2" Overland Lift- Merry Christmas Astro!
Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:31 am
After about 8 years of gawking at lifted vans on the forum and asking lots of questions, finally did it. 
It all came to a head when my 75k mile tires were officially spent. Shocks worn out, even leaky. And, to top it all off, my '87 4Runner's timing chain suddenly went. No off-road capabilities! What more validation could I possibly need? But, I have no time to do the lift myself- that was the only painful part. Had to pay my mechanic to do it. He was kind enough to not question my sanity out loud, but I could see the look in his eyes and another mechanic there turned his head quickly to see if I'd lost my mind. In the end, though, they wanted to sell me tires and labor so I said that, if we're putting tires on, they're gonna be taller. And, if they're gonna be taller, the van's gonna be lifted. It's just a 2" lift, but, after all these years of paying attention to what goes on here, for me, the 2" lift is the right way to go without a SAS. There's more to do. I need to trim the inner rear part of the front wheel well shield, want to change out the rear bumper/hitch setup for more clearance, roof rack, grill guard, skid plate, rear door spare mount, etc, etc. And wash her. Anyway, HUGE thanks to all who have shared over the years! Went with Overland rather than the custom work I've seen others do just to keep it simple for the 3rd party install and that worked out very well. The only part, according to the mechanic, that was at all tricky was keeping everything aligned during the front subframe drop. I didn't really get that, it looked easy enough to me, but I didn't do it and it all sounds easy till you do it. Thanks, again for this great forum and Merry Christmas to all! So, pics:
It all came to a head when my 75k mile tires were officially spent. Shocks worn out, even leaky. And, to top it all off, my '87 4Runner's timing chain suddenly went. No off-road capabilities! What more validation could I possibly need? But, I have no time to do the lift myself- that was the only painful part. Had to pay my mechanic to do it. He was kind enough to not question my sanity out loud, but I could see the look in his eyes and another mechanic there turned his head quickly to see if I'd lost my mind. In the end, though, they wanted to sell me tires and labor so I said that, if we're putting tires on, they're gonna be taller. And, if they're gonna be taller, the van's gonna be lifted. It's just a 2" lift, but, after all these years of paying attention to what goes on here, for me, the 2" lift is the right way to go without a SAS. There's more to do. I need to trim the inner rear part of the front wheel well shield, want to change out the rear bumper/hitch setup for more clearance, roof rack, grill guard, skid plate, rear door spare mount, etc, etc. And wash her. Anyway, HUGE thanks to all who have shared over the years! Went with Overland rather than the custom work I've seen others do just to keep it simple for the 3rd party install and that worked out very well. The only part, according to the mechanic, that was at all tricky was keeping everything aligned during the front subframe drop. I didn't really get that, it looked easy enough to me, but I didn't do it and it all sounds easy till you do it. Thanks, again for this great forum and Merry Christmas to all! So, pics: