I recently bought an 84' pickup. It has a rebuilt 85' 22re in it. Engine/trans runs great, but everything else is in rough shape. I was planning on rebuilding both the front and rear axles, springs, shocks, and steering. From what I can tell the Trail Gear classic front lift seems perfect for what I need to do. Its pretty expensive, but its got everything I need in one package. I feel that the $1,200 is worth it since Ill get all the seals, gaskets, bearings, to fix the axle, and ill have the high steer to fix/upgrade the steering. Plus new springs and shocks. But as for the classic rear lift kit..., im not sure its worth the $800. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for a cheaper lift for the rear, that will match the hight and ride of the trail gear front. Im planning on making this truck my daily driver...

Any help is much appreciated.

 

63" Chevy spring swap will get you that lift a lot cheaper

 

Chevy 63s with a block will certainly do the trick. I did this in my 88 4Runner's SAS (3" trailgear with chevy 63s in the rear and 2" blocks). But I wasn't a fan. The rear felt unstable, i had zero confidence in it.

I eventually swapped to the all pro 37" tire rear springs and the 4Runner handles ten folds better.

Here's what my truck looks like:

 

That does look nice. Are you running 37s? I was thinking 35s since it's my daily.

 

Those are 35x12.50r15 Km2s. Uncut fenders, as well.

 

The all pro lift looks good. But it's the same price as the trail gear. Is there a reason you chose that over matching the front lift? Id figure that having trail gear front and rear would ride the best because they are tuned the same. Is the all pro better in some way?

 

Personal preference and reviews. The only all pro piece i have for the rear end is the springs itself and the relocated spring perches. other than that, it's trailgear shackles, and inverted shocks.

 

Awesome. Thanks for the advice👍

 

The spring packs or add-a-leafs probably won't get you there by themselves but that's ok. Pick you out a set and install them. Figure out just how much taller you want to go and then you can get a nice set of shackles pretty cheap to take up the difference. You can also use blocks or a combo of the two if you like. I don't like to put all my eggs in one basket when it comes to lifting a rear. High blocks will make it unstable. Spring packs that lift it a lot will likely be very stiff. I like the idea of using a little of all of it to achieve your desired height. Doing that will also upgrade several components instead of just lifting up all of your other old hardware. I used an add-a-leaf on my first one and was sad that it didn't get it up there as much as advertised but the ride was good. When I bought my new 6" shackles, I was super pumped when they came in because I could tell right away that they were going to be a major upgrade as they were so much better built than the stock shackles and my old hardware looked like it could break any day after I removed it. Both products along with a quality set of u-bolts cost me about $200. By the way, don't cut off the excess length of u-bolts for a week or so after you lift it. It's going to settle a little bit and you don't want to have to buy new hardware if you decide you need another 1/2".

One more thing. Keep in mind that as you lift the rear, you are changing the angle in which the drive shaft comes into the rear end. I believe Toytec sells a kind of wedge that goes in like a lift block and is designed to rotate your rear axle upward so it is more in line with the drive shaft and will greatly decrease the stress on your u-joints. I always use one when lifting over 3". 3" is my limit and I would probably use one then if the truck was going to be my daily driver.

That's just my opinion. A lot of folks do it different ways. Just do some reading and see what you think is best. Here is a pic of my 4Runner after 2.5" ball joint spacers up front and my add-a-leaf / shackle combo.

 

That's extremely helpful. Thanks for your input. I've heard a lot about using Chevy springs in the rear. I just wasn't sure how the ride would handle as a daily driver if I use two differently tuned packages in the front vs the rear. I don't want to end up with a squishy rear and a stiff front that wants to buck me forward every time I hit a bump.