Bilstein 6112 Ready Lift

What’s up Tacoma World, I wanted to ask a few questions about my Tacoma before I spend anymore money.

To begin, I have a 2018 Off-road that I have had for about 2 years. I bought it in 2020 and when I purchase it came with what I believe is the Readylift Bilstein kit installed. I have always felt like the truck runs a little stiff both on and offroad. Since purchasing I have had the front struts lowered, guy before me had them at nearly the top ring. This seemed to help a bit with ride comfort but things still feel a little stiff.

Went to my local 4WD store for some advice, they suggest I add weight to the front of the truck (bumper/winch) to help improve ride quality. As I am no expert, I thought I would seek the advice of the internet and see what happens.

advice and opinions welcome

cheers

 

We need photos to help.

Ready lift is usually spacer leveling kits, so blocks. So take a picture of the top of the shock, and the body of the shock.

Then we can help!

 

I will post photos soon, there are spacers in the back, and the front shocks look identical this https://www.suspensionlifts.com/sho...th-bilstein-6112-for-2005-2020-toyota-tacoma/

thanks

 

I've never seen them installed, but I always wondered if you could remove the top spacer and just install a standard shock mount, thus reducing the spring tension. It would sit lower but would fix the ride.

I've installed about 4 sets of 6112s. They ride amazing normally.

https://www.autozone.com/suspension...unt-front/p/kyb-strut-mount-sm5640/279553_0_0

The 6112's don't come with shock mounts, you transfer them from OEM shocks and then use the clip to set the ride height.

I'm fairly certain this would fix the ride issue, then set the clip mid or lower to get the best of the 6112.

 

Here are some photos for reference

The photos of the suspension are at current levels (both sides are at the 2nd ring on the strut). The photo of the truck during the summer is at current level, photo of truck in snow was from before I had the struts lowered.

 

I've been searching for suspension upgrades for my Tacoma. I have had great customer service from Wescott designs and AccuTune Offroad. Shoot them an email or phone call and they're more than willing to help you out. It all depends on what you have and where you're trying to go with your truck. Either way, good luck and I look forward to hearing what you come up with.

 

bishop, I have tried lower the front struts not sure if that is the “clip”. The ride quality improved slightly but overall the truck feels really stiff and not very comfortable off road

 

How much air is in your front tires? 34psi? 36? more? Less? What is the rating on the tires? E load? SL? I know it's not directly related to the Bilstein's but those are part of the equation for ride quality.

Ted

 

In the summer doing normal driving the tire are 36-40 depending on temperature. In the winter they run lower around 33-36. I have the wild peak at3s nothing super heavy duty.

 

I have the 6112's on the front set to 5/4 and the 5160's on the rear with air bags, same tires. I run 36psi and I wouldn't say the ride is harsh, but it's worse than the stock off road shocks for sure.

** Edit -- to say the ride is not really "worse" --- it's "'less comfortable" for on road dragging than the stock off road shocks. My stock OR ride was very comfortable and I most likely wouldn't have ever maxed out the stock OR shocks. I am okay with that tradeoff because I wanted the 1.75" of lift and the option of more off-road performance.

 

TRP,

Ok good to know what others run the wild peaks at.

So what you’re saying is that the 6112s are not a performance upgrade or “better” than the stock offroad suspension? Do you have an opinion on my first post about adding weight to the front of the truck to improve the ride quality of the 6112s?
Thanks

 

Hello Kokopelli!

That's not exactly what I meant, sorry. Only you can answer if one is better / worse for you and what you are looking for.

My take was that the stock off-road suspension tries to balance the line between daily driving (pavement) with an added value of durability for some light off-road use. Toyota chose to go with a more comfortable 'daily' ride, knowing that the majority of their customers would rather ride in comfort on the roads and be limited to what they would expect off road. The stock OR setup may start to be 'worse' off road than the 6112's, Fox, Kings, 5100s (all of which sacrifice some 'on-road' comfort for added durability off road.)

This is wildly over simplified, think of it like a slider/scale of the balance between "Comfort" and "Off-Road" performance on the two extremes. There are a zillion different things to consider, but let's pick these two use cases:

Stock SR5:
Comfort ------------|------------------------------------------------------ Off-Road

Stock Offroad:
Comfort --------------------------|---------------------------------------- Off-Road

6112s:
Comfort --------------------------------------------------|---------------- Off-Road

Other Off-Road focused shocks:
Comfort -----------------------------------------------------------|------- Off-Road

The 6112s are BETTER suited for off-road, at the cost of some of the comfort / smoothness you get with the stock OR suspension. The 6112s have bigger shock bodies (more fluid/gas) and a different set of valves to help with the off-road performance of the shocks. I try to think about this as a set of trade-offs. Moving away from the stock OR setup to the 6112s will sacrifice the cushy comfort of the stock setup, but they should give you better off road performance. If you went with King or Fox setups you'd be making a totally different set of trade-offs. It's up to you to decide what you want for your truck/driving. It's like one of those Printer, Fax Machine, and Scanner units, that tries to do all three functions. It may work, but it's not great at any one thing. You're making a sacrifice somewhere for the convenience. 6112's sacrifice some on-road comfort over the stock OR, for better off road capabilities and the option to raise the ride height via more spring preload.

That said, you and I can't really compare our two systems as apples to apples. You an I have the same shock bodies and preloaded springs, but you have an additional spacer on top of that, my 6112s use the OEM spring and bolt right up to the shock/coil tower. I don't have the added extra inch of lift.



With regard to the question of adding more weight to the front of the truck to help smooth out the ride, I can't really comment on that because I'm not sure what it is about the ride of your truck that you want to fix. Is the truck too bouncy over bumps? Too jarring? Figure out what you don't like and then make a plan. Throwing more money and weight at the issue may get you what you want but it may also open up a different set of issues.

Sorry for the word salad/wall of text.

 

TRP,

Thanks for the response and explanation it cleared up some questions I had for sure!

I can accept some reduction in on road ride quality as long as the offroad has been improved. I’m not interested in lifting/changing my truck just for cosmetics. With my current setup on or offroad the front suspension particularly feels rigged and jarring when hitting bumps, potholes, or rocks . I live in Utah so going offroad down south has lots of sandstone corners and steps to drive over. I am looking/ was expecting a bit more dampening (using MTB terms) when my suspension hit these abrupt bumps. It feels like when I drop off a edge/pothole my suspension shoots to the ground with little cushion for the bump.
The additional weight added to the front was a suggestion for the 4WD store in my area to weigh down the front suspension and possibly reveal some of the harsh rigidness of the front suspension. As you said I don’t want to throw money at something that won’t improve// change the issue.

I appreciate the feedback

 

I never post, just lurk, but had to comment on this thread as I just installed the 6112's and 5160's, OME Dakar full leaf pack on a Gen 2 2013 DBL Cab OR. I wanted the Ready Lift Bilstein kit that had the built in spacer, but it wasn't available anywhere. Instead, I bought spacers to match the max height of the Readylift kit to get me to 3". That was a mistake on my part. After reading countless threads, I should have known better, but NOPE. I'm on ST Maxx 255/85/16's, 6112's at the 11/9 clip setting. I got the lift I was looking for, but it's way too stiff. Going to take out those spacers first, then play with the tire pressure to see if I can get it tolerable. If that doesn't do it, I'll take it to a nearby shop to adjust the clip settings down without sacrificing too much tire clearance.

 

Did you end up adjusting the clip settings?

 

I have an answer to your wondering haha. I have this kit and it’s absolutely horrible. I decided to install the own top hats and take the readylift top hat spacer out. All went well until the truck was sitting under its own weight. Come to find out these are longer shaft lengths than a typical 6112 that you can pair with the oem top hat. I assume it is to account for the .5” top hat height. Safe to say I was a little pissed off I had to reinstall the crappy ready lift top hat spacer. But I did drop the clips 6 notches to help the ride quality.