Front bumper addition = upgrade suspension?

[freedomomelet]

Hey folks, trying to go down the right path here eventually. My plan is to add an ARB summit front bumper and winch to my 2017 Tacoma TRDOR. Bumper is approximately 170lbs and winch is probably 60lbs, so ~230lbs total added up front. What are everyone's thoughts on this amount of weight up front on stock suspension? Unsure of the stock spring rating and if anyone knows that would be helpful as well. I'm not interested in lifting the truck but perhaps only need to add stiffer springs?

Thoughts?
Thanks

 

[avgjoe624]

I cant speak specifically for your Tacoma suspension. but, in general the TRD line of Toyotas is a well built line of vehicles, they already come with upgraded suspension and 230lbs added to the front should be an issue, and account for the weight of the factory bumper coming off makes it even less. I would think that an upgrade to suspension solely for the weight is unnecessary, though any upgrade is never a bad idea. if anything, if you don't want to go the full suspension upgrade route, start with a nice set of shocks.

 

[TacomaDave]

I have the same truck and did a 3" Old Man Emu lift before adding the front bumper and winch. My bumper is a lot lighter than the ARB. About 40 pounds more than the OEM bumper. It and winch dropped my height about a quarter inch. You should be okay with stock suspension. It will probably stiffen the ride some. I would make the next upgrade some better coilover shocks.

 

[Lindenwood]

For some reason, there is this hige misconception with modifying suspension to account for weight up front. I fell right into that with Toytec's recommendation of their Eibach 620lb coils on my 4Runner, which were 25% heavier than stock. Even after adding 250lbs to the front end, which was realistically about a 10% increase, it still rode like shit.

Now, if you want maximum lift, you are likely going to need to go stiffer because their limitations on the ratio of spring length to stiffness, not to mention limited options that actually fit.

However, I ended up going back to OME 500lb (stock-weight) coils that still lifted the front about 1.75" over stock (about a 1" drop from the Eibachs), and couldnt be happier.

Bottom Line: never in a million years would I recommend stiffening the front suspension JUST to offset the added weight of a winch and bumper.