i am looking for a lift for a future truck. what kind of lifts are you guys running or would you like to be running. what are the best toyota lifts. i was looking on the 4 wheel parts website and a skyjacker 5inch lift is only like $305.00. that seems cheap to me but whatever. any input would be nice.

How much lift are you looking for? Do you have more time or money? If you want to bolt on some springs and go then I would recommend either Old Man Emu or Skyjacker. Try to get rear lift springs though instead of blocks, they will control axle wrap and likely flex better. Judging by the price I would guess that the kit you were looking at does not include rear springs.

Junkyard springs are proven and work well if you have some time and want to scrounge the yards and experiment. A lot of people run either YJ Wranger, Wagoneer, or rear Toyota springs in the front of their trucks and Mazda or 1/2 ton Chevy springs in the rear.

I personally run All-Pro springs all around on my truck. They are reasonably priced and work well on the trail and the road.

Check out the suspension section on Toyotalinks.com for even more options.

Running the 1/2 ton chevy springs is very popular because you get great flex and you can get the springs for a pretty reasonable price. They also handle well on the road. This will require moving your spring mounts forward about 11 inches and running longer shackles. You can determine how much lift you get buy the shackle length. Up front, the Rancho 44044s are a good choice. this package offers a lot of flex and can be yours for about $600 or so. Stay away from blocks and Add-a-Leaves! Allpro spings and AOR springs are also awesome. AOR is pretty pricey though. Good luck.

Here's the progression of suspension setups of my '85 4Runner.

Harry:

I have an 85 Pick Up with 3" Downeys, which I am considering swapping out for 4" or 5" All Pro springs. Are you running the stock length front springs or the longer ones? The wheeling I do is pretty moderate, and I wonder if I really need the extra flex provided by longer fronts. Any insight you might have will be greatly appreciated.

the rig I am gettign this weekend is running hybrid up front using toyota rears, and 3 misc. leafs with a drop hanger amd the rear is the chevy cpring swap. junk yard lift. and it out performs any "bolt on" I have EVER SEEN.

I'm not Harry, but I run stock length fronts, Alcans (not unlike AllPro). For moderate wheeling they work extremely well, for more extreme wheeling longer *might* be worth it but they seem to do just fine. They flex a bunch more even than the 5 inch longer-than-stock rears.

There's words, and then there's pix. This good enough for ya?

Huh. The image functionality appears busticated. Paste the link in your browser.

Edit: Hey Harry, the "image" functionality prepends/postpends the link with "[img] ... [/img]". It appears to not work. Replacing it with "[img]" etc. does work. Don't outsourcing work just peachy? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/butwiggle.gif" alt="" />

I think that is because the frame is wider in the rear and there is not as much weight back there. You are right though, the fronts flex more than the rear.

I am running the longer than stock All-Pro springs, mainly because I used their hanger for my solid axle swap. If you have stock 85 spring hangers though I don't see much advantage to running the longer springs.

Speak for yer own hiney, Harry. There's a BUNCH of weight in my rear. But there's a bunch more leaves in the Alcan/Allpro rears, I think that has a lot to do with it. ScaldedDog went with even longer than +5s, moved his axle back, oh, 6" or so, and now likes his flex really well. I'm not ready to hack the wheel wells to that extent, but that's another option.