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2000 Rodeo Lift

12K views 76 replies 9 participants last post by  Rodeo814 
#1 ·
Hey guys. First of all thanks for all the info Ive read so far but the members. I have a 2000 Rodeo 4WD 3.2 V6. I am interested in lifting the truck. I would do the install at my dads house where all my tools are located. I live in Downtown Los Angeles and park my truck in a parking lot so I have no room to work on it or keep my tools. This is a everyday driver and my weekend warrior. I have been on only two trails here in So Cal. Cleghorn Train as well a trail in Big Bear yesterday. I would like a little more clearance as I have scrapped the bottom on rocks, shrubs and dirty already. Also my spare tire under the truck revealed that that has also hit a few rocks and dirt mounds. What do you guys recommend for the spare tire issue? I have recently installed the Yakima Road Warrior roof basket. I could put the tire there for now right? What do you recommend to hold it down? Ok, back to the lift. I know there is a lot changes when doing this. So many questions come to mind when exploring the option to lift. Was looking at the budget lift from Indy. From what I understand this means cranking the T bars and installing the kit. I hear of CV boots ripping and the geometric changes that occur when lifting.

Here are my stats:
2000 Rodeo 4WD (Stock)
Currently running 255/70/16
Yakima Road warrior on roof.
Everyday driver. (so I have the lift, ride & tires to be as comfy as can be)
Would trim if I had to just depends.
Want more clearance nothing too crazy.
Would rather spend the extra dollar on stuff and not use it than not spend enough and not have it when I need it.

So here are my questions:
Should I be looking at tires of lift first? I want an aggressive look (tires) but want something that the pavement won't eat up too fast.
Besides the basic lift, what else should I look into changing? HD T bars? Upgraded shocks? Sway bar? etc..
Where is the most practical place to mount the spare?

Thank you in advance for the help.
 
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#52 ·
What are you going to regear to? 4.30, 4.56, 4.77 ??? What size tires did you decide on?
 
#53 ·
egagnon086 said:
What are you going to regear to? 4.30, 4.56, 4.77 ??? What size tires did you decide on?
I decided to go with 285/75/16

As far as regearing, I'm not too sure how all that works. Need to do some research. I just heard that it is recommend once you get bigger tires to regear so I asked my boy who owns a shop and he said one of his guys can do it. He is also the guy I will most likely get my wheels and tires from.
 
#54 ·
You need 4.56 or better, I have 265/75-16 now and 4 56 with the v6 5 speed it drives like a champ. If I were you id look for a set if 4.56 or 4.77s, the 4.56s up in the front can come straight out of a trooper. But the 4.56 rears are hard to come by.

I do have a set of 4.77s id give you a good deal on if your interested. That way you get the bigger tires without all the torque loss.
 
#55 ·
Rodeo814 ,I buy the 4.77's front and rear from Egagnon086. That would give you all the power back. I myself would like to have more gear but can't right now. My 4.30's do ok for now with 265/75/16's. You could make that winch mount plate and weld or bolt it to front of frame like the Opel ,less weight without metal bumper,I like the way it looks. 8)
 
#56 ·
Do you guys think the 285's are too big?

Appricate the info on regearing. I'll def be reaching out for that.
 
#57 ·
285/75s are about as big as you can really go on a rodeo without, extreme compromises in handling.you will probably want to check your wheel bearings or have them serviced the same time you get tires. Its alot more weight that the OEM size.

Totten your 04 isn't a direct comparison to His '00, you have the different trans and tc. The auto in the '00 is the 4l30 IIRC.

But Id say regearing are a must, for any 33" tire in a rodeo.
 
#58 ·
egagnon086 said:
You need 4.56 or better, I have 265/75-16 now and 4 56 with the v6 5 speed it drives like a champ. If I were you id look for a set if 4.56 or 4.77s, the 4.56s up in the front can come straight out of a trooper. But the 4.56 rears are hard to come by.

I do have a set of 4.77s id give you a good deal on if your interested. That way you get the bigger tires without all the torque loss.
So from what little I know, having the 4.77 in front and rear will help with power and gas milage? and the 4.77 will work best with the 285/75/16? You have two sets available?
 
#59 ·
totten said:
Rodeo814 ,I buy the 4.77's front and rear from Egagnon086. That would give you all the power back. I myself would like to have more gear but can't right now. My 4.30's do ok for now with 265/75/16's. You could make that winch mount plate and weld or bolt it to front of frame like the Opel ,less weight without metal bumper,I like the way it looks. 8)
Yeah that all sounds good!

I may be a fool but I'm waiting for the upper control arms from Calmini to come in so I can replace my upper and lower ball joints and sway out the arms. Then I will place the order on the tires and wheels. How soon after that do you recommend I regear?
 
#60 ·
egagnon086 said:
285/75s are about as big as you can really go on a rodeo without, extreme compromises in handling.you will probably want to check your wheel bearings or have them serviced the same time you get tires. Its alot more weight that the OEM size.

Totten your 04 isn't a direct comparison to His '00, you have the different trans and tc. The auto in the '00 is the 4l30 IIRC.

But Id say regearing are a must, for any 33" tire in a rodeo.
What is "tc" And "4l30"
 
#61 ·
Tc is transfer case, on tottens 04 its a chain drive not gears. The 4l30 is the gm sourced trans, were I think the 04 is a different model also.

You would want to regear st the same time as tires or before usually. I have the gears you need. Just shoot me a pm.
 
#62 ·
So... after I installed the Indy lift and the HD torsion bars I had a slight positive camber. I hadn't done an alignment yet because I was waiting for the upper control arms from Calmini to come in that way I can replace the upper and lower ball joints since they were dusted. This sat they finally came. I installed them that day. When removing the old uppers I took note of the shims that where behind the uppers. When installing the new ones I reinstalled the shims the same way they came out. Now the positive camber is extreme. I took it to Firestone the next morning and they said that I needed 4 longer bolts at least 3/4 inches longer then stock. They are the bolts that hold the control arm shaft onto the chassis.So that means there will be so many shims in there that the gap between the bolts and the part that in screws into not he uppers would be huge. This kinda worries me because all the stress would be on the bolts.

I hope this makes sense lol.

On the Calmini uppers descriptor it reads, "Required to correct camber angle on any lifted Isuzu chassis. Corrects angle of upper ball joint and allows for more total suspension travel".

Here are the bolts that Im talking about.


And heres the view from the front.



Does anyone know why this happened? And also does anyone have the specs on those bolts? As of right now Im taking it back to Firestone at 7am wednesday morning so they can remove the bolt, take it to a bolt shop here and get the same bolts just 3 inches longer. In an attempt to save time I am trying call ahead and see if they have the bolts so I can have it when I get to firestone in the morning.
 
#63 ·
This is pretty common, I think both me and Zumina had to have new bolts and and extra 1/2 " of shims. The bolts take all the weight/load any way. So I wouldn't worry about it. I have over 10k miles on mine and some pretty rough offroading and nothing has ever been an issue with longer bolts. It is a bummer that Calmini doesn't supply them though. The local fastenal had bolts that worked for mine.
 
#64 ·
Also, when I installed mine, I put the ball joint on top of the arm not the bottom. This may be part of your issue. I'd try swapping the bj from bottom to too and see if that fixes it. Look at my build thread. I have pics of how I mounted it. Mine only took an extra .5" of shims not 3"s.
 
#65 ·
My Calmini arm's came with the 1/2"shims to correct in 2004. I guess Calmini don't supply them anymore. They are like a plate that installs behind the arm with other shims to correct aligment. You can make them. I didn't have to have longer bolts ,they were long enough. Firestone should be able to supply them, or I get a shop that does a lot of lifted vehicles to correct aligment. My two cents,TONY :x
 
#66 ·
Yeah I was wondering why they either didn't come longer bolts or something that would help with camber.

Would I still be able to put the upper bj on the top now after I have it installed?
I'll def look into a shop that lifts just to make sure all is well after.
 
#67 ·
Yeah you can just jack it up and remove the 3 bj bolts , let the asm fall out then push the arm under the ball joint and then put bolts back on and tighten it up.
 
#68 ·
A little quick appearance on my neighbor Rudy's YouTube channel as my dad and I were doing the install of the upper arms. My neighbor Rudy had a bad *** Tacoma and Bronco.

Starts at 12:43
 
#69 ·
Does anyone know where I can find the specs on those bolts so I can call ahead to see of the bolt shop has them? All I need to know is the thread pitch.
 
#70 ·
The shop that did mine replace the "nut plate" with 2 separate nuts, so really you don't even need the pitch. Just get a bolt the same diameter and the nuts that fit it that are longer. But like I said you might not need that much longer of a bolt if the Ball joints were on top of the arms.
 
#71 ·
gwana66 said:
Once you lift more than about 2" or so, your CV joint boots' life will be measured in months. The manual hubs allow you to disconnect the front hubs so the front CV axles aren't constantly spinning and flexing the boots. Another solution is to lower the front differential, but it's only good for about 1.5" and it's a lot of work.

The lower links help put the rear suspension back into proper geometry. The joints also allow for better flex.
How does them being adjustable add benifit?
 
#72 ·
The rear links? They can help you align the rear and fine tune the pinion angle if you need to. As the rear axle drops it will twist slightly and move to one side due to the design of the links and the panhard bar. It's fine in the normally designed region of suspension travel, but once you raise the rear more than a couple of inches it can start to get weird. Now the "normal" position of the rear axle is closer to what it would be in full extension on a stock truck, and it wasn't designed to run on the highway like that.
 
#73 ·
totten said:
This is on my Rodeo. Check CALMINI.com It's a 3"lift #ip2039 $994.95. They are out of Ca. I've had good luck with it. Been on my Rodeo for12 yrs. Has all you need in kit except manual hubs. Ck out! :D
Do you know where to place the bump stop that comes on the UCA's? Where they had placed it, it wouldn't ever touch anything? Kinda confused about that.
 
#74 ·
Don't use them, they are only used if you bought a complete calmini kit. Just rely on the OEM metal bump stop.

I have a set of the Calmini bumper plates if you want them but they stop just above the oems.
 
#75 ·
I noticed that the rear shocks are completely up against the bracket that the bottom of the shock attaches to. Is there supposed to be some kind of washer or bushing here? You can see in the pic that all the rubbing has filed down the outer layer of the shocks. Whats recommended?

 
#76 ·
No washer except on the outside of the stock. Rear just hits the axle side, those Ranchos must be really thick, my Skyjackers don't have any issue there.

Question: did you ever get your Control arms figured out? Did they just get super long bolts or was it just a matter of putting the ball joint on top of the arm?
 
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