Kris wanted a 1 inch body lift to give just a little more clearance to the larger tires and keep them off the fenders.   The 4 Crawler Off-Road (Roger Brown) 1 inch body lift was just the ticket.   You can view the instructions here.

For all pictures from the installation click HERE.
Here is the contents of the 4 Crawler Off-Road kit.   There are 6 pucks each for the cab and bed, new longer bolts, steering extension, bed spacers, front bumper brackets, and a rear bumper kit.
We used a milk crate to make the high lift a little taller.   We also cut a small piece of wood to spread the weight out from the small hook on the high lift.

We did the bed first.   The three bolts on each side of the bed were loosened.   Here you can see the middle bed bolt.  The front two are bolts that go up through the frame bracket into nuts welded in the bed.  

You want to remove the bolts on the side you are going to do first.   You want to have the other side slightly loose so they flex easier, but if you remove all the bolts then jack up one side the body can shift and even fall off the frame.....not good!   
Here is the front bed mount with the bolt already removed.
Here you can see the rear mount.   This one is actual a bolt and nut.
With the bolts on one side out and the other side loose, we jacked up the passenger side just enough to slip the pucks in between the mount and the bed.   

Once that was done we started the bolts back just hand tight.   Once you lower it down, if you need to adjust the puck to make the bolt go in, it is possible to lift the bed up by hand and move them around.

Note that we also put a rag between the jack and fender to prevent any scratches.

Before we lowered the bed back down, we installed the bed spacers.   The bed crossmember just sits on the frame.   After a body lift, if you don't use some sort of spacer you loose the support it provides.

We applied some adhesive caulk to the bed spacers to help keep them in place and prevent any rattles.
They were put into place and the bed was lowered.     A small hole was drilled in the frame and a self tapping screw was put in to hold the spacer in place.
Here you can see the difference between the factory bed bolts and the new ones.
Once the passenger side was done and the bolts were snugged down , it was the same routine for the drivers side.    The bolts were not yet torqued so once the cab is done you can make sure that the bed and cab line up nice.
With the bed done, you can see the difference between the bed and the cab.

During the drivers side, we heard a pop noise that we could not locate at first.   It was the fuel tank filler hose.   We thought that there was enough slack for a one inch body lift.   That was not exactly correct!   The filler pipe pops into the plastic piece behind the fuel door.   The noise we heard was it popping out, and the gas cap coming apart!   

We have heard feedback from a number of users that had the same thing happen when they did their body lift.   Watch out, or you will end up buying a new gas cap like the rest of us!

More on the fix later.....

It was time to start the lift on the cab.   The bolts are not so easy to get to up here.   You need to remove the trim across the bottom of the door, or in this case, doors!

Once the front trim is off, you can pull the kick panel out and carefully peel back the carpet just enough to expose the middle body mount.
Under the plastic cap is the top of the bolt.

For the rear on the double cab, you have to remove the floor strip across the door, then the side panels.

The floor strips have screws and snaps.   The side panels are mostly snaps.   Be careful not to bend or brake and of the plastic snaps!
In order to do this you have to remove the rear seat belt bolts.
With them out, the panel can come off.
With the panel off, you can carefully lift the carpet and again expose the rear body bolt.
Here it is!
The carpet is held in place by small clips that the carpet is stapled to.   Here you can see one of those clips and the staples.   I would only pull the carpet back enough to get the top of the bolts.  We want it to go back so you never know we were in there!
The front bolt is behind the bumper and the front grill.   You can remove the front bumper to get at it easier, but it is not necessary.
Once the body goes up, you will also need to address the fan shroud as the radiator is attached to the body.   The bottom of the fan shroud just snaps off.   This will allow plenty of room for the fan blades.

The steering shaft was taken loose so that the body could be lifted without any bind and the steering spacer could be put in.

The small yellow arrow is pointing to the bolts that you remove.  The small green arrow is pointing to the bolt that you loosen to let the joint slip up and down for adjustment.

Before you start lifting, check around and make sure that there is nothing else that is going to bind.   Again, loosen the bolts on one side, and remove the bolts from the side you are going to lift.   Lift only enough to get the pucks in!

Here the middle puck is in.
Here the rear cab mount is with the puck in.
Here you can see the old vs. new bolts.   The long ones go in the front and rear position, the short one goes in the middle position.

You are going to reuse the factory washers.   They are lightly pressed onto the bolts, but are easily removed.

Using a socket and a hammer you can tap them right off.
Here you can see some of the washers off and the area at the top of the bolt they are press onto.
We found that the new longer bolt would not drop down like the factory one as it was hitting part of the A/C system.   There is a simple solution to this....
We put the bolts up from the bottom.   It really makes no difference what way you put these front ones on.
Again, only lift the truck enough for the pucks to go in.   The splash guards on the side of the engine compartment had to come off, and you can see the the coiled up brake line was a little tighter.
After the lift, you can see the space between the bumper and the grill.   The kit came with a plate to fix this gap, but we will be installing it at a later time.
The kit also came with a steering shaft spacer.   It bolts right in to the shaft at the joint without any problems.
When you put the panels back on, make sure that all the snaps are in the right place!   Here, the small arrow shows where one of the grommets came out of the body with the snap.
Farther up the panel, the snap came off and is still in the body.
Here you can see the body, with the grommet missing at the lower arrow, and the snap still in the upper arrow.   Be careful with these things, they are easy to break!   In the middle you can see the white grommet still in the body.
The next step was to deal with the gas tank filler.   You can remove the plastic part by removing the 4 small bolts in the corners, then it comes out as shown here.   The filler pipe just easily snaps into the part we have removed.
There is a clamp that holds all the hose and vent lines.  There is one bolt that holds it to the frame, then a bolt and nut that holds the clamp together.   We removed all the bolts and nut and then let the hoses move slightly out and then reattached them into their new position.   There is a small snap type clamp that the arrow is pointing to that also has to be released.   This clamp was the hardest to work with.

The hose has a small raised section that keeps it from moving in the clamp.  We released it and then reattached the clamps back together in their new position.   The snap clamp went back together partly, but because of the raised section, not quite all the way.  Everything is still secure and supported, so it should not be a problem.

You can see the small raised section at the arrow.

A slight adjustment was made to the shift linkage and the lift was finished.

The 1 inch body lift did not require many adjustments or modifications.   It is however easy to see that the taller body lifts would.   Overall, the kit was easy to install and for this application took 4-5 hours.
Back to the Tacoma Page
Back to the Home Page
7-11-2004