The Tacoma Lift is a GO

Yes it’s official, we have the OK to get the Tacoma lifted.

Yesterday was a little cold & blustery – we’re having a nice few days of a cold, northern front blowing over us – so we didn’t bother to make a day of doggies, especially since The Girl could not manage to get her shift for the night covered and had to get ready for work late afternoon. We did take the puppies out, but it was a short trip, and right afterwards we took a small detour to the dealership.

I wanted to talk some truck with the service manager, the guy who would be the first to review any warranty claims. The question before us, of course, was: how radical can we go and still be warrantable? I’m reasonable I think. I don’t expect Toyota to cover the cost of any damage that were in curred if, say, I bought some aftermarket wheels and they failed causing the truck to fall and damage itself. BUT on the other hand, if I lift it 3” (or 6”) (or whatever) and my motor blows a seal, I don’t want to be told “oh sorry, can’ cover it because you lifted the vehicle and it caused the damage.” That would be a little ridiculous.

By the way, if you pictured an engine block orally gratifying a large blubbery animal when I mentioned “blows a seal?” You’re just plain wrong in the head. Please join my club, we have a secret handshake and we meet every 3rd Sunday of the month. The yearly dues are reasonable.

So, as I was saying: the lift. He told me that he sees some 6” lifted trucks come in and they’ve torn up this & that and he just can’t cover it. And I understand that. Added ground clearance is nice, but I don’t expect that we can go 6” up and still be warrantied. Reason being, the 6” lift kits pretty much replace all of the stock front suspension components. Not only that, but they now bolt onto the supplied crossmember. What about the factory crossmember, you ask? They cut it off. Completely the f*ck off. So. Yeah. I don’t think we could do that and reasonably expect toyota to honor about anything except maybe cupholder failures. I think that once you cut a large portion of the frame RIGHT OFF OF THE TRUCK, you can rightly expect your warranty to be essentially voided AND, quite possibly, nulled.

But the 3” kits don’t do all of that. Most of the stock components are retained save for the springs & shocks (and if you do it right, the upper control arm). And he said that he himself has a lifted Tacoma & Tundra, so he knows what’s up. And they’ll take care of me, as long as I maintain some common sense & reasonability.

I can do that.

And now it’s time to comparison shop. I want to learn more about the different options at that height. I’m not ready to buy just quite yet – still have a house finalize purchase on – but when everything else before it in line is settled, I want to be prepared & ready & confident to pull the trigger. And then rock it up again.