and no posts.

not sure if any one runs that kit..
school me: new TB's? it is usually considered an IFS Toyota

and that kit according to this link comes with rear blocks...for increased articulation blocks won't do anything for you IMO..consider doing a chevy rear spring swap

Bracket lifts are for the mall. 4" body lifts are for the morgue.

Search "SAS" and do some light reading. :hillbill:

Welcome to Yotatech newb! :D

:wabbit2:

TBs = torsion bars, i know its an IFS. but i bought it with the body lift so i decided not to take it off.

Thats a huge body lift! i just put my 4 in procomp suspention lift and thats what i would suggest. i too live in alaska and i love four wheeling. where do you live.

I'm in Juneau, and thanks for the input.

I put a pro comp stage II 4 inch lift on my 95 runner and I love it. I got myine at 4wheelparts.com. I did the lift myself took two days to fully complete it. The only difference between the two kits is rear coils rather then rear springs. I would say it would work very good for you. Look at my truck (profile pic) to see what it would look like. Go for it....

x2 on everything.

Lockers would also be something to consider to gain off road performance.

I would take the 4" body lift out before the pucks punch through the body and/or shear the bolts off (4" puts way too much leverage on everything). If you're going to off road it, that 4" BL is really bad news. Like Wabbit said, the drop bracket lifts are for the mall - not for better off road ability. They actually reduce your ground clearance from stock. They're also very expensive and since you have to actually cut out a lot of your stock IFS, you can't really ever return it back to stock if you decide that we were right and the lift sucks after you have it for a while. Do yourself a favor... if it's going to be for actual off road ability, take the BL out (maybe replace it with a more modest and safer 1-2" BL if anything). Then go get some ball joint spacers for the front and some Chevy rear springs for the rear like ocdropzone suggested. That will give you better off road ability and be a lot cheaper too.

I personally suggest you stay away from 4Wheelparts because it's better to support our vendors on here which are a 1000xs more experienced and knowledgeable about Toyotas. I have had some really awful experiences with 4WP and would never recommend them to anyone. They are the Walmart of the off road world IMO - but worse.

I would leave the 4 inch body lift on, but if it is hockey pucks I think you should remove them because they will break. I had a 3 inch body lift kit and I put a 1inch plate steel on under the lift and I never had a problem with the body moving on the frame until I started jumping it, after the motor was getting ready to blow. But if its not pucks and you like it, leave it then. I never had a problem and I am sure you wont be beating your truck like I did mine. As for drop brackets I put them on the my truck and never looked back. Go for it if you have money for the proper lift kit. Hope that helps

The drop brackets we are reffering to are for the front suspension (i.e. drop CV lifts). I didn't mean hockey "pucks" (although some people do make home-ade BLs out of them), I meant the 4" spacers that his body is setting on are like stilts an are not very safe. They can also punch through the body with all that leverage and do damage that is not easy or cheap to repair.

Lol. Yeah, no reason to find out what kind of wheeling he does or wants to do. Just suggest the $2000+ option... :hillbill: :D

Prove everything you just said. With pictures please. None of this has been my experience.

No loss of GC over stock.

Expensive? Compared to what? BJ Spacers?

ProComp kit requires cutting of one 2"x2" tab. Nothing else is cut. More cutting is involved in BJ Spacers than a bracket lift.:saw:

"Actual off road ability" Why not ask him what this means to him? Or what fab skills he may or may not have.

I'll agree with you on this one.

All-in-all, summed up, "Bracket Lifts and IFS are for pansies, mall crawlers and people who just don't understand real wheeling..." :flush:

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Definitely get rid of the 4" BL. Get the bracket lift, throw it on (replace the rear springs instead of using blocks) and wheel it. It won't improve your articulation, but it will give you more ground clearance (breakover). BJ spacers might help a bit with articulation, but only .5-1" at the most. So that may or may not be what you're looking for.

If you don't like the bracket lift or if it can't keep up with where you want to go, take it off and explore other options like a SAC. You won't make your money back, but you could always sell the lift. But don't be fooled though- ANYTHING you do to your truck is going to cost you $$$ and there isn't one option that's right for everyone.

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Ask anyone who's wheeled with me- I wheel the snot out of my trucks. SA might be my preference, but people do not give IFS the credit it deserves. Even with a "mall crawlin' bracket lift."

I live on an island in Juneau and am moving to Wyoming to go to Wyotech, I don't have much, if any fab skills at this point. But the terrain up here is different from down south, I'm not gonna be doing heavy, beat your truck up off roading anywhere. I don't need a lot of articulation, the lift isn't gonna be just for looks but it doesn't need to be super heavy duty. The body lift is actually a ford f-150 body lift from a garage sale and it's really sturdy. I'll end up doing a chevy swap sooner or later but we don't have junk yards up here where I can go and take what I want for cheap. So getting the parts I need from a chevy will cost more than the pro comp lift itself. Which runs like $1200 with shipping to get it up here. But I'm not gonna be doing any rock crawling or anything serious like I said, more of just a leisurely off road session or just to get a little muddy.

the 4" body lift might be sturdy, but the body sheet metal isn't.

Live on an island in Alaska called Juneau. (correction)

You have a point. I didn't really think of that.

that's not to say there isn't any stress on the factory body mounts or a 1 - 2 " body lift, but if a mount goes though the sheet metal and drops 4" while driving, your asking for trouble. If it drops 1 - 2" it won't be catastrophic.

Oh ok, I gotcha

I don't have pics of my opinions, but my opinions do come from my experiences. A drop bracket drops the attachment point of the lower control arms. That means less ground clearance than it had before. You can make that up with larger tires, but that's the tires lifting you, not the lift (this is regarding the front only). I gained clearance with both my lift and my tires.

Yes.

I'm not an expert by any means on the earlier IFS trucks, but I know on the Tacos you have to cut out a lot and it cannot be returned to stock unless you get a donor vehicle or save and reweld the parts you cut off. If this is different for the older trucks then I stand corrected.

This is what the OP said..."but id like a suspension lift to get more clearance and articulation for off roading here in alaska." IMO and many others', a DB lift doesn't put out as well in either of those areas as the other options out there do. I thought he wanted to really wheel this thing, at least that's what I got out of that statement.

I have IFS so I'm not saying that. I'm saying that lifting an IFS with a DB lift is the worst way to go for a suspension lift IMO. I don't have pics why I think that, but I've seen how well they perform compared to my and others' IFS rigs and I've never been impressed - especially for the cost. A DB lift for my truck is about twice as expensive and less capable. They may be cheaper for the older trucks, but I do not believe they are as capable off road. That lowered crossbar is a shelf to catch rocks on IMO.

I disagree, but that's for the OP to figure out. How does lowering that crossbar and the attachment points of the LCAs give you better clearance? I might be missing something with the older trucks' suspension setup, but that's what I see when I look at it.

Maybe they are easier to take off on the earlier trucks, but I do know for a fact I can return mine to stock in ~1 hour if need be. DBs even on the older trucks need permanent modification to be installed AFAIK- even if it only means cutting off tabs like you mentioned earlier.

I wheel a lot too, on my IFS so I give plenty of credit to IFS. I surprise lots of Jeep guys with what mine does. But I also know that I have made it up and over stuff that people with DB lifts in my group have gotten hung up on. All this talk is just people's opinions, and that's fine, I just think there are better options out there. YMMV.