Ok, for all of you that have installed your own coil/spacer/suspension/body lift, whatever, I'm curious to see whose went on the easiest without the use of any special tools other than hand tools and how happy are you with the outcome? Looking for something simple I can install at home this weekend that will give me a few extra inches for clearance.

 

Speaking with no personal experience, a body lift is probably the easiest to install. Anything regarding a suspension lift will involve reassembling the front struts, which means you'll have to use a spring compressor (can be sketchy) or pay a shop to do it.

 

Any suspension lift is going to require the use of a spring compressor and should be paired with an alignment. However other than that, a 1"-3" lift is very easy. The spring compressors can be difficult, however if you want to go an easy do it yourself route, pull the struts off take them to a tire shop and have them assemble the front lift. They have numatic spring compressors that take about 3 seconds to use. Don't know what they would charge but it couldn't be that much because it would only take 15-25 min total to do.

 

[QUOTE=mpavolka;50763338]Any suspension lift is going to require the use of a spring compressor and should be paired with an alignment.QUOTE]

Not always true. I his case, yes, but not everyone's.
For example, my truck has no springs, so no spring compressor needed.
As for anybody with a 2nd gen or newer 4Runner, yeah, you need
one.

As far as your question, a body lift will be the easiest for you because
it really doesn't require specialty tools and you won't have to align it
afterward.

 

Body lift will take you a few hours, and all you need are some sockets to un-do the body mounts and a screwdriver to take off the inner panels. You'll still need a floor jack to lift the body off the frame though.

There are spacers that used to be available through Daystar which fit on top of the coil pack. This wouldn't require a spring compressor.

 

you can buy coilovers and rear leaves that are all pre-assembled

 

I'm with Unitofstuff and SCRunner. For EASE, the BL (1"-2") is the way to go.

As far as getting a shop to reassemble the front struts, I recall seeing a post where someone mentioned that PepBoys would do it for like $20 each side. I would bet you could find a shop in your area to help you out if you went with that option.

 

When I changed the struts on my GT4 years ago, I just rented the spring compressor from a local auto parts store (Railly's I believe). My brother and I tried to use a ratchet to compress it... Yeah, I know... Dumb move. After around 5 seconds of that we used his air compressor and air gun. That was down in Kansas City, MO. I'm sure you can rent speciality parts like that elsewhere.

 

[QUOTE=nix4x4;50763349]You don't need one for a 2nd gen 4runner either.

 

A BL is the easiest I've done. But at the same time the new 3" over stock coils I installed in the rear ere pretty easy and I didn't need a compressor to get them in. The BJ Spacers coming up I think are going to be the hardest though.