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Really confused about shocks, and would appreciate some advice.

Discussion in '2nd Gen. Tacomas (2005-2015)' started by secher, May 13, 2024.

  1. May 13, 2024 at 5:22 AM
    #1
    secher

    secher [OP] Well-Known Member

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    I have a newly purchased 2015 OR. She is going to be a 40% unloaded driver, 40% partially loaded driver (bags of Crete, or sheets of sheetrock, or timbers, or camping gear) and 20% towing up to about 2000Kg/4500LB including trailer. When towing, the beginnings and ends of the trip may pretty sketchy, think logging road/unmaintained washed out dirt road.
    Hardcore off-roading is not my bag much, but I absolutely will be in scenarios where 4L and A-Trac will be engaged.
    Initially I figured bilstein 5100s would do perfectly, they seemed to be the gold standard of heavier shock absorbers. As I dig deeper I find people crapping all over them and implying I have to shell out well over a thousand dollars to get a heavier duty aftermarket shock.
    Can someone who knows what they are talking about give me some guidance?
     
  2. May 13, 2024 at 5:44 AM
    #2
    MSgt O

    MSgt O Well-Known Member

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    With that much weight AND towing, your stock springs will sag quickly. I would get a heavier spring pack, and any decent shock will be fine. The springs are what carry the load and the shocks just dampen the bumps.
     
  3. May 13, 2024 at 6:04 AM
    #3
    Pointeman

    Pointeman Well-Known Member

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    I have 5100’s. Love them. But I also have rebuilt the stock springs and have had a local shop customize some full length add a leafs. I don’t do heavy off road. I do run forest service roads, hunt, camp, fish, and cut firewood. Plus I tow a small adventure trailer for what it’s worth. The Bilstein’s were a good investment.
     
  4. May 13, 2024 at 6:35 AM
    #4
    Hook78

    Hook78 Well-Known Member

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    It’s your leaf springs that carry the load, not your shocks.
     
  5. May 13, 2024 at 6:40 AM
    #5
    DVexile

    DVexile Exiled to the East

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    You may find more answers in the dedicated suspension forum:

    https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/suspension.18/

    Suspension entirely depends on your use case, so you've already done some hard work in defining what that is. That said, you probably need to refine it a bit more to get to a useful solution.

    You are probably looking at new leaf springs and the key issue here is that a good ride with a heavy load will likely be too stiff when running empty and a comfy ride empty is going to hit the stops loaded. Air bags are a classic solution to this problem but aren't necessarily great off road. I would suggest carefully analyzing what your actual lightest and heaviest loads are going to be. These trucks have abysmal payload capacity and many people just don't understand how quickly loads add up. Adding in a trailer complicates things as it really depends on what the tongue load is.

    For shocks I would honestly say the biggest question is how long are your trips off road and at what speeds?

    A long ride on a desert washboard road at speed can literally explode a twin-tube shock. Or well before that cause shock fade that might result in loss of control. On the other hand, twin-tubes are inexpensive and nearly maintenance free and probably an excellent choice if you are mostly slowly negotiating a few miles of forest road to get to a campsite, trail head or fishing spot.

    Mono-tubes shed heat a lot better, and you can even get external reservoirs to help more, but this can be an endless rabbit hole of expense and typically more maintenance. You will have plenty of people tell you this is the only choice, and if like me you drive 60+ miles of washboard at 45 mph then that is probably true, but really it can be absolute overkill for many use cases.

    Bottom line, suspension can get very complicated and questions asked or answered without extensive context are fairly meaningless. You'll have to filter out endless "King for win" and "Fox rules" responses no matter what, but largely the burden is going to be on you to carefully document how you are using the truck (and which you've given a good start).
     
  6. May 13, 2024 at 6:50 AM
    #6
    Danner488

    Danner488 Well-Known Member

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    I'm using my truck similar to yours. Towing my boat and hauling stuff reverse arched my stock leaf springs. I think the coup de grace was when I hauled about 1/3 yard of mulch.
    Leaf springs carry the load and the shock smooth out the ride so perhaps consider what you want to do for a leaf pack first.

    I have 5100 with 885 springs in front and 5125 rear with RXT leaf option 2 in the back. It did stiffen up the ride, but I like it. Less body roll when cornering and nose dip when braking hard.
    Cost of parts with carrier bearing shim and extended brake lines was about $1500. I was looking at the 6112 but they are double the price and couldn’t justify the $$ for my usage.
    If you contact Hotshot Off Road they will take the time to talk to you. I started with an inquiry on their website and they replied which led to a phone call. I believe HSO is on this site memario1214
    Also Shock Surplus has a bunch of informative videos on YouTube. I reached out to them also but they never responded.

    For context here's my truck with the boat prior to the suspension upgrade. I put the suspension on last fall so I don't have any pics with the boat after, but I can easily 400 lbs. of solar salt without looking like Carolina squat.

    JPG1.jpg
     
    Schlappesepple likes this.
  7. May 13, 2024 at 6:58 AM
    #7
    Schlappesepple

    Schlappesepple Well-Known Member

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    I'd be calling a couple of suspension vendors.

    Your truck could do this fine new, but at 9 years old the stock suspension is probably not up to the task.

    I'd also be thinking about the basic Old Man Emu (OME) kit, with new springs and shocks all around, since it sounds like you just need some added durability, and I assume you're looking at slow off road (or rough road) travel while heavily loaded. (That could just be the marketing speaking, though, as I have no experience with OME.)
     
  8. May 13, 2024 at 7:20 AM
    #8
    Naveronski

    Naveronski Well-Known Member

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    5100's aren't bad at all.

    Heavier springs will be your friend.

    Since you don't need fancy articulation for rock crawling, airbags are a great option for the extra weight.
     
    dk_crew likes this.
  9. May 13, 2024 at 9:11 AM
    #9
    TacoTuesday1

    TacoTuesday1 Well-Known Member

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    With RXT leaf and 5160 rear
    Towing as we speak

    rather have this or more, not less

    and if I can figure out RAS or air bag without giving up a bump stop to break the frame
     
  10. May 13, 2024 at 9:25 AM
    #10
    Hook78

    Hook78 Well-Known Member

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    What option on the RXTs? I’m considering Firestone airbags for towing.
     
  11. May 13, 2024 at 9:42 AM
    #11
    Danner488

    Danner488 Well-Known Member

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    Would a cradle for the air bag make it like a bump stop?
    I considered Firestone air bags with a Daystar cradles, but I had 112K on my truck so I upgraded the suspension. For me the lift was not a goal, but a much liked bonus from the upgrade.
     
  12. May 13, 2024 at 10:04 AM
    #12
    Hook78

    Hook78 Well-Known Member

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    Well, like bump stops the fire bags will limit the ability of the rear suspension to compress under load so I guess in a way yeah. They just create that limit at a much lower compression than the bump stops.
     
  13. May 13, 2024 at 10:43 AM
    #13
    dk_crew

    dk_crew Well-Known Member

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    For towing and/or variable weight in the bed I recommend bags. For years I had 5100s with an AAL and air bags with cradles. I really liked that setup for the flexibility. My wheeling is always very slow. I used the bags as bumps and hever had an issue. I'm sure fast in the desert woud be different but it worked for me. The bags never had an issue and I gave them to a member on here when I was done and I believe they're still going strong. I've moved on to 35s, 63s, 7100s , ... (snowball) ..., but I did like that setup and would recommend it.
     
  14. May 13, 2024 at 10:46 AM
    #14
    Hook78

    Hook78 Well-Known Member

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    Which air bags? I tow a boat with a 500 lb tongue weight and I’ve been wanting to install bags for a while.
     
  15. May 13, 2024 at 10:56 AM
    #15
    dk_crew

    dk_crew Well-Known Member

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  16. May 13, 2024 at 10:59 AM
    #16
    Hook78

    Hook78 Well-Known Member

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  17. May 13, 2024 at 11:04 AM
    #17
    dk_crew

    dk_crew Well-Known Member

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    I have no recollection which means it was probably fairly easy. Usually everything takes me 3-4x what others on here say (replace a CV axle, swap ujoints, ...). I think you could route each to its own air nozzle but I put a T connection to combine them - this ensures the bags get equal pressure. Pros and cons to that on the thread but I never noticed a difference and it makes the adjustments easy because you're just filling one source for both.
     
    Hook78[QUOTED] likes this.
  18. May 13, 2024 at 11:15 AM
    #18
    bagleboy

    bagleboy Well-Known Member

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    Snug top Rebel, Thule tracks, ditch tracks, Bagged rear suspension, F/R anytime camera, intermittent wiper switch...
    True, however a heavier load can overwhelm the capacity of a shock to dampen movement. It doesn’t lift or lower but only controls how long it takes for a bounce to go away. Increased diameter, valving, and reservoirs to increase fluid capacity all add capability, how much you need is up to you. Bags will level the truck for any given weight but don’t change the distribution F/R only a weight distribution hitch can do that so to check all the boxes I would consider bags & cradles for daily use and the WD hitch for the trailer to keep the front wheels loaded on tough terrain. Rough dirt roads combined with a heavy load might benefit from increase shock capacity in ride quality and shock life.
     
  19. May 13, 2024 at 11:22 AM
    #19
    bagleboy

    bagleboy Well-Known Member

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    Snug top Rebel, Thule tracks, ditch tracks, Bagged rear suspension, F/R anytime camera, intermittent wiper switch...
    I have air bags and love them but separated the fills so that air can’t bleed from one to the other when parked on a slant or rounding long radius corners. Bees knees for my work truck. I have a HP paintball bottle and switches in the cab along with a release valve which allows me to also raise/lower the rear end which can come in handy doing hook-ups. I use it to lower the tailgate for loading/unloading and working off the tailgate.
     
  20. May 13, 2024 at 12:31 PM
    #20
    Hook78

    Hook78 Well-Known Member

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    My point is that for the scenarios OP described he is fine with 5100s but might consider beefier leaf springs.
     

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