Bilstein 5100 w/ OME 885

Big time. Lots of reasons.


Here’s the thing. If you buy 6112 and decide to just use stock coils on them you still have to “assemble them”. Or you can pay a place like wheelers off road to assemble them with new top hats and hardware. IF you want to spend the money to have them built with new hardware straight from a warehouse like wheelers, with 885 coils or similar, then you’re looking at close to $800 for those. That being said. I had wheelers build my 885 + 5100 ready to install all built up with hardware for about $450. To me, the 6112 wasn’t worth double the price. To me, I found it better to spend that money towards new UCA. so I spent $1100 OTD for total chaos UCA AND assembled 5100’s with 885’s and I wheel my truck anywhere. No need for remote reservoirs and compression knobbies. My 5100 + 885 does fantastic. Especially without a swaybar.

 

It looks like you were also considering King at one point. I’ve been jumping around between Fox, 5100/885, and 6112 for awhile. I finally decided that Fox would be overkill for my needs, and I can’t justify the cost. Even the 6112s with new UCA is pushing my budget, but those thick ass shock bodies keep tempting me haha.

 

5100/885/total chaos = ballin on a budget IMO. Especially paired with my extended billies out back with a Dakar pack.

 

@singletrack_ftw man all your pics of your Tacoma have sold me into getting this setup! What wheels do you have?

 

Thanks! FN five star 16x8 -25. Give Dustin a call at FN wheels. He’ll take great care of you. Incredibly good customer service.

 

So I finally got around to installing 885s and 5100s on the truck. I was replacing about a 3” spacer lift with what I believe to be the factory shocks with about 150,000 miles on them. Install went great and truck looks great, but now my 285s rub where they did not before. I believe it is on the very edge of the front and back of the wheel wells. Could it be due to my bushwhacker flares? Just a side by side comparison, it looks like they might possibly take up a little more room in the well than a factory flare would. Can anyone verify this?

 

Did you do the classic 33's and plus trimming to body mount, pinch weld, and plastics?

 

I bought the truck with 285s and a spacer lift on the factory shocks. It rode like shit but I dealt with it until I got the 885s and bilsteins. I never had a rubbing issue with the spacers, even off road. Now I rub just backing out of a parking spot. I believe I’ve narrowed it down to only rubbing on the flares, so I’m hoping maybe a switch back to the factory style flares might help. I understand I’ll probably still have to trim some, but just going by the rub marks on the bushwackers I don’t believe I’ll be able to trim where the rubbing is occurring on them.

 

You know something crazy? I too bought my truck with 285/65/18’s on 18x9 0 offset awful wheels & a spacer lift. The truck did not have a CMC or aggressive trimming. I went to a 285/75/16 on a 16x8 -25 and I have more rubbing than you can imagine. Every wheeling trip I end up chewing up my tires because I have more to trim. And my CMC is HELLA aggressive and beveled. I realize my -25 offset is what’s the most aggressive but I couldn’t believe that my truck had no rubbing on 285/65/18 and spacer and then after I did ALL real suspension and TC UCA the rubbing was awful and worse but I know my wheels and tires are to blame

 

Figure out where it’s rubbing, grab a knife with a fresh razor blade, and go to town. Shouldn’t have to trim much.

 

There are definite similarities here lol. I will say that my wheels do not have quite as an aggressive offset. I haven’t got to take my truck off road yet, but I’m sure it’s going to be bad.

Good news is I don’t think that I’m going to have to trim as much as I first thought. I snapped these pictures earlier of the areas I am experiencing the rubbing. I believe I’ll be able to at least take care of the issues I’m having on black top.





It might be tough to see, but there are rub marks below each bottom mounting bolt.

I’ll say that the stance with the 885s and AAL is about perfect. I was wanting to maintain some take due to my camper so it all worked out great!

 

Here’s mine and it’s sill a work in progress

 

before:

After: 5100's @0. 885x coils. 1.5-2 deaver aal rear

 

Is there a shock out there that's similar to a 5100 but with a bit more damping?

I put on a 5100 (set at 0") and OME 885 setup a couple years ago for a 2-2.5" lift (2nd gen access cab PreRunner with a US Offroad front bumper and winch mounted), and put on 32" duratracks at the same time. I've been happy with it, but I'm seeing some moderate cupping on my front tires after maybe 20-25k miles. I know I've been negligent about rotating my tires (keep slacking on the DIY and don't want to pay someone else to do something so simple), but it seems like the shocks shouldn't be worn out yet (even on the moonscape of L.A. streets/freeways), which means I'm just under-damped on the front end.

 

I’m not sure I’m following, you think your front end shocks are underdampened, causing tire cupping? If your tires are cupping it is more likely an issue with the tire manufacturing or with a bad alignment or because of the lack of rotations. 885 coils aren’t heavy duty coils meant to compensate for an offroad bumper AND a winch, so it’s likely you’d benefit from a heavier duty lift coil. 5100’s and OME shocks and likely all of the other “$170” shocks will dampen similarly but it’s the lift coil that you should swap out IMO. But yeah you’re probably for sure under-damped in the front end if you have 885’s and a heavy bumper and winch.

 

The OME 90000 are their “firm” struts. That’s what I’m running paired with the 886 (firm coils). I don’t think that’s your issue though. Sounds like a bad alignment

 

The US Offroad isn't a full-width bumper, just a tub for the winch with some recovery lugs. I still have the plastic front end, but the lower middle "grill" portion is cut out and the winch mount comes through there. It's a little heavier than the hidden mounts, but a good bit lighter than the full front plate bumpers out there. Since I'm in a PreRunner, I also don't have the weight of the T-case and front diff up there and I only wanted 2" lift rather than 3". If I'd wanted 3" or had a 4WD, I would have gone with 886 springs instead of the 885s. With the truck I have, 886 springs would push me up so high in the front end that I'd need to also replace the UCAs (might do that anyway at some point, but my wheeling season is over for a while now that the rains are coming around here and mud is one of the things where I'd really want power in the front).

I have no doubt that the extent of the cupping I've noticed is due to lack of rotation, but I'd still prefer to see less of it happening anyway.

 

thanks, I'll definitely look into those. I know that bad alignment can lead to a number of forms of uneven tire wear (as will improper psi), but I'm having a hard time envisioning how cupping is could come from that cause since it's related to the wheel losing contact with the surface intermittently. Also I recently had the alignment re-done after an accident (got t-boned on the passenger side in a parking lot, the slider took the worst of it but the quarter panel got pushed in a bit), and the "was" condition they listed wasn't really off in any way so I'm doubtful that it was ever really off by much prior to the collision.

 

looks great. did you leave the overload leaf in or take it out?

 

I left the overload leaf in. And like the stance I have.