Spacer Lifts:
Spacer lifts are generally the lower cost option and are often used by car lots / manufacturers / truck accessory shops in order to lift a vehicle whether it be to provide the customer with an inexpensive lift or increase profit margins. It is easy to understand why they draw people in, the initial cost is low, shops like to install them as the labor money is especially good for a relatively easy install. The issue is that each type poses a variety of issues which we will address below. This is almost always your worst option when it comes to lifting a vehicle.
Over the top hat spacers:
Over the top hat spacers are the most common style of spacer lift on the market. They consist of a spacer that sits above the top hat (the component that holds the spring to the strut) and bolts to the coil bucket. They work by positioning the strut assembly further down, thus increasing lift height. This poses numerous issues. IFS is very limited in nature, your front end isn’t designed to accommodate such a drastic increase in added down travel. This style spacer poses the following issues:
- It adds too much down travel- This is hard on all of your front end components. The Rubber Bushings used in the upper and lower control arms and the lower strut mount have a limited range of movement from ride height. The movement is adequate for the design of the vehicle but since so much travel is added it tends to prematurely tear otherwise long lasting / maintenance free bushings. Now you may be thinking- meh it’s just a bushing- While there are plenty of low quality LCA replacements online- To replace them with a part that will actually be reliable this is easily a $1000+ repair with labor, or parts only depending on if you use OEM or not.
The added down travel now also poses issues with up travel. Your shock now becomes your bump stop. It is VERY common to see people who have collapsed the lower leg of their strut. This is a major safety issue. There isn’t a good way to account for the change in geometry and fix the bump stop set up with this style spacer lift so nearly 100% of the time you run the risk of snapping or collapsing your shock every time you drive the vehicle. The added down travel also poses issues with UCA/Coil clearance, it is possible that you bind the UCA with the coil and the UCA becomes lodged between the coils. Ball joints, CV axles and virtually all other front end components are harmed with this style of lift, drastically reducing the lifespan of otherwise long lasting parts.
This style of spacer is also used for fixing leans in Toyota vehicles. They can be safe, when used in very small increments. This is why we only sell this style of spacer in a 1⁄4” configuration. We do not advise using an over the top hat spacer larger than this for the above reasons.
You may also see these spacers disguised as a thicker top hat replacement, where it’s all machined into one unit. Toytec uses this in their lower stage kits.
Under the top hat spacers and preload / collar spacers:
If you had to go with a spacer lift, this is the safer option. These are spacers that either sit on top of the coil, but under the top hat (not common at all,) or sit on the shock body. These add more preload to the absorber and thus change how much the spring compresses under load thus increasing lift height. The issue with this style spacer is that the static length of the absorber remains unchanged; therefore you reduce available down travel from ride height. This results in a firmer ride and worse performance both on and off road. When used with an internal bypass (see below) It moves the piston into the bump zone which further deteriorates the ride quality.
This style of spacer lift does not affect up- travel in the way an over the top hat spacer does and does not cause issues with bump stops, bushings etc.
