Any solution for the 5100 wedgie?

I really like these shocks on my 2017 Tacoma. They are perfect for my uses and a good bargain.

However, it drives me nuts that the accordion shock boots always end up stuffed up after any sort of articulation. This allows mud and gravel to sit on top of the shuck body and rub against the piston.

Some people I know who run these shocks say it’s just the nature of the beast....don’t let it bother you.

With thousands of these shocks sold every day, I’d like to think I’m just missing something.

Is there any way to prevent this:



And keep it like this:

 

A strong zip tie with some textured rubber piece on the shock so there is not a smooth surface to keep the boot from sliding

 

Sounds promising. Does the boot have enough “pleating” not to have to slide during full travel? I guess I was thinking they were meant to slide but maybe no.

Hockey tape might work.


There is a large zip-tie on the end of mine, but it isn’t cranked against the shock body.

 

The boot should have. I don’t have a boot on mine so I really would know.

 

Do you have 5100s with no boot or another brand?

 

I have another brand but have a basic understanding of physics lol.

 

Ha. I know that!!!

 

I would try that first. I think hockey tape will work good. It’s super grippy

 

Yeah. I think a band of tape on the shock body and the boot on top, then a wide zip tie.

 

Just cleaned the area good so no grease or oil is left on the metal so the tape doesn’t slide up. If that doesn’t work I would try something like a bike inner tube to make a sleeve with the wide zip tie

 

I guess my goal is to keep gravel spray from the front wheels off the shock pistons, without tearing the boot or having it fill up with mud. In some ways I wish these 5100s just had the hard plastic shrouds like the OEM billsteins or TRd Pro Fox shocks. That’s actually a pretty good system.

 

I would be more afraid of getting something stuck In the boot and having it rub a gouge in the shock shaft.

 

Well this is the thing. These shocks are extremely popular, but these boots are dumb, so I keep thinking there’s something I’m just missing. When the boots get scrunched, small pebbles and sand do sit on top of the shock body and rub the piston shaft.


I sometimes take a peek when I see another Taco or Runner running 5100s off road and their boots are often all scrunched up as well, so I dunno.

How can something so popular have such an obvious flaw?

 

Oh boy this might just get thrown off the rails from here.

 

I hope not. I’d be stoked if anyone spoke up and schooled me on being an idiot. I’m always looking to learn.

 

I do think it is a poor design

 

Agreed. I would try those two options first

 

Do you need the boot?

 

I think I do. I need a shield of some nature. I run a lot of gravel roads, and the paint on the front side of my back axle, and anything facing forward in the rear of the truck gets abraded from stones coming off the front wheels. I run mudflaps, but they only do so much. I imagine with no boot the stones would be hitting the chrome shock shaft.

I’ve though about abandoning the boot as the lesser of two evils, but keep thinking the boot must work in some scenario.

 

I see a lot of shocks, including my current and original OR bilsteins that didn't have boots, and have held up well. If I had them I might experiment with taking them off.