ADS Off-Road Racing Shocks - Information, Pictures, & BS Thread

Death Valley? I’m in Oregon, we have plenty of rough terrain and desert dirt roads, but it does sound tempting lol

 

Great idea. I still have my stock sport front suspension components if I need to send them off to ADS but luckily, we have a great shock rebuilder here in the Austin area.

 

No where near needed rebuilding but anyone know a place in the DFW Metroplex? I've read that Tandem Automotive used Inertia Lab once before.

 

@dtaco06 @deeezy @4Running Daily

and anyone else who’d like to respond:


When you guys got your coilovers, what did they come set with for preload and did you adjust for taco lean?

Also, what are your thoughts on adjusting them on the truck versus taking to a shop with a spring compressor (which all the manufacturers are now suggesting to likely CYA against damaging the threads on the shock body if the collar is loosened too much)?

Thanks!

 

Mine came with very little preload. Maybe a quarter inch more on the driver coilover to compensate for lean. I use my own spring compressor to adjust preload.

 

Mine also came with extra preload on the driver side to compensate for lean. I haven't taken measurements yet, but it looked to be even straight after install. I'm not going to bother trying to level out the front to rear until everything settles after some mileage and I add new GFC camper.

My plan isito eventually see how hard the coils are to adjust using a spanner/punch. It doesn't look too hard to do, but if I start to question the amount of force and potential thread issues I'm going to take it in for adjust.

 

I've adjusted my coilovers on the truck several times with no issues.

 

Jerry’s post was from 2014 and he isn’t actually on here anymore just FYI.

 

Thanks for the replies gents!

 

Mine originally came with 700lb springs and very little preload.
I've had 650's and now 600lb springs. Because I have only a little preload, it's very easy for me to adjust on the truck with no spring compressor.

 

I bought a spacer and adjusted.

 

I finally managed to find some time to install my ADS suspension form @HeadStrong Off-Road and I love it! It was my first suspension and UCA install so that meant a lot of reading and youtube videos. Everything went well. But the three hard lessons learned were:

1) Removing the stock bushings and eyelet sleeve in the 2018 Tacoma shackle is a giant pain and a time sink (this captured in a note with the hardware). My eventual solution based on the tools that I had was to use a large drill bit to drill out holes in the stock bushing, remove the bushing, then use a reciprocating saw and very carefully cut the eyelet without hitting the shackle.
2) Replacing the UCA is way harder than any other part of the suspension. I ended up having to remove a few components under the hood on both the driver and passenger side to remove the bolt and stock UCA before re-adding the new UCA (Total Chaos) and bolt. A second pair of hands definitely helps while pushing the bolt through the new UCA, washers, and coilover housing. I ended up having to bend a lot of the wheel well out of the way to remove the bolt. For some reason the passenger side had more issues than the driver for both removal and reinstall of the bolt. The youtube videos I watched simply glossed over the difficulty and quickly cut away to the next step. I was in for a surprise.
3) It was a little difficult to correctly position the 2.5 adjustable remote reservoirs. I had to cut into the mud flap piece inside the wheel well in order to place it in the positioning it felt most comfortable in. Then after a quick test drive I quickly found out that the hose was rubbing at full turn, both left and right. After calling it a night, I returned the next morning to force the hose in a little tighter loop to remove the rubbing.

All and all it was a great learning experience. I can't wait to test these out on the trail, but first I need to go pick up my GFC in Montana!

My suspension: ADS 2.5 Coilovers with 700 lb coils and remote resi's, Dakar HD leaf packs, ADS 2.5 with remote adjustable resi's in the rear.

Here are some quick and dirty pics from the phone:
Front suspension

Rear suspension

Driver side rub

Passenger side rub

Current lift with a couple hundred pounds of weight in back.....I will have a fully loaded GFC, drawers, jerry cans, hi lift, camping gear, etc in there eventually to bring it down.

 

Nice, I will be installing the exact same lift soon. Mine gets delivered friday, I dont get to pick up my gfc until november though. Thanks for the info.

 

Have you taken it over any rough terrain yet? Just curious how the 700lb springs are doing without any weight up front?

 

I wish. I took it to a local alignment shop yesterday and they couldn't use their fancy tech to do the alignment because they didn't have the specs for the 2018 Tacoma, only the 2017. So I am heading to the dealership today for alignment. Sadly I won't be able to do any off road testing for a month because I am heading on vacation to Iceland next week. I do feel that it is pretty stiff and rigid right now without any of the weight that I plan to constantly ride with (C4 steel bumper in front waiting for install and GFC/camper gear in back).

I have the resi's adjusted to 10/20 between soft and firm, so I need to adjust and let everything settle before I will be comfortable. After I add weight and let everything settle, I'll dial in the settings and potentially adjust the preload. Then I'll post an update with my settings and vehicle specs.

Also if anyone has any last minute tips for alignment settings, I am all ears. I'm cramming as much knowledge as I can right now before taking it in this afternoon.

 

Cool man - enjoy Iceland!!!

Just my experience with alignment but with the TC UCA’s and the built in caster they provide you aren’t going to be shooting for dealer / stock spec alignment. I’m running a +1 tire size (265 75r16) over stock and with the TC UCA’s on my truck I’m at about 3.5-4 on caster, slightly negative camber and pretty close to 0 toe and I don’t have any rubbing with that setup. Keep in mind if you are running higher caster numbers the steering is going to feel less compliant when turning but that’s normal.

 

To provide a heads up, if you have a new truck it isn't the easiest thing to find a shop that can do the alignment with your new suspension. I took it to the first chain shop and after they put it on the machine they realized they don't have the new software update to program all the new settings required for the 2018 Tacoma. Even though the specs are the same as the 2017, the 2018's newer safety/steering features require new software to properly configure. The shop could physically align them to my desired settings if they wanted, but suggested not to because they wouldn't guarantee their work do to the inability to program and safely configure the new features. Fast forward an entire afternoon of calling five more chain shops, local shops, auotbody, etc and no luck. The dealership originally said they would then reversed their decision and said they could only do factory spec, so basically the cheap toe and go. Luckily I found a 4x4 shop a bit of a ways away that can do it, but they are booked out until I get back from vacation. I'm not even in a small town. Boise metro is around 700k+ population

Is a decent alignment and a convenient time frame too much to ask? Haha I guess so.

 

Which springs?

 

650s.

I forgot to mention that I did have to pull the uniball through bolt. Only because you could turn it 7/8 of a turn without, but the last bit where there's a gap between holes by the pinch bolt presented an issue.