Hitachi Shocks on 2016 TRD Sports

Right now its set at 0 with no lift. I had Firestone do the alignment. I don't understand alignments all that well. Specifically what our trucks are "supposed" to be at so I just let them do their thing. He tried showing me afterward. And all the arrow thingys on the paper were pretty close to 0

 

That might be your prob.. If youre running the 6112's set to 0 without a spacer to offset the "taco lean" it might make the ride feel wonky. A lot of guys are running a 1/4 inch spacer because the stock springs are different from the factory and you need the spacer to account for that difference.

Also I suspect that you dont have a great alignment. if you have the sheet you can post it here and we can take a look at it for you. Most places will give you a one year warranty on an alignment if you havent done anything to F it up. Im almost positive firestone will do a one year. You can say it feels unsafe and they should be able to correct it for you. If you add the spacer youll have to have it redone anyway.

 

the drivers and passenger springs are different?

 

They have different part numbers and Im sure someone else can chime in and tell us exactly but the truck has more weight on the driver side because of battery and fuel so I believe they adjust the spring to compensate.

The new 6112's (for the 3rd gen) are supposed to have 9 clips and will have different settings for the driver/passenger sides to compensate for this, so you dont need a spacer in the new ones.

 

Perfect! You answered my next question before I asked!

 

Sorry, Forgot to mention I do have a 1/4" spacer on the drivers side for the "Taco Lean" I don't have the alignment sheet anymore but I have unlimited alignments from Firestone so I can go back whenever to have them check it out. I'll post next time I go.

 

My friend just got an new TRD OR and replaced his shock/coils for a lift kit. I put his shocks on my TRD Sport and could tell you that the ride was smoother but the body roll was a lot worse; so basically its a trade off between smoother ride and body roll. I ended up putting the Hitachi shocks back up front again and just keeping the rear to Bilstein (the empty bed was way to stiff). Now I have smoother rider and less body roll.

I compared the shocks side-by-side and the Hitachi is wider and more heavy-duty than the Bilstein, the Bilstein also seemed inferior to the Hitachi. The compression rate seems to be the same on both shocks, but when I release the shocks the Bilstein shock will rebound to the original position a lot faster than the Hitachi.

 

Lol just replace it with kings the second you buy the truck

 

look at where the shock mount meets the shock body. Bilstein usually fail there and based on this pic looks like the hitachi are much thinner. So if lifting the truck with a spacer or heavier springs on the hitachi shocks I might be worried

 

Yeah, didn't even look at the weld, but your right, they are thinner.

 

What tires / wheels are you running on your sport. The Bilsteins are tuned for wheel / tire setup of the TRD OR. The shorter sidewall of the TRD Sport tires may not gel right with the bilsteins perhaps contributing to the body roll your feeling.

 

loads thinner

 

I still kept the stock 17" rims/tires, so this should help with less body roll.

 

not necessarily, 'Tuned' suspension like the Bilsteins are dialed in to work with a tires flex characteristics. Your tires have less flex which will transfer more work to the shock. I'm not a suspension expert, but I do know that tire flex is a critical part of any kind of suspension tuning. I'm willing to bet that if you put a TRD OR set of tires (or similar) on your Sport, you wont have that body roll anymore.

 

Your probably right. When it comes to suspension tuning in direct correlation to tire sidewall width, I have no knowledge on that, but what you typed does sound logical. Maybe I can put my friend's 16" OR rims/tires on my truck and see how it will ride.

 

Its worth a test, I've actually been debating on upgrading to the TRD Pro Fox suspension tuned by TRD. My only concern is their performance on a DCLB. They TRD Pro shocks may only be tuned for the Short bed tacomas. Anyone swap Fox by TRD suspension on a DCLB yet? Also, not sure if those Fox shocks are serviceable or not.

 

id assume the weight balance difference between dclb and dcsb would be similar than the difference from an AT to a MT.

 

Hitachi shocks allow for more payload and thus better Truck shocks.

 

Is it worth it changing the stock hitachis on the limited for Bilsteins 4600.

 

took my 16 taco sport to florida...loaded her with tires/rims and bunch of misc items...on the way back noticed she was bottoming out on bumps/depressions at highway speeds...I'd guess the weight was < 500lbs. Surely this is not normal for a new truck < 10K miles on it. recommendations here pls??