My 4Runner was professionally SAS'd. I have the receipt. $1200 total bill including installation of a crawler case. If you have $2000 for lift alone, you should definitely go SAS now. It's only going to cost you ~$200 to have the hanger welded on and the shackle holes drilled/tubes welded. The rest can be done at home.
That was just labor right?, parts alone run more than $1200.
If you can't fab a lot of your own parts, a complete kit from Marlin runs $1,449(includes front springs and Hi-steer x-over steering), then you still need an axle another $250 or more plus a rebuild kit, and gears. Easily looking at more than $2k.
Add 2K for gears and lockers (unless you find them used), and $1k for sliders and front/rear bumpers and you are up to $5K. You now have a truck that can wheel some seriously hard trails that will cause body damage. But if you aren't up for the body damage.... that $250 lift starts to look good especially since you really need the gears and lockers.
Oh I forgot, lift over 4" and there is a strong likelyhood you will need a custom driveshaft to handle the angles otherwise driveline vibes can happen. That's $500.
Also forgot, that stock Toy axle's birfields are far weaker than the IFS CV joints and I think those are around $250.
There are many other little things that tend to bite you when you lift high. For a dialy driver you just aren't going to wheel trails where you need a solid axle or your truck will not be a daily driver for very long.
What I'm trying to say is consider carefully what you choose to do with your truck because there are a lot of hidden costs associated with high lifts and big chassis changes.
Frank
