Description
Words from Justin Lambert (Owner of Cognito Motorsports): We have never made Toyota products, but when the new Tundra came out and I saw them with a little lift and some aggressive wheels and tires, I instantly thought it was the best-looking truck I had ever seen! I ordered a new 2023 Tundra Platinum 4x4 because I wanted the leather interior and no chrome trim on the exterior. I also opted for the package with electric steps and the Load-Leveling Rear Height Control Air Suspension.
The truck arrived at the dealership after a few months, I picked the truck up and while heading home I was surprised that it didn’t ride very good. The rear bottoms out easily even just going in and out of the driveway. The front rides okay but is not impressive.
Toyota does have a good amount of rebound control in the front shocks, which is good to avoid porpoising, but the ride quality was not that good partly because of the 20” wheels with tires that didn’t have a lot of profile.
We got to work measuring the truck! This included measuring how much droop travel the stock suspension had, and to my surprise, the stock Tundra only had 2-1/2” of droop travel up front. This is another reason the ride quality was not very good.
With some more investigation, we determined there was a lot of potential in the suspension of these new Tundra’s and we built a strut spacer for the stock front shocks to get the ride height up 3” over stock, which also improved our droop travel to 2-3/4” (although still not enough to my standards) due to geometry changes since the stock amount of suspension travel is shifted downward. A strut spacer will not reduce the droop travel, but will increase ride height, while maintaining the stock amount of suspension travel. We avoided a preload spacer since that would have reduced droop travel.
that is a no go when there is already less than optimal droop travel in stock form.
The rear bottomed out so easily in stock form. This is because there is not much bump travel available on the models that have the rear air ride as the ride height in the rear is just lower than the coil sprung models, therefore the bump stop was contacting the axle on even small to medium sized bumps and dips. The rear is easy to raise the ride height on these rear air ride trucks.
We figured out what we could get away with in rear shock extended length without over stretching the air bag, and that led us to be able to offer up to 2. 5” of lift in the rear while maintaining a minimum of 3” of droop travel, improving the amount of suspension travel by 30 percent in the rear, and that extra lift without the need of adding a bump stop spacer allowed us more bump travel. This greatly improved the rear ride quality as it did not hit the bump stop so easily anymore.
The rear ride height is adjustable with the included sensor brackets, I set my truck up very level at approximately 2” of rear lift to go along with the 3” of front lift.
The wheel and tire I added to my truck (the pictured silver metallic Tundra), is the Kmc Wheels KM541 in 18” x 8. 5” with +18mm offset, along with the Toyo Open Country R/T Trail in size 285/75R18 (35”x11. 5”).
This setup gave me exactly what I wanted as far as poke out of the tire, and this size tire is slightly taller than a 35x12. 5. There was only minimal trimming of the inner fender liner needed the tires do not rub whatsoever.
This setup of 3” front/2” rear with these wheels and tires rode way better than stock and is now my favorite truck!
We then brought in a customer/friend’s truck that was a 2022 Tundra SR5 with Trd Off-Road package. This truck had the coil sprung rear end, and the OEM red Bilstein shocks. This truck already had a competitor’s leveling lift kit on it.
It is one of those kits that has a Ѕ” thick strut spacer along with a taller billet preload collar, and in the rear has a ѕ” thick coil spacer. That company has great reviews for this product, and I am about to tell you why I am surprised they did. This type of lift is commonly called a “Preload Collar Lift Kit”.
This truck did not ride very good, in fact it rode worse than stock in the front. The reason is, this type of kit increases preload while decreasing droop travel, which deteriorates ride quality. This truck had only 1-3/4” of droop travel.
We removed the previous lift kit by removing the taller preload collars from the front Bilstein struts/shocks and used the stock collars instead, then removed the Ѕ” thick strut spacer and replaced it with the Cognito strut spacer which is significantly taller. We went ahead and left the rear end alone that already had the 3/4 Inch coil spacers. The result was 2.
5” of front lift over stock, and a ride that was night and day better. I believe this truck only yielded 2. 5” of front lift rather than 3” like my truck, because it was a 2WD.
This truck with the Bilstein shocks rode even better than my truck that had the Avs shocks.
The next progression is the kit you are looking at above is adding King Shocks to the mix. King shocks came out with a spec for the new Tundra with their 2. 5” remote reservoir shocks with compression adjusters and finned reservoirs.
They did make the shocks longer than stock, front and rear, adding 30 percent more suspension travel. Wow, this truck now rides amazing! We did have to do some modifications to the front shocks to get the height and droop travel that we want.
King was going for an improved ride with only about 1. 5” of front lift, we worked with King to get a Cognito spec King shock that yields 3” of lift with 3-1/4” of droop travel, and it really makes the look and ride quality something to be proud of. This package requires and includes the Cognito upper control arm that has pre-installed maintenance free pivot bushings and high angle maintenance free ball joints with corrected ride height angle, improving the allowable droop travel for a better ride quality.
The rear lift is achieved by manipulating the ride height control sensor mounts, which give you adjustable rear height options from 1” to 2. 5” depending on your taste of stance. Even at 2.
5” rear lift, the rear track bar only shifts the axle over about 1/8”, not even noticeable and does not require a longer track bar. If this kit is in your budget, you will not regret it!
Features and Benefits:
- Yields 3 inches of front lift
- 1 Inch- 3 Inch adjustable rear height
- Cognito Ball Joint Tubular Upper Control Arm Kit
- Rear Ride Height Sensor Brackets
- Brake Line Extension Bracket
- King 2.5 Reservoir Shocks with compression adjusters
- Improved ball joint angle
- Maintains adequate droop travel to optimize ride quality
- Enhances the Trucks Appearance and Reduces the Factory Nose Down Rake
- 7-hour Diy install time
- Made in the USA
Applications:
Cognito 3-Inch Elite Leveling Lift Kit with King 2.5 Reservoir Shocks for 2022-2024 Toyota Tundra 2WD/4WD w/ Rear Air Ride