Suspension Recommendations moderate off-roading

Simple. How many people drive their trucks like that? When I raced that might have been relatable.

 

Did you miss the part where they drove on the road? And on washboard dirt? That right there covers like 99.9% of people.

 

Not at all. How much of the video was spent on road manners and washboard? 2%? The videos were worth noting. I fully understand where they're coming from. They also commented that at the extreme, it was very hard to tell the difference with some. That wouldn't surprise me. I just thought their test wasn't relevant to maybe 90% of Tacoma drivers. YMMV

I'll also say this: shocks are going to perform differently when paired with different springs unless they are custom valved to the specific spring. Don't forget that weight distribution is going to affect how your setup works too.

Tires will most definitely change how different suspensions feel too.

For off-the-shelf shocks, compromises will be made to get the best overall feel, covering the most possible variances.

Some people don't like Dobinsons. That's fine. Go buy something else. I had Bilstein and wasn't overly impressed, even with years of offroad racing experience with them. I raced with Fox also. They were a damned fine shock...if you don't mind rebuilding them. I just couldn't justify the price on my daily driver that gets pushed harder than 75% or more of the trucks on the road.

For what the OP is looking for, there are a lot of shocks that are overkill. In this case, I don't think the OP can go wrong with the Dobinsons, they easily fit his budget too.

 

I think this is a useful statement. If anything, I’d be more concerned about the alignment cams on the LCA’s. I’m not an off roading Tacoma owner, but I’ve seen several discussions on here stating those are a weak area.

 

OP unless you do lots of high-speed washboard or desert type whooping, you don't need resi shocks

 

That's my #1 issue with the video. They have an access cab, and whoever they bought the parts from might not know what they need different springs to setup the correct lift height. They didn't mention at any point what the spring rates were, nor what the lift height was. Factory springs can fit on the IMS and you can preload them to lift it just like 5100's, so comparing the ride with stock springs versus stronger ones isn't ideal, as many people I help on the forums are changing out the springs because they either chose or were sold the wrong spring rate to suit their needs, then it doesn't ride like it's supposed to.

And also, based on the visuals of the rear shocks, and the timing of the video, I think they were running the extended travel rear shocks (regular rear shocks were out of stock for a few months), and stock bump stops, so the shocks would have been bottoming out as those aren't suitable with the setup they had in the back.

Long story short, you can have a certain brand of parts on a rig with the wrong rates and the wrong setup and have it not ride well, versus everyone else that really enjoys the ride when it's the right combination for how their vehicle is setup.

 

They talked about this in another thread here, but yeah, nothing in the actual video. Sounds like they are doing a deep dive video with all these specs for us suspension nerds.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/blind-shock-tests-season-2-starts-today.799472/page-6

Each shock was setup for 2" of lift with the OE coils there were rated for a stock weight truck. Some, like the 5100's they used stock coils as that's what they are designed for. Rear apparently had Icon AAL. Would have been nice to have that info in the description of the video at least.

 

Because they didn't not spend as much time with on-road does not mean it isn't "real world", it means they didn't spend a ton of time for each use case. That is true with EVERY SINGLE use case.

Frankly, you seem upset they didn't rate your preferred choice highly and are just looking for excuses to crap on their work. Your subsequent posts just continue with that.

 

Not upset at all, just don't agree with their methodology. I could claim the corollary for you. Your favorite shock probably got rated high and these videos are the shit! Whatever, it's just videos on the internet...and opinions.

We're not going to agree. The videos are interesting, I'll give them that. I'm completely happy with my setup and I don't see their bitches about them. Maybe like @Crikeymike said, their setup might not be right.

Like I said, I raced for a bunch of years. I did my own suspension. I learned a lot about spring rates, valving, and geometry. Setup is everything. One small thing can take a shock from perfect to undriveable.

 

OP unless you’re doing high speed off-roading like through the desert I wouldn’t go as high as kings. Go with the middle with bilstein 6112 or eibach new 2R stage