Reliable suspension without breaking the bank

Can't really attest to them but I've heard that the Dobinsons MRR struts and shocks have great value and have fully adjustable rebound. Overland outfitters @WormSquirts carry them and I HAVE heard nothing but great reviews from that shop. (Plus they do shipping)

 

I actually purchased most of my gear from overland Outfitters haha

 

Sitting in the driveway.

 

Thanks for the tag, and the support!

Here's my input after building more tacoma's than most. Honestly I've done more setups on my own personal tacoma than I care to admit.

For suspension, it does depend on budget and use-case, but these would be my recommendations. I'm also going to contradict some of the other's info in this thread.

Suspension: In the budget you mentioned, I would personally go with Bilstein 6112/5160. We also keep the 6112/5160 in stock because we just find them so robust. They use a digressive-linear valving, which I'm not necessarily super fired up on for my own uses, but for most people who see 90% pavement, and then take their truck down some dirt roads the other 10%, they work very well. For a more specific off-road use case, I would prefer something with a linear-progressive tune. They are probably the best bang-for-buck setup on the market currently. you get a resi in the back, and 2.5 shock body in the front, so that's a big increase in oil capacity over similar budget shocks like ome nitrochargers.

On the topic of nitrochargers, I do not recommend them. They are just painted steel bodies, which, as you're probably aware, don't fare well in our climate. These were the first suspension setup I ran on my truck all those years ago, and I blew all 4 within 10 months, they warrantied them, and I blew 3 more before switching to something else. And that's not just me, as I have seen many other trucks that see dirt suffer the same fate with their nitrochargers.

If you want something different from Bilstein, the Dobinson IMS are in roughly the same budget, and look pretty good from the details I can find out about them, though I don't have a tonne of personal experience with them.
Another option could be Elka 2.5 IFP shocks. They are nice for our climate as they have an aluminum shock body, which wont rust. They are also rebuildable and tuneable, which we do offer in our shop. Avoid Elka's 2.0 shocks, as I have seen issues with those.

UCAs: I recommend the same setup to everybody in Canada: JD Fabrication. They use OE style rubber inner bushings, so they don't squeak or make noise (though they do offer a sealed uniball inner option as well for extra beef if you want). For the outer ball joint, they use an EMF joint, which is semi-sealed, has a grease port, is as strong as a uniball, and can be re-tensioned if they develop some play over time. EMF joints are also made in Canada which is pretty cool.

The two arms I absolutely would NOT recommend are SPC and JBA. Both of them blow through outer ball joints like nobody's business. SPC used to be really solid, but we try our best not to sell them any more, even though we are stuck with stock, because we have been warrantying ball joints every 6-12 months for all the ones we sold in the last couple of years, and SPC does not make this process easy. At least the ball joints themselves are easy to change. Same goes for JBA, the ball joints just can't hang. Atleast they are also easy to swap!

Castor: Adding castor doesn't necessarily equal more room for tires. Adding castor at the UCA will bring the tire slightly closer to the firewall. Adding castor at the LCA will bring the tire closer to the front bumper.

33+ Tires: I have fit 33's, 34's and 35's on more tacomas and 4runners than I can count. I am currently clearing my tacoma for 40's after running 37's for the last few years. In this, all I can say is don't believe what people tell you on the internet about whether their tires clear or not. Everybody has a different definition of "clearing" tires. In my opinion, a tire only fully clears if you have confirmed by pulling the coil out and cycling the suspension all the way up and down, and to full steering lock both directions. With that in mind, it doesn't make a different what kind of OE style suspension you have. The only things that matter are the tire specs and the wheel specs. Different offsets and widths will create different scrub radius' that affect clearance more than anything else. I can't tell you how many people have told me their 33's clear fine, only for me to hear them rub on the first bump I hit when test driving their vehicle, or even just looking in the wheel well and seeing all the rub marks. This is going to be different for each truck, and each wheel/tire combination. TYPICALLY a CMC, pinch weld, and some plastic trimming front and back are required for 33's, and slightly more aggressive trimming for 34's to clear fully. 35's become more challenging, but I won't go into that here.

I did shoot a video installing this exact setup on a customer's truck that has some more details and tips if that's something you're interested in.

Hopefully this was helpful, and you can always call if you have any more questions! Happy to help.



editted for formatting & spelling

 

Lift does not help clear larger tires unless you are planning to drive in a straight line and never cycle your suspension.

I would recommend OME entry level 2” lift kit with nitro charger shocks. Robust and very affordable. I paid about 2500$ Can about a year ago.

 

Hey thanks for the info! I see all the emphasis on the shocks. Do the coilovers not matter that much?

 

Nice truck man!


Is that rear bumper compatible with BSM?

 

The coilovers are really just a shock with a coil around it. Sorry I kinda just said shocks meaning all 4 corners. I edited the heading for clarity!

 

Not that I know of.

I will add, 14 years of Nitrochargers on my second gen and now 2 years on my 3rd gen and haven't had much issues while working in the bush in the BC interior. Forestry roads, deactivated roads and skid trails. I don't wheel for fun. I don't live on the coast and only visit there a couple of time a year (too often in my opinion). On my second gen - One blown 5 year old front when my employer forced me to let co-workers use my truck and I have no idea how they were driving it. One broken 8 year old rear shock in a bizarre sideways lifting winching scenario of a large log on a beach to free a dock.

Haven't run Bilsteins other than the god awful stock OR spring/shock combo, but many seem to like them.

I also run 235/85/16 (32") to make life easier on the crappy stock gearing of our trucks.

I looked at going to 255/85/16 (33") and the expense, added tire weight and taxing of the gearing made little sense to me.

 

Use that 10k to pay it off

 

I traded in my 2.5nd gen TRD OR with extremely low miles paid the rest cash.

Not looking for financial advice, just how to go faster, harder

 

Well done, then shit skies the limit....