Squeezing the trigger on suspension...now down to ADS vs King

I've been researching for months now, and had a good chat with Marie @HeadStrong Off-Road and I do believe I've reached a decision, but thought I'd just run it by TW. Pretty sure this is going to be a good setup as far as the suspension goes - but just in case I'm missing something...

My truck is stock currently. I'm carrying anywhere from 300 - 700 lbs, incl. passengers and semi-permanently installed equipment such as RTT, rack, fridge, propane, recovery gear etc. Later bumpers, sliders, skids, winch...

Anyway: BP51s with Deaver U402 II leafs, and JBA UCAs.

As far as tires (and gears) go...

Metric tire sizes still stump me but I'm thinking skinny 33ish, but not convinced they won't be too big with the weight of a full load. Will also be keeping the stock wheels as I'd rather spend that money on other stuff.

In terms of gears, I suppose I'd need to see how the aforementioned plays out, but what I'm wondering is how it might perform with the stock 4.30s and an OVtune, and later a Marlin Tacobox. I believe those together wouldn't be much more than re-gearing. Then again, pulling around that much weight on bigger tires on stock gears I'm guessing would be harder on the transmission.

Anyway. Sorry for rambling. What do you all think?

 

stock bp51's take into account that you will be running plate bumper with a winch. There is an excellent writeup on setting with no bumper etc. on here somewhere.

 

Yeah, I did read that. It was a good write-up. I plan to take a look at it again for my presets.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...p-51’s-on-there-3rd-gen.531926/#post-17101761

Read post #10 and look at that video. I was kinda surprised on the info. Although if you wanna run BP-51 do it!! Don't let me stop you, just throwing it out there.

 

Dammit. Thanks for this. That's lame. ARB just lost points with me...

 

Those are 51mm pistons. A 5100 has 46mm piston. A 6112 has 60mm piston

That is why they are called BP51. Don't be deceived

 

Yeah - I was deceived! Or really, I didn’t do enough research. Entirely my fault. Now I’m back at the drawing board and looking again at King vs ADS.

That said, it seems that those who run bp51s seem to really like them and afaik they’re the only shock with rebound adjustment. Still, I don’t want that puny piston. I carry a fair amount of weight and don’t want to worry about my shocks working too hard. I’m also always a bit leary of fancy packaging - in this case a fancy looking shock body.

I’m not convinced on kings though either. I’ve read the oem kings are not typical king quality. Going to look further into ADS.

Anyway. Back to it.

 

Where did you read this? I just put kings on my lift and there is NOTHING else like them. I ordered everything from Filthy motorsports. They are set up from King specific for your build. The part number is the OEM part number however they are still built, tuned and valved specifically for you. I think you need to check out King. I have tried a lot of shocks over the years, and many are not worth the waste of time and money. Get the right system to begin with and you will be happier in the end, or don't and end up spending twice the amount when you have to change them more than once to get what you are searching for................just my opinion. Good luck.

 

Fair question. I don't remember exactly! On the innerwebs. You know you should believe everything they put on there.

Well - it looks like it's down to King and ADS anyway.

 

Check out my build thread it was just completed yesterday. I went all in..........

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/california_explorr-build.500006/page-2

 

That looks awesome! How's the back end ride?

 

Thanks. It is Perfect! I absolutely love it............

 

km4qfw is that a call?

 

HAM radio call sign

 

Awesome. I'm getting the same leaf packs. You put those bump stops to the test yet?

 

Cool - km6gwz here

 

Not yet, Just got it done yesterday at 4 pm. Went and got alignment done this morning then drove the 2 hours home.............

 

That's gonna be fun! Nice build.

 

Thanks

 

I gotta say that after digging into this late last night and a few hours more tonight, the Kings are no doubt great, ADS appears to be really flippin nice quality. Compare the hoses and fittings for example:

(Is it ok to link to other sites?) https://www.tundras.com/threads/ads-coilovers.3491/

Not sure who they're talking about as competition but...

https://www.adsshocks.com/ads_versus_competitors