Remi

I want to install a ARB bullbar and winch on my 94 ext cab 4wd pickup. But I want to get the suspension ready for the extra weight. I want to get the OME torsion bars. At the same time if I'm doing the work to change the torsion bars I'd like to do a suspension lift 2" - 3".
I'm a little confused as to what to go with. There are so many more threads about 4runners than pickups, it's hard to find the relevant info.

This is my daily driver pickup. So whatever I do I want the least amount of problems for daily street driving but still get some ground clearance for my weekend wheeling. I don't plan to do any hard core rock crawling. I don't plan on ever doing a SAS.

What would be the highest quality kit to raise the front? (no more than 3")

I already raised the rear with 3" longer extended shackles. But that was just to level out the truck as the rear was sagging. I did this before I was doing allot of offroading. I could have gotten longer shackles, but I don't want them to go to waste now that I want extra 3". I don't want to do a add-a-leaf. As my truck bed is empty most of the time and I don't want a harsh ride as a result. Would it be a good idea than to get new leaf springs (chevies?) and keep the extended shackles? Would the extended shackles fit new leaf springs?

Also, back when I bought the truck (year ago) I bought new shocks (procomp). I would have to get shocks with longer travel if I do the lift, correct? I also got new inner and outer tie rods, pitman/idler arms and new CV's. Could I still use them with a lift?

Last, when my 3.slow starts to get headgasket issues/and or reaches 300k km (in a year or 2) I want to swap in a 3.4. I know that I will than need to do a 2" body lift. Thats why I don't want a 4" suspension lift now. I don't want the truck to be to tall for city driving in the future. That and I have 31x10.5 revo's now. And next time I get new tires I don't plan on going any bigger than 33x11.50.

Thanks for any answers. And If this has been posted before please point me to the threads. As I could not find many regarding pickups.

Silver_Truck

Hey ya theres alot of info on here and most of the 4runner/pickup stuff is interchangeable for our years but heres what i have and its netted me ~2" lift, chevy springs in the rear with 12" travel shocks...bj spacers up front with a little bit of t-bar crank to level it out and rs9000 shocks on position 2 and a 2" bl its my dd and rides nice and smooth on and off the road with good flex for IFS. I would go with SAW t-bars as arbs with winches are heavy and you'll want the extra spring rate so you don't have to crank em as much (cranking=less flex) and bj spacers up front chevies or waggys in the rear and do your bl now so you have less down the road (will also give you more stuffing room ) you'll have to do a little fab work to mount your rear shocks unless you're going to be running shorter travel shocks and change your bump stops so your shocks don't bottom out. You can use all your stock steering parts and cvs just make sure you have manual hubs (preferably aisins) as the extra angle will wear your cvs faster. you will probably need new shocks unless you bought shocks for a lifted truck. hopefully that helps feel free to ask more ???s

Remi

Thanks for the reply. I do have a few questions? What brand BJ spacers did you use? How much lift do they provide without cranking the tbars up? And what kind of fab work would I need to do to mount the rear shocks?

thanks

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

If you install the ball joint spacers w/o changing the torsion bars, you should see around 1.5" of lift:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...ntSpacer.shtml

anthony1

iTrader: (1)

Keep inmind that your 3" shackle extension is giving you 1.5" of lift only. I dito the other guys on the BJ spacer.

Silver_Truck

Hey, theres only 1 company that makes em, SDORI, they're available from 4crawler.com sdori.com and trdparts4u.com they give ~1.5" of lift. for the rear shocks you need to build a shocktower and build some kind of mounts on your axle...i could send you some pics if you go that route to help you out...i could also throw one together for you for pretty cheap if you needed it.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

For 3-4" of lift, the rear shock mounts are fine. I ran Rancho 5143s on mine with that much lift and they were adequate:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/4R_suspension.shtml#PhaseII

Another option is to use the Rockstomper.com u-bolt flip kit:
- http://rockstomper.com/catalog/suspen/rear.htm

And you can probably run your existing shocks with the lift.

Some ideas on longer travel rear shocks (may involve re-routing the exhaust):
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/4R_suspe...shtml#R-Shocks

Silver_Truck

Those are good pages Roger...i was basing it on my experience where i couldn't run 12" (actually 13") travel shocks with only ~2" of lift due to the shocks bottoming out before full compression.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

Well yes, a 12" or 13" travel shock is probably too long. That is why I ran a 10.5" travel shock like the 5143. It had plenty of travel to handle the springs I was running. They did not have much more free arch than the stock leaves along with longer spring shackles. I could still compress the axle to the bumpstop and get full droop. So no real need for any more shock travel than you can make use of. In order to add 1" more travel to a given shock, the "can" needs to be 1" longer as well, so this lengthens the compressed length by the same amount. One advantage of mouting the shocks angled inward (as they were up to '83 on the Toyota pickups) is that you can fit a longer shock into a smaller vertical space due to the angle.

Remi

Thanks for the great info guys. I'm liking the idea of BJ spacers.

Are there any advantages to swaping the hubs from ADD to manual besides saving the CV's?

If there aren't, I would think the 1" diff drop kit would be allot cheaper.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

Manual hubs might save a little gas since you can totally unlock the front end. Then if you lock the hubs you still have full ADD function, or you can eliminate the ADD and go for the more reliable manual hub-only setup. You can get used Aisin (OEM) hubs for under $100/pr. usually. Diff drop is pretty much independent of the hubs, you can do both or one or the other or neither.

Silver_Truck

I'm not sure how much the diff drop is but you can usually pic up aisin hubs for 40-50 a pair

BLKNBLU

iTrader: (1)

Also for the rear, it should be mentioned that you can get replacement leaf springs that are a straight swap and provide lift. I think the chevy/waggy/mazda swaps require some fabbing as well for the hangers. (Silver Truck can probably address this since he has 'em) Off the top of my head Downey and OME have straight swap springs that bolt right in. I went with Downey strictly on price and am not unhappy so far. I think Rancho also has some as well as a nice add a leaf set up that has gotten good reviews. Just some more options for the rear. And let me throw in one more vote for the BJ spacers up front.

BLKNBLU

iTrader: (1)

In case you haven't seen it already, here is a thread that compares t bar rates. It looks like they finally get down to the heart of the matter at post #21. Just more food for thought.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...e+torsion+bars

Silver_Truck

yes chevies/waggies/mazdas etc essentially any other spring that isn't 48" toyota will require new hangers...i made mine out of 3.5x3.5 .25" steel they're about 8" long and have 3/16 skid plates to close in the ramped part... these are 9" forward of the stock hangers though i'd go 9.25 if i did it again. the rears are just 8" (i think) long shackles from the stock hangers. The advantage to these springs is that they flex better then the shorter yota springs and provide the lift without arching the springs alot which makes em stiffer.

jimbo74

a 94 pickup is 3rd hen, they were not the same gen wise as the similar 4 runner

1st gen pickup-79-83 was liek the trekker
2nd gen pu-84-88 was like gen 1 4runner
3rd gen pu-89-95/pretacoma like 2nd gen 4runner

Remi

4Crawler

What do you mean manual hub or manual hub only? Do you mean manual hubs with a different differential or transfer case?

BLKNBLU

Do you know what the straight swap OME springs provide in lift compared to chevies?
Yes that thread is what made me origianly decide on getting the OME torsion bars.

Silver_Truck

Do you have a picture of your hangers? How much lift did your springs provide.

jimabena74

Thats what I thought, but I see people refer to this pickup as both a 2nd gen (because of the 4runner) and 3rd gen by others.





Overall it seems like I could get everything I need by ordering and bolting on for the 2" supnesion lift I want, or I could do it a different way and and do some fabricating to use the chevie springs. Going by what Silver_Truck is saying, I think I'm better of with the chevie spings. But this means I'm going to have to wait a while as I'm not getting a welder until I move into a bigger workshop.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

What I mean is that you have plain old manual hubs (only), you lock them in by hand (i.e. manually) for 4WD and you unlock them for 2WD. You can defeat the ADD system as noted on this writeup:
- http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/tech/add/
You you end up with just the transfer case that can shift in and out of 2WD and 4WD and the front hubs you can lock and unlock. One minor feature you get is with the front hubs unlocked, you can use 4-LO and essentially have 2-LO, since the front hubs are unlocked, no power goes to the front wheels, but you still get the lower gearing of low range. I use 2-LO a lot, it is very handy to have sometimes.

Dr.Feelgood

Roger, according to the last paragraph in the ADD writeup, is it saying that the VSVs, etc can all be removed and NOT the ADD hubs, but yet still retain 4wd and shift-on-the fly? Or does it mean after you've replaced the hubs with manuals? I'm a little unclear on that.

BLKNBLU

iTrader: (1)

No, I don't know for sure. IIRC OME had 2" and 3" lift applications but you should probably call some dealers or ARB to confirm that. I put on 3" Downey springs and netted 2" of lift after settling. In other threads there is some discussion that it is due to my use of the springs on a runner instead of a truck and that they were designed to provide the advertised lift on a truck. Don't know for sure on that one, I can only relate my personal experience. I've also got a heavy custom rear bumper on top of the added weight on the rear of a runner.

I also had the impression that Chevies gave about 4" of lift but that doesn't appear to be Silver Trucks outcome. Maybe has something to do with where you mount the hanger or adding or subtracting leaves? I think you could get a general concencus that the chevy swap is "better" for wheeling (flex/articulation) plus they can be had cheap at a yard. It's just more complicated and I don't know if thats what you want based on your opening post.

As far as the 2nd gen 3rd gen thing the front suspension are all the same from 86-95 and the rear leafs are similar in all trucks and 84-89 runners. I think there is a difference in width or something because you'll see vendor listings for leaf springs broken down to 79-88 and 89-95 categories.