I drive a 1997 Toyota 4Runner 4WD. I have been researching Tough Country, and Trail Master suspension lifts. I recently stumbled across a couple of comments in regards to Tough Country, and there weak spindle/spacer design. Do all suspension kits have problems associated with weak spindle design?

I am totally stumped.. I really do not know which front end suspension to go with. I do like the design of alot of the components in the Tough Country kit over the Trail Master kit though. So far I have read nothing bad about the Trail Master kit, and it seems to be the best bang for the buck also!


Any input, suggestions, and comments are greatly appreciated.

 

This will be said probably a few times to you, but you should search here first.

Your truck cannot use those lifts off the shelf. They are for either the Tacoma or Tundra, with leaf sprung rear axles. I'm going to assume you want 6'' of lift on your 97'. The front suspension parts would work, the rear will not.

The only way to get that with off the shelf parts is a 3'' Supesion lift and a 3'' body lift. Your 4Runner cannot be lifted 6'' (suspension) easily because the rear driveshaft will come into contact with the gastank skid plate. "SC4Runner" has made it work, you can follow his lead by looking up his posts on the topic.

 

"Your truck cannot use those lifts off the shelf. They are for either the Tacoma or Tundra, with leaf sprung rear axles. I'm going to assume you want 6'' of lift on your 97'. The front suspension parts would work, the rear will not."

aah, yes, I did search, and I have come up with a solution for the none compatable rear components from the Tacoma kit(s). Trailer Master, and Tough Country both sell the front, and rear seperately. I have however consulted with SC4Runner in regards to his setup, and have opted for the following rear suspension configuration:

OME N71E
Land Cruiser coils
1.5" Daystars

What I am trying to avoid is the following scenario: casually driving on a paved road, hitting a bump, breaking a spindle, and then having my tire smash into the tire well..

 

Don't forget that SC has a whacked panhard, too (not in your list above). You will need to do something similar to avoid the axle rotation problem. Also look in the tech section (I believe) for "The truth about Panhard bars". You may or may not want to replicate SC's panhard solution for your truck if you are going that high, based on what you read.

Just some input. Good luck with you lift!

 

aah, yes. I will purchase a Panhard drop bracket. If I recall SC4Runner had his lengthend.

Alot of support modifications are required for the 6" lift: powersteering cooling, transmission cooling, re-gearing, and extended brake lines.

It really looks like I am leaning towards the Trail Master kit..unless someone can convince me otherwise that the Tough Country has fixed faulty components.

 

You could consider doing a rear leaf swap. If you really want a good performance rear suspension. The factory rear coil is a good setup for 0-3" of lift. If you want more than that IMO you need a leaf swap. I did this on my 95 and it was awesome. On-road and off-road performance was greatly improved.

 

If you want 6" in the rear w/ coils than go to POLY . You can make longer lower control arms (lots of options) and weld on new mounts. Otherwise the angle on the stock arms will be too steep.

 

Yep, I did look for a while at keeping the coil setup, but I didnt want to relocate the gas tank, which would have been necessary to get the arms long enough...

 

My setup has been working okay, but, I still have a long way to go until I am completely satisfied. :/

First thing is you should really switch to leafs or redesign the entire "4 link" rear. I am still a little stumped on how to fit longer links in the 3rd gen. Plus, you'd have to be a pretty good fabricator and have access to all the tools to do this.

So, leaf springs are best option in general. Since most of us here aren't professional fabricators, or do not have access to professional tools, the most viable option is to do a leaf spring swap. Its a tad easier, but, will still require quite a bit of work!!

For the time being, I will either get a stock panhard bar and lift the axle braket up 3" and drop the upper bracket down 3", to acheive a flat laying panhard bar. My bar is too long for drivers side stuff, and has had contact with the gastank skidplate, which is no fun.

Once I get enough time, I'll do a leaspring swap. I'm still going to play around with what I have first in the meantime.

OH, and back to the whole first question on which frontend kit to go with.. I've had no problems with my trailmaster, but, id probably opt for a tuff country. The trailmaster does use a hydraulic strut which replaces the upper a-arm which is a little sketchy, but, the whole assembly which replaces it is made out of gnarly steel, so it hasnt caused problems.

 

Here are some pics I posted in another forum from when I did my leaf swap.

The trailmaster is a 6" and the tuff country is a 5" The trail master is the older of the two, and I have seen guys thrash on them with no problems. You can talk to watrd about what he did to modify his for ultimate streangth.

Fabtech also has a 6" out, I dont know much about it, but they seem to have a good rep with other lifts.

POST # 500

 

Depends on how long you want them. Looks like the drivers side can go forward about 6" without gastank problems. Just weld a nut on the inside of the mount. It would require the tank to be removed to weld on the link bracket.

I'm confused on what I want to do. SAS in front with coil springs, shocks, and a 3-link. And in back just modify the stock setup.

Or leafs all the way around.

 

If you going to put the effort in for a SAS go the extra day or two and do a leaf swap. I dont think that 6" is enough longer, and the lack of places for the upper links is the problem I saw.

 

Yup, same here...

No places to mount the uppers.... Alls I know is that you can eliminate the panhard if you just mount the uppers from the outside frame rails to the center of the axle...and the opposite for the lowers. Still, that gastank hangs down so low. ;/

Like I said, leafs are much easier in this situation. Im going to use the 63" chevies, Ive heard some good things about them!

 

I too have heard good things about the chevy leaves. THATS LONG. As it is my 56" are almost at the bottom of the frame rail, and the shackles can really go any further back.

I went with the 56" so I could at least have a few looks at other rigs and stock P/U's to see where they went, all in all it was a pretty easy swap.

let us know when you do it, I havent seen a 3rd gen with a swap yet..

 

3rd gen on leafs HERE

 

Thats a nice looking runner....

 

cubuff4runner, SteveO and sschaefer3 have leafs...

Here are some good pictures of SteveO's : http://www.hunt4steve.com/99RunExt_rrsusp.html

 

Pretty similar to how I did mine. I used almost all the same parts. I used a ORS /\ shock mount, and had Alcans made. I didn't want to use the allpro ones because they were rated for vehicles from 3000-4500#'s, and my 95 weighed 5100 with only recovery equipment.....

If anyone wants some 56" alcans designed for a 4runner let me know, I want to sell mine and get the allpros now, my reg cab weighes about 1500# less..

 

I was planning on a 3.5"-4" lift w/ coils front and rear. Using 3" ID 16" long rated at 250lb Eibach springs in front w/ a custom 3 link and Panhard. Hopefully w/ a Diamond axle. Rear FJ80 springs and slightly longer lower arms.
Looking to make it a strong flexy rig, not a big one.