3rd gen suspension upgrade without lift advice

Hi,
I want to improve the ride comfort while off-road for my wife and dog without lifting the truck. Anyone who still thinks Pitbull's are an inherently dangerous breed need to meet mine LOL. All those dreams I had of bouncing down a forest trail, on my way to a secluded campsite, with my faithful dogs smiling head filling my sideview mirror have not come true yet. She doesn't like being in the truck to begin with, so as soon as I hit a few rocks on trail, she's all ears back and sad looks.

I just ordered Fox 2.5 extended length coilovers for the front with UCA's from Accutune. Steve says I can adjust them down to a 1" lift. Accutune will adjust the valving to give me better low speed bump comfort and still allow me to stretch my legs in the desert when my wife isn't with me.

My question is what do I do with the rear suspension. Eventually I will upgrade the shocks, but do I need to do anything with the ride height now to match the 1" predicted lift in front.
I am only running 31.5" tires and like to keep my center of gravity low, so I don't want to lift it any more than necessary. If I do lift the rear any I want to add droop to compensate like I did in the front.

What parts should I be on the lookout for in the used and sale bins?

 

I agree with you, lifting the rear is silly and makes it harder to use the truck as a truck.

I'd say run the crap stock springs and see how they do for you. 1" front lift will basically level the truck, you may like it that way.

Edit: looks like these are intended for lifted trucks. But still something cool to look at for down the road.

https://accutuneoffroad.com/product/accutune-offroad-u-bolt-flip-kit-05-toyota-tacoma/

 

Thanks,
I'm a little confused as to how the u-bolt flip kit works. This isn't a kit to swap the axle over/under the springs right? Does it do anything besides changing which direction the bolts face?
Also, when does the bump stop become necessary, and why doesn't the truck come with one stock?

 

Accutune can better describe their products, but its a purpose built bump stop, when wheeling you contact the factory stops (you can see them on top of the factory springs) when they hit its SUPER harsh. So these are better at absorbing the harsh energy and works with the travel of the rear spring.

Flipping isnt neccesary, but its a cool mod that removes the catch points on the factory leaf spring brackets.

Like I said, just something to read about and check other builds.

 

Bump stop is a very frequently used thing on these trucks as that jarring feeling you get in the back is the rock hard bump stops doing their job. I personally run durobumps but with how soft the rear suspension is it more or less just makes it a little less jarging. Purpose of the ubolt flip is to prevent damage to the bolts/anchor plate from contacting the ground

 

I don't follow. Some lifts can be extremely excessive and maybe make it harder to get in the back of the truck, but done right it should not affect the truck from being a truck, loading up etc. I would say lowering the truck is much worse for a truck.

This video may help explain what it is/does
-Flipping u-bolts helps with clearance below the axle, less likely to get hung up off-road. Bonus, its offers a great top platform for a better bump stop.
-Our bump stop retainer, also comes in a variety of sizes depending on what size shocks you have.
-Bump stop itself is much softer and progressive compared to anything rubber or urethane. Will provide a much more comfortable bottom out.

@Go_Outside Since you already have the front kit from us, I would suggest pairing he same shocks in the rear (tuned) when the time comes. Matching what we have in our stage kits would also be a great idea since we've done all the homework and have tuned for these setups. Is this something you discussed with Steve when you ordered the front?

 

I meant in the loading regard. I like being able to get into the bed without struggling. I definitely don’t suggest lowering!

 

@Go_Outside Since you already have the front kit from us, I would suggest pairing he same shocks in the rear (tuned) when the time comes. Matching what we have in our stage kits would also be a great idea since we've done all the homework and have tuned for these setups. Is this something you discussed with Steve when you ordered the front?[/QUOTE]

We touched on it. Responsibly my budget doesn't have room for upgrading both ends right now, so I decided I can wait on the rears.
But, then I drove to work and realize how much I feel the rear buck. Its probably worse in the back where my dog is.
Also, a few years ago, I was chasing some harshness in the front end of my dirt bike that ended up coming from too little rebound in the rear. I figure the principles are similar enough that I ought to start figuring out how to upgrade the rear of the truck.

 

Right on, I understand budgets can force you to spread out purchases. Replacing the bump stops in the rear would really just be a bandaid fix. May help with bottom out harshness, but wont keep you from bottoming out as often. If you dont plan or want to lift the rear, you could just replace the shocks. Could always do Fox 2.0 RR in the rear instead of 2.5s

 

I like the idea of adjusting the dampening for comfort/handling or load depending on my needs. Can your adventure tune and just low speed compression adjustment let me do that? Do I even need that on the rear or can I just leave it soft and get by? I’m not racing anyone, I just want to be able to enjoy the truck at speed through the faster desert trails/roads without ending up in a ditch.

Also, I eventually want to increase the travel in the rear to match the front. Do all the extended length shocks require a 2-3” lift? Or can I run them on the stock rear suspension until I can upgrade that?

Finally, what about springs. I see all your mid travel kits include springs. Are the stock springs a limitation? Max load will be ~400 lbs, and much less when traveling fast off road.

 

Hey don't blame us for your bad driving!
Kidding. Rear 2.0 is available with a low speed compression adjuster, really up to you if you think you will use it. Certainly worth getting the first go-around since upgrading later is pricey. 2.0 will ride great on the street, but if you are really planning to do a lot of high speed desert/washboard/whoops, you are back in 2.5 shock territory.

Shocks have different lengths for different heights, so if you were to run a long shock now, with too little of a lift, you will be bottoming out that shock constantly. Not something we would suggest. Unfortunately buying in stages can be more of a pain than its worth, so buying it all at once would provide the best overall change.

We have a few different leaf packs available depending on budget, lift height and added weight. Stock springs wont allow for a ton of droop, in some cases that is the limiting factor in the rear. Choosing the best leaf pack is also tough, because you want to choose the best leaf pack for what you will be doing most of the time, not for that 1 weekend out of the month where you are fully loaded. Lots of options to consider and definitely a good idea to not get too stiff of a spring.

 

Check out the series.

https://youtu.be/sJEkSmewcQE

awesome job by @WormSquirts aka #trailboss lol

 

He just bought front shocks, so that video wont help with the questions he has about the rear suspension.

 

Awesome! still helps to be informed how suspension works and pro’s and con’s on different shocks, plus remember threads are usually a time capsules. Cheers!

 

I found those videos rather low quality. I do appreciate the effort though.

I think tinkerer’s adventure videos are much better.

 

Tinkerers adventure (Kai) is the engineering stand point and overland outfitters(Braeden) it’s a test of shock unbiased. Have talked to both and both are good dudes, and their content are pretty highly regarded when it comes to quality.

 

Same. At some point they said that they think the Fox shocks may have been defective and that they should have taken a look... but didn't. And that is when I lost faith in the whole series.
Also, without scientific data to measure and compare, this became just you tube content. At the very least they could have filmed the same vehicle passing the same spot at the same speed. They could have overlaid that with a graph and shown it in slow speed to show body motion and wheel control. They could have done that with an I-phone. The fact that they didn't show comparable footage of the different shocks is suspicious. There was way too much production money thrown at that video series for that to not have been proposed.
There was so much missed potential here.
Maybe, in a future series they will tune all the shocks and re-film it to demonstrate their tuning chops.

 

Can I get more travel without a lift?

 

We did full matching sets of front and rear for each test.

Definitely some more potential to be unlocked in this series. I don't think most people appreciate how much work goes into doing something like that. We had a tonne of ideas on how to do it, but for the first one, we just had to do it and learn, so we can do it again better next time.

We did open up the fox shocks afterwards and they were fine. Ian is actually supposed to be releasing a sister series on his YouTube channel going over the internals and valving specs of each shock, but hasn't been able to do it yet.

It's funny because after the test, we talked to a few different shops and every one guessed that the foxes were the worst. I don't think the poor stock valving is much of a secret. I do think their newer renditions such as the performance elite will be much better, and I look forward to hopefully be able to try them in the future.

 

I watched that series and I wasn't surprised that King was favored out of the bunch. A lot of people praise King. I would like to see that series expand further. I don't believe any of those shocks in that series had compression adjusters or dual speed compression adjusters.