I want to lift my GX but nothing too extreme. I was thinking 2" would be great. I just got in my Bilstein 5100 adjustable shocks w/Eibach 6200 springs for the front and I have a question about the perch setting. I'm going to do the air bag trick for the back for a few months until I can do the rear coil swap and I'm worried about lifting the front too high to where it sits higher than the back. As it sits now, my back is about 1.5" higher than the front and if I go up 2" on the front I need to go at least .5" on the back. Ideally I would like to go up 1" on the back. Any advice? Thanks in advance

 

Without knowing all the details I would like to offer the following advise.

Time: If you only have time to do the fronts, wait until you have time to do the rears as well. The front is that hard part (labor wise).
Money: If you only have cash to do the front and have to wait on the rears. Save up until you can do all at the same time.
Priorities: If, at this point you don't have enough cash flow to pay for a whole lift, maybe you shouldn't lift it at all and build some savings and become more financially stable. A lift should never be something you should have to save for. It is an unneeded extravagance that really is only something fun. I'm not trying to be rude, but trying to provide some guidance where I see needed (with the limited amount of information provided).

Maybe there are other circumstances here. But regardless of the situation, I don't see why it would be a good idea to do half a lift at a time. do it all or do none of it.

 

Guys "trick the bags" to lift the rear all the time on these trucks, just be prepared for a plan B should the bags crap out on you. Spring conversion is about $600 last time I looked, don't let it surprise you when the time comes.

 

Thank you for the advice. It's not a money issue, it's a time issue. I'm actually ordering the rear springs and shocks today. I have a friend that is going to help me do it but our schedules don't seem to be meshing very well. That's why I was going to do the air bag trick as a temporary solution.

 

I've been rolling on tricked airbags since I bought the GX earlier this year. you should be fine for a while if they are in decent shape and still holding air. In fact its kind nice cause you can do the front lift, see where you are at, trick the rear to the height you like and take measurements and then try and find something that will match up well.

 

A lift should be something you shouldn't have to save for? That makes absolutely no sense. How do people purchase things they want in life? A house? A car? Vacations? They SAVE money for them.

 

I'm leaning towards going with the front shocks on the second notch which I hope will give me 2-2.5" of lift. Does that sound about right?

 

just make sure you get the C-clip seated properly and the beveled side is facing the right direction. honestly that's the most important thing when dealing with those adjustable Bilsteins. If you aren't sure stop and ask if you do it wrong the shock will fail and the car will drop on that side = not very fun. I want to say it comes with the clip on it on a low setting so study it before taking it off and make sure it goes on the same way it came off. a 2.5" lift would get you near level with rear FJ springs., 2" probably a touch of rake. I am not sure what rear springs you got I dont think you mentioned. I hope they weren't for a 4runner cause they wont have the lift to match the 2-2.5" front lift. also the lift they say for the front is probably for stock springs, not sure how eibachs will change that. Thats why its nice to have the rear air bag tricked at first, cause no matter how much different the front lift comes out the first time then you "expected it" you can move the rear to match at least temporarily.

 

My point is, if you can't afford to do a lift straight up, you need more money in the bank. Sure you save for things like a house or a car. because you NEED them. Nobody NEEDS a lift. if you can't comfortably dip into your cash reserves to pay for a lift, then you need more cash reserves. plain and simple. And to my original point. the OP made it sound like he was going to buy half of his lift, install it and wait until he could afford the other half. that turned out not to be the case, which is good.


stop borrowing money. to the lender the borrower is the slave.

 

I woulds still wait to do it all at once. do it all and love your ride.

 

I had mine with 2" front lift without the rear lift for a while before tricking the airbag and it doesn't look bad at all. I personally preferred it over the stock stink bug look. Tricking the rear air bag is really easy. Just get some spacers from your local hardware store. Takes about 30 minutes to get it done but it will make your ride harsher.

Since you're already planning to replace the rear bags with springs, I would just drive it until you have time. It took me about 2 hours to do the rears. 1 hour to figure out how I can save the air lines (I eventually decided to cut the lines) and about an hour to install the Metaltech adapters and springs.

 

I found it easier to not use spacers to trick the rears. those bolts were stuck on and not a whole lot of space, I could have done it but then found there is an adjustment slot that you can get almost an inch of lift out of. to get a little more if you look at the rod that attached to the adjustment slot, its one of those kinds that the end part is threaded into the rod and locked with a bolt, so you can just loosen that lock nut, spin back the end like 3-4 times, and then lock it down again. this gets you to 2" no problem. did it on both sides. now I can easily adjust it from 1" to 2" above stock just by moving the stock adjustment nut, which takes like 30 seconds, no need to mess with spacing out the brackets.

see on the ends of the rod on each side there are locknuts, so you undo each end's locknut and you can spin each side out however much feels safe making the whole thing longer (if you do too many turns the end thing comes off the rod and you have gone to far, thread it back in a few turns and lock it down then), then do the same on the other side and if you can keep count how many turns the closer to even you will be when you finish, then fine tune with the slots on top till it sits even left and right.


it is a little harsher at 2" of lift on the rear bags, but you only notice if you go over bad bumps.
Its been a relief for me cause I haven't had the time to install rear fj coils after that super long front suspension install (shocks were in there so long they didn't want to come free lol), but I had time to trick the rear sensors till I can do that later and can run my bigger better tires and all set for winter and going over small objects.

 

That is pretty cool!

 

yup its essentially just making that rod longer, the longer the rod the higher the lift.
spacing the bracket down has teh same effect, but it seemed harder to mess with the bracket and you have to get washers and longer bolts etc.. not worth it IMO

 

Great info Ali SC3! Thank you!