Lift kit

[TANKER8]

Does anyone make a suspension lift that will allow me to run at least 35's with no body mods. I plan to do moderate playing with it.

[mummac]

Rough Country has a 6" diff drop lift http://www.roughcountry.com/toyota_4wd_fj-cruiser_6.html. I met a guy that runs it with 35s and says that he doesn't have any problems. Do you plan on keeping the same gears?

[PhilC64]

You're better off chopping the front body mount for any tire over 33". With a body mount chop and 3" lift you could fit 35"s I had 33"s on mine without a chop but rubbed at full lock and articulation. You're better off doing this simple mod to make your life easier and save those expensive tires.

Front body mount for the FJC

http://www.norcalttora.com/~andy/fjstuff/frontmount/mount1.JPG

Chopped body mount

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1192/1286600037_cef3145500.jpg?v=0

[BellyDoc]

I've got 35's with a 3" lift. It takes some work.

A 3" suspension lift does not change what size wheel fits inside the wheel well! The suspension can STILL cycle top to bottom. All the lift does is to reset the point in the arc of travel that the system comes to rest at.

6" lifts use a drop bracket to accept the lower control arm, and since it's the SAME control arm with the same length, it's arc of motion is now lower. The top out is lower than stock.

That being said, the back part of the wheel doesn't move forward with ANY lift system. There is a close fit between wheel and wheel well at that point. Even slight increases in tire size over stock have to be done carefully and the backspacing of the rim needs to be taken into account. Tire diameter, width and backspace ALL need to be considered together. A 33x12.50" tire with low backspacing (tire sticks out away from the vehicle) will rub the body mount bracket when the steering wheel is turned to approach full lock. The same tire with more backspace (tires are set deeper into the wheel well) may clear the bracket with turning.

If you want to go to 35" tires of ANY width, you'll need to chop that bracket back (it's got a lot of unneccesary metal) or you'll need to accept a lot of rubbing. 35" tires will contact the plastic fender flare too, at the top of their compression. Accept rubbing or trim back the plastic (or remove it completely). There is a pinch weld in the back edge of the wheel well that will be exposed if you either remove or trim the fender flare. I went ahead and took that down too. It looks too knife-like for my taste, being near my tires. With full top-out, the 35's will contact the ceiling of the wheel well. I've accepted that since it's brief. However, I've made sure that there are no prodtruding connectors!

The rear wheel well has similar issues but they're not as complex. The plastic fender flare needs trimming and there's a pinch weld that needs to be taken down. The bigger problem is that the rear articulation is significantly MORE and has a completely different geometry. When a rear axle twists up, the tire comes up and ANGLES INWARD. The 35's don't contact the roof of the wheel well, they contact the inside wall! The easy solution is to drop the bump stops a bit to minimize contact. I've got a 1" thick spacer under the stock bump stop with good results.

I haven't closely evaluated the 6" kits for the FJ Cruiser. I never considered one since I would rather carve the wheel well to fit the tire than to jack up the center of gravity unneccessarily. The FJ Cruiser is already tall and top heavy relative to the amount of ground clearance it's got. I wheel it pretty hard. Side-hill stability isn't something I want to throw away, if I can avoid it.

Suspension lifts are for ground clearance. They don't increase the amount of space available for larger tires unless you never cycle the suspension.