Lifting my 2004 double cab

This is my first post here, I'm looking to lift my automatic 2004 tacoma double cab 3.4l v6 TRD, I mostly drive on the street for now as it is my daily driver, but am planning to take many more camping trips and tougher offroading trails this summer, the problem is that I haven't decided on a lift yet.
I am looking for about a 2.5 to 3 inch lift with the possibility of adding a front bumper and winch later on. I am looking to spend under 1300 on the lift itself, and I will be getting ucas later on.
I've been heavily considering either the
BK9504 bilstein 5100/ebiach lift coil in the front with an aal in the rear, the
TTHA-9504 toytec/eibach 3 inch lift, or the
OME-9504TAC old man emu lift. Does anyone have any experience with these lifts and which one do you guys recommend I get.

 

Form everything I've read here on TW, you can't go wrong with Old Man EMU. And, I've read countless numbers of posts with positive praise for this setup. Right now I'm keeping my truck stock, because I'm a cheap tightwad, and having to live on a fixed income. I have a new set of 4600 shocks, that I need to have installed, or I'll do it myself later in the year, unless the ride just gets too bad.

 

I have the same truck as you.
The first lift I installed on it was the 3” Eibach coils & Bilstein 5100’s on the bottom setting with Camburg UCA’s. Then the AAL with 5100’s in the rear.
A little while after I added a front TG tube bumper and then finally a TG rear bumper and sliders.
I will say that the Eibach combo was a little bit stiff but it was nice to not have to preload the springs and it handled fine. It’s a truck after all.
It was a good entry level economic lift.
Eventually I went with Icon ext. travel CO’s, Icon rear shocks and Deaver J59 spring packs. The bonus with this stuff is you can rebuild it. When it comes time, I just throw on my take offs while the fronts or the rears are being rebuilt.
Good luck with whichever one you choose David!

 

Thank you Morgan! I really appreciate the insight, I've been leaning towards the bilstein/ebaich lift just because I've heard so many good things about the 5100's but I haven't seen anything about that lift on the double cab first gen!

 

No problem. More people will chime in. I never had any problems with the 5100’s. And I know a lot people say AAL’s are just a band aid fix to already worn out OEM leaf packs. But if you’re trying to stay on a budget like I was for my first lift. It definitely did the job.
Not sure how many miles you have on your rig.
When I first installed that lift I had 180k miles. Here’s a pic.
Since then, I’m up to almost 280k miles now. I had the Eibach/5100 lift for about 50k miles. Then decided to change it up. Here’s the only recent picture I have. Bare bones. I forgot to add I have almost always been running 265/75/16 tires.

 

What did your headlight setup run you and who did it?

 

I have the 5100s/eibach coil, wheelers 3 leaf AAL in the rear with toytec 1in Lift shacks An’s 9” travel 5125 in the rear. No complaints. Has been fine for me. But, if I was to do it over, I would just get emu full kit. I installed a couple emu kits in my friends trucks and I like the way they ride more.

 

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