Front suspension, stock vs Rough Country

Looking to lift my truck 3 inches. In the back, I'm doing Rough Country N3 shocks with a block, but I'm stumped on what to do in the front. RC offers a 3in strut spacer in a kit for the stock Bilstein 4600, and they offer a lifted N3 strut. There is a $300 price difference and I'm not sure if it's worth it. I've heard RC drives stiff (I daily drive + road trip with occasional offroading) so I was considering just doing the strut spacer kit, let me know what you all think.

 

Forget RC and start over.

If alternatives are out of budget right now, wait and save until they are in budget.

And just for giggles, Tacomas dont have struts. Regardless of what people and catalogs call them.

 

All that money into a truck with nice suspension and your going to install the cheapest crap available and ruin the truck with spacers and blocks?

 

A 3” top-of-coil spacer seems like a bad idea. Firstly, when your coil over is fully extended, your wheel will be 3” lower than it’s supposed to be, except it probably won’t be because your ball joint will bind or your uca will contact your coil before that. Secondly, when your suspension bottoms out, the shock will take the hit before the bump stop. Not good IMHO. Plus it requires about the same amount I would guess (ive never installed a spacer).

If you drive your truck like it’s a princess you might never have a problem. I don’t, so I went with a full coil over upgrade.

 

Also the stock bilsteins are Not 4600's, they're smaller.

 

I'm not going to do the spacer I decided, but would the 3 inch RC lifted struts + shocks in the back actually be a bad idea? I knew they used to be bad, but I've read a lot saying that their quality has really improved and they aren't a bad option anymore.

 

I've read that RC used to be bad, but they have greatly improved. I was really leaning towards the RC lifted shock/strut or whatever it is with the 3-inch block/shocks in the back. What would be some issues id run into? I know it is not the best, but it would still perform better than stock suspension with 65k miles on it, right? To save money I might wait till I can install it myself in a few months rather than go to a shop now. If I did that, what would you recommend for a 3 inch lift?

 

One of the guys up there are correct. It’s not a strut. We have upper control arms so technically it’s just a coil over.

The issue is RC just isn’t better than the OEM.

If the coil overs you are referring to are anything like I’ve seen, you are basically down grading from OEM, and spending my money to do so. In my opinion anyways.

Consider something like 5100s if you want 3 inches or seriously try waiting and save up the funds for something mo bedda.

 

My original plan was to do 5100s in the front with the stock springs, then 5100's + icon add a leaf in the back. I think that would only give me like 2 inches max though. I can afford something better the issue is I don't want to spend $2k on new suspension haha

 

Stick with stock unless you're going to spend money. Why cheap out when the truck wasn't cheap to begin with?
It's just fine out of the box for the majority of buyers

 

Rough country isn’t as bad as people make them out to be. Just don’t use their coil overs or shocks and you’ll be fine.

 

Their molle panels look great for the price. Suspension, not so much

 

You haven't stated the model/configuration of your truck or how you use it.

At least tell us if its 2wd or 4wd.

 

I was gonna do a rough country lift but I decided to wait, increase my budget, and get a set of fox 2.0s. It doesn't lift as high but it feels much better on and off-road. I do have a small spacer in the rear but its unnoticeable.

 

They have not improved. They are cheap for a reason.

 

These trucks come with about 3" of down travel from the factory. Using coil overs, for each 1" of lift you loose 1" of down travel. Having zero down travel seems like a bad idea. Shoot for 2" of lift,

 

Bilsteins and an AAL arent even close to $2k. If you can afford $2k then you can surely afford spending half on a better option.

$1000 - Entry Lifts and Suspensions
$2500 - Premium options for OEM replacements
$5000 - Performance suspension which may require fabrication

 

No yeah I mean I want at least 3 inches and the Bilstein 5100 wouldn't get me there. Seems like all better options are around $2k after that.

 

2018 Tacoma TRD Offroad V6 4x4, I daily drive it, take it on 10-hour drives multiple times a year and I occasionally go off-road.

 

Okay, ill check it out, thanks.