Howdy fella's - I recently bought a 93 extended cab 4x4 Pickup with the 3.0 V6 (as you can see by my sig).

The truck had new leaf springs installed with an add a leaf before I bought it and it has effectively raised the back end an inch or 2. I like the slightly lifted look - don't get me wrong, but the guy I bought it off of also cranked the torsion bars up a bit to almost match the lift gained in the rear essentially, although I think he might have cranked them up a little bit more than needed, maybe 1/2" more than the rear b/c it looks slightly more lifted in the front. Anyways, I know the leaf springs with the AAL unloaded will ride rough (and with a few hundred pounds of fishing/camping gear they'll ride better), but I'm concerned about the front being raised by cranked torsion bars. And for a few good reasons that we all know. The main ones being I don't want to add too much stress to the Torsion bars; the front suspension is damn stiff and I don't need to be jarred twice when I go over a speed bump; I don't want to be replacing my CV boots every 6 monthes; I want a little better articulation (although yes I know it's limited with the IFS, but still) than what the cranked up front end currently offers for ride comfort/control offroad.

So what are my options? I think they are probably the following

1) Crank the torsion bars down maybe 1/2" to at least match the rear and hopefully this may slightly increase ride comfort and take a little less stress off of the cv boots/torsion bars/other front IFS components and soften up the front suspension. My question to you is then how much of a difference will this 1/2" make? all that much? I fear that anymore than a 1/2" drop will make the rear end look higher than the front, although I'll have to measure and check to be sure

2) Crank the torsion bars down a lot and then look at some form of raising the front IFS. But what are my options there? Ball Joint spacers? If I got ball joint spacers, would I also need a spacer in the shock mount too? What else would I need? I would imagine I could then, with a ball joint spacer, crank the torsion bars right down and regain articulation and a softer front ride, is this correct?

3) I want to do a little survey just for my own curiousity - if you can't provide answers or clarificaiton to some of my post above, at least humor me with this - assuming you have the 15" stock rims on your pick up, and stock 31" tires (actually - I'm guessing tire size doesn't matter?) and no lift, and you have the chrome little fender trim that most Toyota pickups & 4runners from this gen came with, what is the measured distnace from the bottom of your trim piece to the top of the 15" rim? And what is your impression of quality of ride of your front IFS? Do you have your torsion bars cranked at all?

Help!

 

If you want engineering equations to figure the stress in the torsion bars, i can dig you up something.... lemme know

 

hey does the 97 tacoma have torsion bars?

 

I've read 13"- 15'" from top of rim to bottom of fender is what most people run. Above 15" and you start to really stress things. Mine are at 14 1/2. Ride seems a little stiff, but don't have anything to compare it to. Been thinking about BJ spacers too.

If you have coils you don't have torsion bars.

 

Yeah mine are at like 14 3/8"-1/2" and they seem a little stiff too. Supposedly it's b/c when you crank the torsion bars it changes the angles of the control arms and that makes it stiffer.

 

pretty sure they don't. I believe they are coil springs? correct me if im wrong here guys.

 

When you crank the torsion bars up, your changing the angle of twist, which causes more internal stress in the bar, and with the more stress, it requires more effort to twist it more (i.e. when you hit a bump) therby giving you the stiffer feeling.