I recently picked up a 96 4runner for my son's first truck. There aren't a lot of 4wd 4runners in NW Florida (no real need for them I guess). So 2wd was the best I could do. He wants to give it a beefer look, so I'm thinking PreRunner type mods.
Has anyone had any experience with moderate 1-2" lifts for 2wd? I have checked out OME and Sonorasteel but couldn't find any 2wd lifts to speak of.

I am a longtime Toyota owner and don't have a problem digging into them. I'm looking forward to doing this build with him.


Ideas???

 

I forgot to mention...

V6, Auto tranny, grocery getter in a previous life

 

lifts are all the same for our 4runners, reason SS says 4wd because the include the diff drop spacer and thats for a front diff.

 

Look here.

 

You have come to the right place... I will let the two posts below pretty much speak for the lifting and tire part:

Thread #1
Thread #2

I have 4.88 Gears with a ARB Air Locker. I am very very sad to say that I haven't spent too much time offroad with my locked 2WD but I plan on changing that this winter. You should read up about gear ratios, if I had to do mine again I really might go for a 4.56 gear setup. At 70MPH on the freeway I am turning about 3000 RPM which is a little high for my taste.

The only issue that I have had has been some noise coming from the drivetrain. If you ready this thread:

Thread #3

you will see that the 4WD and 2WD have different types of connections from transmission to driveshaft. The 4WD is able to accomodate the higher driveshaft angle. The 2WD is able to accomodate it however there is a winding noise. It isn't loud enough to bother me but someday I plan on figuring out a solution.

I hope all this helps you along your way, good luck with the 2WD lift (we need more numbers)!

 

forget lifting it (lifting a 2wd is lame IMHO), supercharge it and throw on some BFG all terrains (for the beefier look). I think some larger tires (265/75/16's) will do more to make it look tough than lifting it.

 

Nolan- That's exactly what I was looking for. I have heard of using Stock '99 4wd Springs. What year were your's? How did you determine your shock length?

 

Lifting 2WD's inst lame, you just have to remember that its not a 4WD, I am putting 3" spacers and Add A Leafs on my 2WD PreRunner model, and going with 33" BFG's.

 

What's the point of lifting it again??

I wish somebody bought me a fairly new 4Runner... and then did all the mods, too. =)

 

Because it's the MALE thing to do. We just can't leave well enough alone. I'm not doing the mods myself, just doing it along side--passing the torch :-)

 

Oh, I see... definitely a male thing to do.

One more kid, who doesn't know the value of money 'cause his 4Runner and the mods and everything else has been paid for by his male-thing daddy.

I think he'll need a 12 inch lift after all.

 

Oh, crap... I'm seriously off topic...

 

Who said I was paying for it.

 

i think fabtech or pro comp can help, but i don't know 110% for sure about two wheel drive. I know that if you go 6" fabtech will work on either 4x4 or 4x2

 

It's been said a thousand times... A mellow lift with a rear locker and some good tires will take a truck a lot of places... Like Rocko pointed out, you just have to remember it's NOT a 4wd. But if you wanna lift it, lift it! In your part of the country you probably don't need 4wd anyway, but I could imagine that there would be some situations where having a locker would save you. You know, if you wanna go crazy, you could always go long travel...

 

I was going to say the same thing, Long Travel 2WD's are sick

 

Not a bad idea if you want to dump 6-7K into the front end. Get some coil spacers. They are cheap and allow you to run a bigger tire.

 

Well, it's money well spent.

I would go with bigger coils rather than spacers, the spacers will evetually make your stock springs sag if used off-road.

 

Fabtech makes a great 2" inch coilover lift with Add A Aleafs in the rear, for the 2WD 4Runners (they make it in 3.5" for the tacos, Im not sure what the difference is...), its not terribly pricey. Check it out. http://www.4wheelonline.com/Products...roductID=72029

Toytec makes a great Spacer Lift. Check it out at www.toyteclifts.com

then of course there always the long travel kits....but I'll leave the homework on those up to you...

 

I just have a spacer kit, as well as 99 4wd coils in the rear, in jan i am putting the locker and 99 4wd coils in the front. here in texas i don't really need the 4wd, but i the looks and the better gas mileage