Seems like a reoccurring question I hear from new FJ Cruiser guys is “What lift should I get”?  Not that I’m an expert on all the lifts available but I thought it was time to address this question in a bit more public forum.

The question is not necessarily wrong, but it is incomplete.  The question should be  “What lift should I get for my style of off-road adventures…  I enjoy wheeling my rig… in the sand, on 4×4 trails, crawling up gnarly boulders, racing down desert roads, or just looking good on the street”.  The best lift for one style of wheeling is not necessarily the best for another style.  And as the saying goes one man’s garbage is another man’s gold, it all depends on what you’re planning to do with your rig, what your after and your budget.  Don’t worry if others tell you how they think you should enjoy you’re rig… Consider what will make you happy.

First of all, lifting your truck does not increase ground clearance.  A lift provides more room for larger (taller) tires.  Larger tires provide the increased ground clearance.

Second lift kits for the Toyota FJ Cruiser mainly address the front-end.  This is because the factory stance has the rig on a significant rack with the rear higher than the front.  However when lifting the front end, you should consider upgrading the rear suspension components (springs and shocks) to a quality that matches your front-end choice.

Third, springs provide lift and shocks provide dampening.  If you upgrade the shock you will feel a difference in ride but without changing the geometry of the coil (spacers or longer coils), the height remains the same.

Lift kits can be broken down into a couple of groups. There are a lots of choices and the number of inches of various lifts may vary, the basic groups of lifts available for the FJ Cruiser are:

• spacer lift
• 3″ suspension lift
• 6″ lift (anything from 4″ – 6″ will fall into this group)
• long travel
• solid axle swap

A spacer lift, sometimes referred to as a leveling kit, is the least expensive lift available with height achieved by placing a spacer between the top of the strut mount and the coil-over spring.  The spacer effectively compresses the spring which pushes the rig up as the spring tries to reach equilibrium.  A spacer lift does not increase travel and is now stretching your factory shocks to their limit.  This method of lifting your rig will level it out and allow you to put on larger tires (although depending on tire choice you may still need a body mount chop to avoid rubbing).  A lift that uses spacers to raise the rig is best suited for those who do not plan on going off road and simply want the look of a more rugged stance and bigger tires.  If you add a heavy bumper or winch to a spacer lift your springs will give back all the lift under the additional weight.

The second 4×4 lift category, a 3″ suspension lifts use longer shocks, stiffer springs and coil-overs to provide the lift.  A 3″ lift will allow  for 33″ tires (yeah you still need the body mount chop), although some folks have stuffed 35″ tires into the FJ Cruiser’s wheel well accepting the rub that comes with them in this setup.  Unlike a spacer lift which simply compress the springs, suspension lifts gives you additional travel along with lift because of the longer components. Adding aftermarket front upper control arms will extend that travel even further.  That additional travel equates to a smoother ride in most cases along with improved handling.

3″ suspension lifts can be broken down further into kits that are adjustable and those that are not.  With a non-adjustable suspension lift you select the stiffness of spring you want (or in some cases spacers to compress the springs) based on the weight of your front end. If you are running a heavy bumper and winch select a stiffer rated spring, if not choose a medium or light coil-over spring. Spring ratings can be heavy up front with medium in the rear allowing for some customization. If you change your front-end’s weight down the road, you have to change out your springs to maintain the same ride.

On an adjustable suspension lift kit, in addition to spring rating choices, the coil-over comes with a built in collar that will increase or decrease the pre-load tension on the coil-over spring, compensating for any additional weight.  A few turns of the collar allows you to dial-in the ride most suited to your liking.  Each side of the front-end can be tuned individually to compensate for the extra weight of the driver or dual batter stack.

Because a 3″ lift increases travel and in most cases upgrades the quality of shock, as well as providing lift, it is well suited to individuals looking to wheel their off-road vehicle through many different terrains including 4×4 trails, sand dunes and two track dirt roads as well as miles of washboard gravel or dirt.

As you would expect their is a difference in price between the adjustable and non-adjustable suspension lift options.  Non-adjustable suspension lifts will cost up to $700 for a quality setup.  Adjustable suspension lifts kits can cost upwards of $2,600 depending on manufacturer…  The religious debate on the best manufacturer of coil-overs and shocks makes the holy war crusades look like a minor disagreement on the play ground.

The next type of lift, a 6″ lift, will put you high off the ground.   Part suspension lift part body lift, a 6″ lift involves adding spacers that separate the body from the frame along with a number of suspension components including  longer rear upper and lower control arms (or relocation mounts for stock trailing arms)  longer shocks, springs, coil-overs, and steering knuckles.  A 6″ lift allows you to easily slide in larger 35″ tires (most tires over 275x70x17 will likely require a body mount chop).  The center of gravity is now six inches higher (think hard now before putting any weight up in the roof rack…  like a tent, gas cans, spare tire…).  The suspension travel gain and increased ground clearance of a 6″ lift is only about 3″ although 35″ tires will add to the ground clearance.  This lift is not for the budget conscious with parts running up to $3,700 depending on how complete the kit is and the quality of the suspension components.  Those who plan to drive slow on the trails and need larger tires to get over rocks and can stay away form the off chamber stuff will find the height of a body lift to their liking.  If you are seeking the big rugged 4×4 look you will also find the 6″ lift appealing.

When you start talking about long-travel lift kits, you move into the more specialized lifts. With a long travel lift you replace almost all of the stock IFS components including upper and lower control arms, axles, and in some cases new shock mounts to allow for dual shocks up front.   The long travel kit pushes out the wheels extending the distance between the shock tower and lower arm mount.  2″ and 3.5″ kits are available from Total Choas for the Toyota’s FJ Cruiser.  The increased distance between the shock tower and lower control arm shock mount is now filled with a longer coil-over increasing the total travel available to soak up the bumps, ruts and pot holes in the trails.  Up to 13″ of travel can be achieved when you push each wheels out 3.5″.  The coil-over components of a long travel kit operates the same as an adjustable suspension lift but with more coil-over spring to work with.

The long travel kits are designed with desert racing in mind.  In this style of wheeling, height is not as important as keeping the wheels in contact with the ground to maintain forward momentum and steering control.  With a long travel kit the droop, a measure of how far the wheel can fall down from its resting stance, is just as important as the lift that is achieved.  More lift means less droop and vice verses.  But with those long coil-overs there is a lot to work with.  On a 4×4 tail the longer travel will bring addition flex allowing the rig to remain stable while traversing all sorts of contours.  As you would expect the price for replacing your entire stock IFS  is steep.  Depending on the long travel kit and the coil-overs, secondary front shocks and rear shocks you choose expect to pay between $4,000 and $7,000.  And just in case you were wondering, no you can not use the coil-overs from a 3″ suspension lift, they are just too short.

A solid axle is considered the holly grail of hard core off-road rock crawlers.  Tons of flex, high lift, locking front differential and armor plated toughness, a solid axle swap turns the FJ Cruiser into a point and shot rig.  Lift height and tire size is only limited by the shocks length you can throw down with and the amount of cutting on the wheel wells your willing to do. Of course what you gain in trail worthiness you loose in daily driving on-road manners.  The rigs that under go what today is mostly a one-off custom front end build, tend to be purpose built rock crawls.  Building a solid axle that can incorporate all the front end electronics including ABS and other sensors will set you back about $10,000.  But don’t worry, the kids dreams of college where never that realistic anyway with their grades.  Just let them know you spending their inheritance while you’re still young enough to enjoy it.

What is the right lift for your FJ Cruiser, I don’t know.  How do you plan to wheel your rig?  How much are you looking to spend?  Have you considered the additional cost of tires to fill all that space?  What are you looking to gain by raising your FJ Cruiser, good looks, bigger tires, smoother ride, unlimited flex?  Of course if you were thinking of in stuffing 35″ tires so you could go rock crawling and have a $2oo budget; learn to live with disappointment.  If however your dream is to run logging roads and some 4×4 trails while still maintaining the rig as a daily driver on 33″ tires using a 3″ suspension lift and spending about $800, plus tires; you will most like see huge value from your investment, along with a little compromise on adjustablity. In other words if you are comfortable with the what you want to do and set aside the appropriate budget, you’ll get miles of smiles (sorry it just came out) from your lift, out on the trail or anywhere else you want to wheel you rig…  Even the Denny’s parking lot.

And now thanks to Metal Tech 4×4 there is an option specifically designed to improve FJ Cruiser rear travel for a long travel option with more travel and flex for the rear end of the Toyota FJ Cruiser.

So why did we say good bye to our tried and true off-road adventure ARB Bumper?  How else could we try out and review Metal Tech 4×4’s front tube bumper?  If you haven’t heard about Metal Tech 4×4 and their products for Toyota Land Cruisers than you probably don’t spend a lot of time on the FJ Cruiser forums or don’t wheel a Toyota Land Cruiser.  Metal Tech 4×4 started out building cages and other trail protection for the Toyota Land Cruisers (think old school FJ40, 80 series or FJ60).  Now Metal Tech 4×4 has taken that experience and applied it to Toyota’s newest member of the cruiser line building sliders, front and rear bumpers as well as cool tube doors Toyota’s FJ Cruiser.

Metal Tech’s off-road accessories are engineered from the ground up for protection and their front tube bumper is an ultra high performance, lightweight package. The tube bumper is only 19 pounds heaver than the factory stock front bumper. Made from 1 ¾”, .120 wall tube steel, the bumper features four light mounting tabs and the ability to work with or without a winch.    The bumper mounts to the front FJ Cruiser frame using the factory bumper mounts for easy installation as well as ensuring a strong integration with the frame.

Installing our Soltek off-road lights to the bumper was a simple matter of running the wire harness through the tube from the frame to the single 1/2 hole we drilled at top of the bumper next to the top light mounts.

We chose to add the optional winch mount system which is designed to be installed independent of the bumper allowing for increased strength as well as easy installation.  The winch system is a twin beam design that bolts to the sides of your frame using the factory reinforced points on the frame. This winch mount system was designed for the abuse of real off-road situations.

The winch system bolts on and as advertised is the easiest winch installation of any bumper. Once the mount system is in place you simply bolt the winch on.  A simple one-person job.  With both the tube bumper and winch mount system installed, the two look integrated as if they are one unit but remain independent for better strength to weight ratio.

The first thing we noticed after installing the new bumper and winch mount, was that the front end now sits about a half inch higher than before (without the bulk weight of the ARB bumper).  The lighter front end has reduced dipping in hard fast turns and with an improved approach angle climbing steep obstacles just got a little easier.

The openness of the tube bumper definitely shows off the suspension and in our opinion really complements the front lines of the Toyota FJ Cruiser.  Lite weight, engineered protection and good looks, what more could we ask for.  Look for updates over the coming year as we take the rig and it’s new bumper out on various off-road adventures.

It has been about two years since we first installed ARB’s Bull Bar on our off-road adventure based Toyota FJ Cruiser. In the early days of the FJ Cruiser, our choices of bumpers were limited to only a handful. ARB has been there with their bull bar since the beginning. These days FJ Cruiser owners have a wide array of the options when it comes to an aftermarket shell style bumpers but ARB remains as the standard by which others are measured.

ARB is one of the best known companies for aftermarket 4×4 products.  Headquartered out of Australia with it’s North American office in Renton WA., ARB has been building their 4WD products, outback tough for more than three decades.  In our case their bumper lived up to its reputation.  Originally installed on our Toyota FJ Cruiser to protect the front end during our Arctic Circle off-road adventure where there is always a real chance of colliding with wild life… large wild life.  After making the journey north the bumper continued to guarded the front end from trees, rocks and what goes bump in the night on numerous 4×4 trails and back roads across the west.

Our overall impression?  This is a strong, well designed bumper (strong enough to hold your favorite pint glass).  Intended for off-road adventures in the Australian Outback, the bumper is built tough, supports a winch and houses built-in IPF fog lights as well as top mounted off-road lights.  This is the only after market bumper we know of which has been crash tested.

On the down side, like all shell style bumpers, that mass of steel is heavy and its square style pushes a lot of air, contributing to lower mpg.  When the rig is flexing over rocks or running fast down washboard back roads, expect a little rub from the bumper on the corners and fender flairs (we found this to be true for us and other ARB equipped FJ Cruisers we looked at).

Quality construction, bullet proof design and a reasonable approach angle makes the ARB, in our opinion, the top shell style bumper on the market today.  The ARB Bumper provided years of protection and performed well regardless of the terrain.  This is a product we can recommend to anyone looking for a shell style expedition bumper.

This is also the point at which we retired the ARB Bumper in order to test a Metal Tech tube style front bumper, but that’s another story…  off-road adventure accessory

4×4 off-road adventures can put you in some sticky places and the last thing you want is to get your 4WD truck stuck.  Winches are great for self recovery as long as you have an anchor point.  But what do you do if there nothing but sand all around and no other rigs about?  We tested out a recover system (aka sand ladders) from Maxtrax out of Australia to see if we could find an easy one man means for getting unstuck.

The first thing you notice about Maxtrax is they are light, easy to work with and stack neatly for storage.  The second thing you notice is that Maxtrax put a lot of thought into their design and managed to build a better mouse trap with added gripping power built into the ladders as well as handles.  But do they work?

Putting the sand ladders to work is pretty easy…  On 4WD vehicles, place the Maxtrax up against the front wheels.  You may need to dig a little so the ladders lay as flat as possible, but that is easy enough since the Maxtrax can act as a shovel for scooping sand out of the way.

With the ladders in place, climb in the 4WD rig and drop it into low.  Gently apply the throttle.  As the tires slowly turn they will draw the Maxtrax sand ladders in and climb on top using the recovery system to gain traction and move the rig forward.  Keep the throttle steady and drive straight.

Once you’re onto firmer ground, it’s easy to go back and grab your Maxtrax for the next time you need a little help out of a sticky situation.

As advertised the Maxtrax recovery system worked well for getting us out of the deep sand.  When it came to hills we found it takes a little more work to use the ladders to move forward like climbing steps.  Put the sand ladders under the rig, climb forward, retrieve the ladders, rinse and repeat until you’re up and over the dune.

Maxtrax recovery system does make self extraction in sand, snow and mud an easy one person job. These Maxtrax have definitely become a standard for our off-road adventures.