Suspension setups for desert racing?

Hey this is my first post on the site, I have a 2wd gen3 Tacoma which I have been overlanding but I’ve always wanted to get into desert racing/ prerunning/ Baja.. whatever you wanna call it, My question is what kind of suspension am I looking for? I don’t want to completely spring for a total chaos long travel kit but I want to upgrade to external resi shocks as Im currently running nitrogen shocks similar to old man emu that are very stiff, my main question is do I need softer suspension for the desert at high speeds? Thanks everyone, I’m looking forward to being part of the community.

 

Your question has no simple answer, but generally speaking I believe an off road racing suspension will have springs with a relatively small spring rate and shock absorbers with a relatively large amount of dampening. This is just the opinion of a random guy on the internet who has never raced in the desert, but has quite a few hours in the saddle of a dirt bike and has watched a few trophy truck races on YouTube.

This is probably comparing apples to oranges, but when I sit on a dirt bike the suspension compresses inches, but the same is not true of my Tacoma. My dirt bike is built to go fast off road. My Tacoma is built to haul and tow stuff on flat roads. BTW: I take my Tacoma off road every other week or so. I’m running 2.5 king remote reservoir coil overs with 600 lb springs and a Dakar standard leaf pack and king 2.5 rear remote reservoir shocks. It seems like a decent desert racing suspension short of going long travel.

 

Thanks I appreciate the info

 

in all honesty i know the long travel seems like a lot of money...which it is..but, BUT.... you can put a mid travel set up on the truck and it really doesnt perform that well when it comes to the type of terrain you are looking to get in to. long travel is worth the money, just understand there is a great deal of maintenance that comes with long travel.

 

Check out this dude's thread

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/81-tube-frame-trekker.626283/