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

Curious why you say no.
I’ve called twice and verified with a Tyler as well as another employee who runs them on his Tacoma

 

Yes, it is.

Direct from Tyler at ADS:

"We use a fluttered progressive compression stack and a somewhat digressive rebound stack on the valving"

 

No it’s not. I say this because I’ve torn them apart and seen what’s inside.

Digressive valving is by piston design. You cannot have a “somewhat digressive” designed piston. You could in theory change the valving stack to have more or less digressive/progressive characteristics but the piston itself is either or.

What he is referring to is they’ve stacked the valves in such a way that increases the “cracking” point of the valving stack, therefore giving them a “more digressive” force curve on a dyno. It’s not actually digressive valving.

 

Yep. Standard progressive piston on mine.

 

A third, and IMO best, option depending on if you don’t mind the lead time and additional cost would be to buy the off-the-shelf ADS. Then either live with them until they need a rebuild, or ship them off to the tuner of your choice. The difference between the two brands, besides the valving, is the higher quality seals and a few other components. According to ADS’s testimonial on their website, they advertise their OEM replacement offerings as being race shocks, where as with king you have to pay more fore their “pure race” series. As for tuning, Accutune are pros, and I plan taking my bypasses and later my fronts to have them revalved. I’m on ADS’s stock valving right now with 700lb coils for a full plate bumper and honestly it’s perfectly livable for stock travel and the ride quality is pretty great for being OEM replacement. But really you can’t go wrong with king either if you go that route. Depends if you like that blue or not.

 

All i gotta say is, Ive ridden in both Fox and King ues they are nice but man ADS has their Sh*t together!

 

I ordered mine from @M C M and I think he has his own part numbers for his tuning specs. If this is true I have nothing but great things to say about my coilovers. I still find myself hitting things thinking it’s going to be rough, but they soak up everything. Do great on the highway as well.

 

I'd go this route if I were to order again.

That said, I'm nothing but pleased with my off the shelf units from ADS

 

He’s great to work with and has competitive pricing. It’s especially helpful that he’s local too. Plan to purchase rear bypasses and leaf springs from him in the future.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I'll probably just go with some 6112's for now, unless I can find a KILLER deal on either King or ADS. I drive 30k miles a year, and offroad like 2-3x a year, so it would be counterproductive to run a race series coilover for 99% street driving.

 

6112s are sweet. You won't be disappointed

 

Didn't you have to send yours back to get revalved shortly after you installed them?

 

When they say "race quality" they are refering to the materials used and the piston. Their OEM shocks are held to the same standards as their race shocks, and use the same high quality materials. They share the same piston as well which uses an oring back wearband and is hard anodized. They do not share the same seals as the race shocks as most race series shocks will weep oil until the seals get to temp.

If you want a solid answer as to why you should choose ADS based on standard features there is quite a few things that set them apart. Their OEM seal heads are the only ones using a 3 seal set up, there is 2 main shaft seals, one that seals about 90% and the other than provides a complete seal. The reason they dont both have 100% seal is to avoid oil building up between the 2 seals and creating pressure resistance on the shaft, this was a common issue on Air Shocks running double seals. ADS Zinc plates the bodies with a clear cerakote top coat, they use high quality hydraulic hose for the resis, the resis come standard with threaded end caps and schrader valve caps. The pistons are 7075 vs 6061, they use Eibach springs standard instead of private label springs from who knows what supplier.

If you are asking for a guarantee that one will "ride" better than the other, well that is completely subjective as everyones butt dyno will record different results. But, IMHO, you will end up with a nicer shock from the start going with ADS. At the end of the day, all shocks can be valved to work to ones specific needs.

If you need a quote, or any more specific details or questions, shoot me an email Matthew@mcmfablv.com

 

I did, but that was more due to how I set them up on my vehicle than any ADS shortcoming.

In the end they reworked it and I've been happy since. I'll chalk it up to a learning experience for a newb to nice suspension

 

And how well do they hold up to long term street driving? As mentioned above, I do about 30k miles a year, mostly highway driving, and do NOT want to have to rebuild every year. That's why it seems like the 6112's may suit my needs better, as I won't to worry about maintenance and my truck being down for a week or two (it's my daily and do not have another vehicle at the moment).

I'm not too concerned about ride quality being the number one factor, although it is something I do have to consider since I haul my kid 3x a week, and another one on the way.

 

Sounds like you are right. ADS is sending me the correct size

 

Anyone have a good way to tighten this bolt? The hose moves up and down pretty easily. Super hard to get a wrench on the bolt. As you an see, is shifted downwards towards the spring

 

not a bolt, its a pipe thread. If it does not leak, and is oriented in the direction desired, then its not a problem, otherwise the 90 degree fitting needs to make a full 360 degree turn into the shock, to tighten it more, and get it back to the desired position.

 

Hmm okay thanks. Doesn’t appear to be leaking so I’ll probably just leave it

 

That's an ORB fitting, the threads are straight cut. Level out the 90 so the hose clears the spring and tighten the jam nut. That fitting should not be loose in any way.