looking for advice to fix ride quality

So you're fine with your front end?

 

if you mean me, yes I love the ride and feel of the Monroe exact oem replacement complete quick-struts

 

Right on

 

Do you have any lift in the front. I would suppose not if you have OEM shocks

 

no I have no lift front or rear but the oem strut springs had sagged about an inch over time so replacing them lifted the front about an inch.

the fronts gave me a 1" lift but will settle in over time and sag about a half inch and the HD in back gave me about a 2 1/2" lift but will settle in over time and sag about an inch over time.

the amount of lift you get is determined by how much your oem suspension had sagged and all trucks are different there but the height you get is directly in spec with the oem ride height

 

Great thread! A lot of good information, I would consider the same set up but Monroe doesn't offer a quick strut for Double Cab 4wd!!

 

I don't know much about 4wd but don't 4wd use leafs in front and rear?

 

Nope, coilovers up front.

 

Correct, Monroe apparently feels the extra weight? of the DoubleCab makes their lone QuickStrut model not an ideal choice. So the one I'm contemplating is Gabriel's G57010 ReadyMount, http://gabriel.com/product-search/light-vehicle-detailed-specs/?partnum=G57010 They do cost a bit more also, about $130-$150 each on Amazon or RockAuto.

The only question I have about either the QuickStruts and ReadyMounts is that neither Monroe nor Gabriel mention which of their various shocks they use in the kit. So I have to presume they aren't as beefy as the Bilstien 4600 or Gabriel MaxControl monotubes available for the rear (And again, curiously, MaxControls aren't available in a front shock for Tacoma. My impression here is that they must feel that rears benefit from monotubes more, and that a softer ride of twin tubes makes sense for the fronts?)

 

So the question about a year in and sag, I'm at one year 23k miles 50/50 loaded and just with canopy.

Fronts No change little under 37 to fender lip I'd say 36.800

Rear No change little over 37.25 to fender lip

I guess I'll check back in at 2 years? But I'm not expecting a huge change.

Jcl

 

I installed my General Spring HDs today, along with some budget Monroe struts. (Well, I FINISHED the installation today...)

The springs have the struts maxed out on extension, making for bad dampening. My rear 4600s have been delayed, but hopefully they'll be able to handle the spring height.

The back end looks nice, but it's pretty high so there's a major rake on the truck right now. I'll install 4600s with Moog springs up front to bring up the nose soon.

 

^^ Interested to read how this turns out, since the 4600 is the application-specific model for the 1st Gen from Bilstein.

General's HD is a little taller than stock but not tremendously so. Wondering how anyone is supposed to change out their rear springs without also using a shock that has a wider range (can handle both shorter AND longer lengths). Or maybe you're just supposed to deal with it for a week or so until springs settle and hope you don't damage the shock?

 

Just did fonts today, replacing the 200k OEM assembly with 4600s and Moog springs. New assembly was longer, so I used my knee on the hub with my back up against the wheel well to push it down to the right spot and get the lower bolt in. I used a paper towel roll for padding on my knee. Kind of a brute force method, but I made it work.

I had to put the bolt in "backwards" from its original orientation because the lower drop made the CV boot clip get in the way of installing the bolt on the back side. No big deal, though. Once the bolt was in from the front, I spun on the nut, secured it with a wrench and tightened the bolt from the front side. It was actually relatively painless.

More of a pain was the sway bar since I replaced the end links and bushings. The bracket for the bushings is badly designed, and on the V6 is very hard to remove and reinstall on the passenger side. Had to use a flex head ratchet with a short extension and flop that thing back and forth between the exhaust and frame a few thousand times. Left side had more room.

The rear 4600s came today, so I'll get those on soon, double check everything on the front and see how it drives.

 

Well, the 4600s on the rear are still too short for the HD rear springs. I guess I should have bought 5100s, but I wanted the street ride feeling of the 4600. Right now I have a bunch of stuff in the bed to add weight and keep the springs from over-extending the dampers.

The cheap Monroe rear dampers I put on there got damaged by the HD springs maxing them out. Almost no dampening ability in them after very few miles. No big loss though. They were just placeholders until my backordered 4600s arrived.

I hope that the HDs will settle in soon. Haven't driven the truck much as I've been working on the front suspension, steering rack, ball joints, etc, but that's almost all finished. If the HDs don't settle enough, I'll bite the bullet and put some 5100s on the back.

 

Interesting. I wouldn't have thought those springs would lift enough to be a concern for any stock-height shock. I mean, they aren't advertised as a "lift" spring ... but my earlier question about what to do during the break-in still stands I suppose.

 

are you sure you bought, or were given, the right shock? I have the general hd leafs and stock oem Monroe as well as Gabriel shocks fit right on perfectly with no issues.

maybe they are not giving you the 4wd shock and giving you a regular shock instead?

 

I'm pretty sure the part numbers for the 4600s are correct for 4wd. I'm not 100% on the monroes, though.

The 4600s fit just fine, but without any extra weight in the back, if I bounce the rear bumper, the rebound back up maxes out the dampers. It's definitely noticeable on road dips at 50+mph. I have made sure to keep weight in the back during the break-in / settling process so that the 4600s don't get toasted.

 

might want to check the part number they sent you, it may have been a "lifted" leaf spring set, mine have no issues at all with shocks bottoming out or over reaching.

call them and see what they say about this, even if the numbers are correct, it might be a bad set of springs with the wrong bend in them.

they have great customer service and im sure they can sort this thing out for you

 

I've seen a few mentions of guys running a Tundra/4Runner spring up front to add some lift in front over what softer the TRD spring provides (I've got a '99 Xtracab 4x4). Are there specific model years that work/don't work? Are people swapping in salvage yard springs, or actually buying a new coil, just one spec'd for a 4Runner/Tacoma.

My General HD's will be here Monday... looking forward to it.

 

Yours are the HD springs, right?

I finally got a chance to call General Springs today, and they recommended to keep doing what I'm doing, which is to have weight in the back and drive it for a couple of months to help them settle. He did say that he recommends 5100s for the HD springs, but that once they settle in, the 4600s should be ok.