Throwing the TRD Off Road a Bone

Wish I could grow up to be a pool boy

life would be a lot better than a farm girl

 

These are my hitachis at 30k miles. They still ride and look like new. I do wash my undercarriage a lot though.

My buddy has 17 sport with 70k miles and still rocking the stock suspension, he spends a lot of time off road, especially ripping down FSRs for hours. He has no issues at all.

 

Dude, Hitachi couldn't even make good stereos, how could they even begin to think of shocks. Sheesh

 

Hmmm Don't know, I do know I noticed a big difference off road with these "new" shocks. The ride is more planted and the truck absorbs the bumps a lot better.

I can only attest to how I used the truck. As I said I don't have a scratch on it and it is not run hard at all.
In fact I was going faster on the trails with the Bilsteins as I felt more confident with them.

 

Hitachi shocks on Tacomas are good for roads as they offer a stiffer response. Offroad you need softer response out of your shock.

 

I'm 25k in on the stock Pro Fox suspension and as long as I can fit 33s when I upgrade my tires, I don't think I'll ever take them off until I absolutely have to.

 

Off Road, has the best suspension for the buck! Toyota probably assumes you won't go off roading in an SR, nor a Sport for that matter.

 

They shouldn't have made both of them have 4x4 as options. Maybe two different engineers

 

That's what I was saying.

The TRD Sport seems to have a different color of Hitachi shocks. There blue with a black sleeve. The Hitachi's I had on the SR were all black. So maybe they are different.

I guess the point of the thread and I got there in the end is I should have got the suspension done first.
There was no way I was going to pay 10K more for a TRD OF when I bought that SR 4x4. I Knew eventually I was going to get where I wanted to be.

The Toyota Bilstein's are a very good upgrade over what I had and when I finally do get my hands on a set of 5100 it's going to be even better.

 

Yes for sure! I had the same intent. I liked the tech package with the sport vs what the offroad came with. I was going to replace the suspension whenever I needed to replace tires. However, due to the suspension breaking multiple times, I made the purchase sooner than what was initially expected. Only regret was not doing it sooner.

 

Sr dcsb 4x4 $32515

or dcsb 4x4 $38180

I went to public school and not good at math. But that’s around $5665

 

My OR cost less than 5K more than an SR and my OR was ready to go wheeling the day it left the dealership. I have other vehicles I’m happy to wrench-on and customize; I wanted my Taco to be turn-key.

Plus the basic dash/gauge layout on the SR was a deal-breaker for me. I once sold a car mainly because I hated/got bored looking at the boring gauge panel it. In my Silverado I had a custom dash panel made for it.

Back to shocks, I’ve been a fan of Bilstien’s since I swapped a set onto the front of my T100 in ‘00. I think I’m running 4100’s or similar on that truck (yellow with blue boots). Twenty years in they still ride well, don’t leak and give me no reason to think they will be the last set of shocks I have to put on that truck. I also run Bilstien 5100’s on my Silverado with no complaints. My Taco see’s mostly highway and light-moderate four-wheeling. I’m not expecting to need to do anything with these shocks for 50K or more miles.

 

My 12 FJC TT has the bilsteins. I owned since new. 90k miles now. Still performs great

everyone who gets in my FJC offroad compliments how compliant the ride is

I am a believer

 

What did you spray your undercarriage with?

 

So let me get this straight ... you went off-roading on a sr trim with suspension setup for the streets and expected a good outcome ? Lol

 

I use an SR out in fields, 2 tracks and mud lanes and haven't experienced any problem......with the factory tires no less.
Or maybe that is not off-roading IDK.

 

It’s all very dependent on where you live. Where I’m at in the Southwest my off-roading almost always (90% of the time) rocky, dusty fire roads and whooped-out trails, all of which are hell on shocks, tires and suspension components. My Taco has never seen mud.

 

I upgraded the stock OR suspension due to adding weight with armor, winch. Spent about $3K for Bilstein 6120s, 5160s, OME Medium Dakar leafs. Total Chaos UCAs. All good except Dakars, which squeak. Filed a warranty claim with ARB just in the last 2 weeks so we’ll see how that works out. Deaver leafs are supposed to be the best, also a lot more $. I’ll buy Deavers if ARB doesn’t come through.
My other truck has 4 40yo springs, OEM I’m sure. No squeaking.
https://youtu.be/Lt1wJMW0gXE

 

It’s a thin layer of vulcanized rubber undercoating.

 

i almost got an SR5. was doing the paperwork with the dealer but the truck was at a different location. they went to the back to look at numbers i guess and they told me the other dealer sold it. found one at a 3rd dealer, same thing they sold it.

they sold me a new OR for 1k more than i was gonna pay for the SR5. super glad i got it, i really wanted the power sliding rear window, plus all the other cool off road stuff