jade3•8d ago

Swore cheap lift spacers were fine until my buddy's truck broke an axle

I ran budget 2-inch spacers on my '04 Tacoma for like 3 years with no issues, but my friend put the same ones on his Ranger and snapped a rear axle after 6 months of light trails in Sedona. Now I'm paranoid about my own setup and wondering if I should just save up for real coils. Anyone else have spacer horror stories or am I just overthinking this?

2 comments

2 Comments

masondixon7d agoOG Member

I swore cheap lift spacers were fine until my buddy's truck broke an axle." Man, that line hit home. I read a thread once where a guy basically tested his luck with 3 inch spacers on a full size Chevy, and after a year he snapped a u-bolt clean off while going down a gravel road. That was enough to make me swap my spacers out for a proper lift kit, even though mine weren't giving me trouble yet. Sounds like your buddy got unlucky, but those axles weren't made to handle that extra stress at a bad angle. You probably aren't overthinking this, what did you end up finding about the difference with real coils on a Tacoma?

hayes.tara7d ago

Ngl @masondixon, you're not overthinking it. I swapped my Tacoma spacers for Bilstein coils after seeing what happened to my buddy's Ranger, and the ride quality difference alone was worth it. If you're already paranoid, just save up and do it right before that cheap fix costs you more in the long run.