Originally Posted by TheDirtman

You could trim your pinch seam and fenders, add a 1/2" leveling puck up front and add some spider trax wheel spacers for around $230 That would be the most cost effective way to go with the factory rims and you could always add more later. You are going to have to get spacers anyway if you are going to the factory wheels.

For 2" of lift you would be looking at a budget boost or puck since most coils run taller then advertised, some of the cheap brands coils tend to sag quite a bit over time and you will loose some of the lift. For running 2" of lift you would want to get front and rear extended sway bar links (I would suggest some that are adjustable) some kits give you longer rears and you move the factory ones to the front. you would need some longer shocks or a 2" shock extension, and you would get a brake line relocation bracket. At 2" adjustable control arms and track bars are not really needed.

3"+ When you start getting this high your steering geometry starts getting pretty far out of whack, expect flighty steering, off set axles, and driveshaft problems. This is where it starts to get expensive. New shocks are a must. Adjustable control arms will take care of pinion angles, caster, and re-centering the axle in the wheel well to regain your factory wheel base. Adjustable track bars will re-center the axles to the vehicle and put them in the same track. Aftermarket driveshafts will be needed at some point. Some people go a couple of thousand miles and some go for 50000 miles it really depends on the type of driving you are doing. The automatics will tear the spline boot off pretty quickly on the factory skid plate. The more important thing about the factory driveshafts are the small rubber boots at the cv joint near the transfer case that tear and let debris in the cv joint and let the grease fling out, drying out the bearings. Over 4" in lift and you will be adding track bar mounting brackets and doing high steer kits.

In summery the higher you go in lift the more things are going to have to be corrected and the more money spent, don't think you can simply buy a cheap $500 lift and hit the trails. These kits are incomplete and problems will show up at some point. The better brands with more expensive lifts are that way for a reason, they try to address all the other problems that occur when you lift. A lift is really just longer coils or a spacer on top of the coils, just doing this will give you the lift. Everything else is there to correct the problems caused by the longer coils.

Originally Posted by notsoricer

i'm mainly looking for a set up that i can add components at my own convenience. something that can run for a while without drive shafts, track bars, arms... and i want to keep the rubi disco for a while too. anybody have comments/pics on the tf 2.5 with a body lift?