Do a 4" suspension and put a 2-3" block in the rear and you will achieve a nice lift and still keep the appearance you are looking for.

 

is that true? coz if it is true then that would suck big time.

 

from what i've read it is. dont know about the gas filler neck for sure, but i know the radiator position needs to be adjusted when you do a body lift. ive heard yes and no about the brake lines. i've never done one before myself, this is just what i've read from the forums and articles ive seen from googling

 

ok i feel like im beating this horse to death, but i found some lift parts on ebay that, when totaled up, come out to quite a bit less than a full kit. hoping someone that knows more about this than i do can chime in and tell me if this setup will work for me.

FRONT:
3" coil spacers
4" lift spindles

REAR:
3" rear shackles
2" blocks

in thoery, this would give me a leveled 7" lift, more than enough to clear my 35" tires and wheels with 4.5" backspacing. each of these components come with all the installation pieces (nuts, bolts, washers, etc, etc). my question is what else, if anything, would be necessary? shocks, springs, control arms, etc?

 

Clearing tires and being able to perform off-road are two different things!

If this is for looks, then yes, a body lift and level will be fine.

If you intend to do serious off-roading, then you will want a suspension lift, or suspension lift and body lift combo. Even though 'Nitto has the former, I'm sure he'd agree with me on this.

Also, 20s look fantastic and are fine if this is a pavement queen with looks project, but 20's do not offer the sidewall flex or footprint needed for serious off-roading.

You really need to decide on what you will be doing and go from there...

 

this is basically a pavement ride, a mall stomper. but i do go off road as well and would like the ability to hit the dirty sand we have out here in socal without thinking twice about it. that being said, i'm also not intending to run in the baja rallys either lol. where i live (not far from the Imperial Dunes) is mostly sand, and sometimes mud during the 3 days a year we actually get rain lol. so this truck will see 90% pavement, but wanna be prepared for the 10% of fun i like to have in mexico on my rare days off.

for wheels, i've decided to go with 18s on 35s. but i'd like a larger suspension lift 6-7" because i like the way they look and i like to show some good wheel well rather than stuffing my rubber. the lift is pretty much for looks and to clear the tires. its so flat out here that clearance really isnt an issue in most of the places i'd be driving off road. but im not a huge fan of body lifts, so i want to try and make this lift all suspension.

 

I think that's a good choice. I've had three trucks with body lifts and this one with a suspension lift. NO COMPARISON!

I don't know a lot about suspensions lifts for 4x2s, I can tell you that in lifts for IFS 4x4s, I found after a ton of research that Rancho and Skyjacker are among the better lifts. Not that the Fabtechs & ProComps are bad, but the former use a solid boxed sub-frame for strength, where the less expensive kits use a couple of cross-members.
Do your homework, ask some people who've put suspension lifts on 4x2s...

 

theres a suspension place not far from here that quoted me $1500 for a CST 7" suspension lift. installation, alignment, everything included i just bring my wheels & tires and drop the truck off for a full day. apparently someone ordered this kit several months ago for the exact same truck i have, and paid a deposit, but never returned, so this guy has this kit sitting on the shelves for a few months and is willing to give it to me for cheap to get rid of it. Is CST a good brand? I dont hear much about them really. it's always pro-comp or rancho...

 

That's a pretty good deal. I just looked them up, wow, there are so fewer components required to lift a 4x2!!!

Basically you get the spindles, new coil springs (from what I'm reading, you cannot use the spacers with the spindles, so new springs are required) blocks and U bolts.

Because that's basically it, I can't see a real difference from one brand to another.

Going price for that kit is right at $1000 before shipping. So the guy wants $500 for the installation and alignment. It's not the steal of a lifetime, but a good deal...

 

CST is a great company. You'd better go grab that quick because that's a steal.