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

Quote from Headstrong. MCM has also stated this same thing.

“Their OEM bolt in Tacoma coil-overs are digressively valved on the rebound side and run progressive valving on the compression. The main reason for this is to give you the stable ride for on road and less of the harshness when traveling off-road.”

 

Different valving, prefer ADS

 

I already have ADS extended travel with uniball UCAs. I’m ONLY quoting what I’ve read other threads.

And you’re probably right about the springs. I assume it would be the limiting factor.

But to be fair I just looked at King and ADS specs straight from their websites. On 2.5 8” travel shocks King claims 16” compressed and ADS claims 17.6” compressed.

EDIT: did you hit the link to the thread I posed? I’m just relaying that information. That’s all. I don’t think I saw anyone dispute the claims on that thread.

 

Hmmm so that would mean that ADS is longer right? It’s literally an inch difference

 

So much misinformation.

None of that means anything about how much wheel travel you get with some bolt in coilovers.

 

Care to explain?

 

These OEM bolt in units are designed to work within the parameters of the stock suspension geometry. You cannot compare them to a non-application specific shock or a shock for another application. 'Extended Travel' just allows slightly more down travel assuming nothing else is stopping it first. Take your coilover out and cycle your suspension. With OEM control arms, the upper ball joint will bind first. Add some aftermarket UCAs, and you CV will bind shortly thereafter. There's only so much travel to be had in between something binding and your bumps.

Even comparing extended and collapsed lengths of these OEM units is pretty meaningless. You would need to pull the coils off, bolt the shocks back in, and cycle to get any valuable information. Having a longer extended length doesn't necessarily mean you'll have more travel, something may be binding first. Likewise a shorter collapsed length doesn't necessarily mean more uptravel as it can only go up so much. I've not seen collapsed length cause an issue on these OEM units except for a few applications with different LCAs etc. I.E. there's always a little shock travel left unused if your bumps are setup correctly, but all of the bolt in options again are designed to work with the factory setup, and should not bottom out.

Spring length and rate make no difference in this equation.

Comparing valving is kinda silly too as you can change it, or order it with whatever you want. FWIW mine came with no-so-great valving.

TLDR: Pick a color of bolt in coilovers, 95% of the weekend warrior TW members won't tell the difference.

 

This. And the only thing compressed length tells you, is the length rod-end the manufacturer supplied you. It says nothing about shaft length.

 

I'll add also now that I have more time to type, with a stock setup your max travel will be always be limited by the stock upper and lower A-arm's geometry. Uptravel will always be maxed and limited by the bumpstops and max down travel will always be limited by limit straps or when the UCA contacts the coil (preferably limit straps to avoid damage). So stock or "extended" travel doesn't mean much in a Shock. Sure, King may say they have an extra inch of downtravel in the shock, but ADS has a longer lower rod-end so total extended length is the same. If you really want more travel you have invest the time and extreme amount of $$$ in a long travel setup which will utilize a 8" or 10" coilover (stock is like 6" I think) for the longer travel at the wheels.

 

So this is purely hypothetical but I recently put ADS extended length coilovers on the truck and ran them with the shipped amount of preload (3/8” & 1/2”) and recently cranked them up to nearly an inch of preload (unloaded spring length on the drivers side is sitting at 11.75”).

I live about a half mile down a rutted, washboard gravel road so it’s kinda been cool to feel the difference immediately after any suspension change - from stock to TRD Pro Bilsteins front & back to rear ADS and finally to ADS on all 4 corners.

The truck still handles amazingly well but I can appreciate the difference in stiffness with the extra preload.

If a person wanted the same lift afforded by the extra preload but wanted the ride of how the coils shipped from ADS with the minimal preload how would you go about doing this?

Longer spring, same spring rate?
Custom length coilover?
Same 14” spring but maybe a 725lb or 750lb spring rate?
Simply decrease the compression damping with the clickers (haven’t gotten around to testing that yet)?

 

Good question. How was the stock preload of ADS vs 1” of preload in stiffness? Can you noticeably tell? How much different.

I’ve always wondered if you could use the default 1/4” preload and then add a top plate spacer (not a coil spacer)

Appreciate the insight

 

I'm thinking about ordering a set of 2.5s. What would anybody who has either the piggy back, or remote resiviors rear shocks recommend?

 

I like my extended travel once they broke in

 

Yeah I thought about spacers too - I guess it shouldn’t be a big deal if you’re sticking with 1/4”spacers and still have a decent amount of thread engagement on the studs.

 

It’s all about CV angles my friend. Binding CVs is going to be costly $$$

 

Well aware of my CV angles. With the roughly 1” preload / 11.75” unloaded spring length my CV’s look like this with 200-220lbs extra weight up front and I still need to drop a winch in there once funds are available again.





Pretty tame angles by most standards I would say.

 

I might also try the sway bar delete just to see how much extra body roll there is with 700lb coils and whether it’s managable and how it affects offroad performance.

Wife occasionally drives the truck so I don’t want to put her in danger with removing the sway bar and not being experienced with how the truck handles since she drives it so infrequently.

 

Yup looks like mine with 1” preload (my wheels are turned a little). How are you running 200lbs without a winch?

 

BAMF 1/4” steel IFS skid (70-80 lbs) + ATH 3/16” throughout plate bumper (120-130 lbs).

 

I’ve got the BAMF bolt on sliders with kick outs too. Those aren’t directly affecting the front shocks but I get what you mean

My lo pro bumper with winch weighs 130lbs