Car Camping / Trip Reports / Photos / Buildouts / “Overland” / Expedition Rigs Area (homeless?)

any of you guys who sleep under your cap, do yall have an awning to keep the rain from coming in your side windows? I cant seem to find any commercial stuff on it for ideas. I know I could just string a tarp, but Im hoping for some more elegant ideas. ive got the sliding glass windoors on mine and plan on sleeping with the window slid open to keep bugs out and keep the moisture inside to a minimum.

 

Always cracks me up when anyone is 30-40,000$ in on a truck after payment and interest and refuses to invest more than 500 bucks on the suspension that their entire truck operates on. "I just bought the new 2016 4x4 whats the best spacer lift I can install to offroad" haha

 

I originally threw 5100s in with stock everything. Didn't know much about what I should do. I think a lot of people don't know either. I didn't plan on taking the truck off road either. Now I do. Swapping my stock leaf packs with AALs tomorrow for all pro expo packs. Hopefully swapping the 5100s out next month!

 

I'm really excited. Rebooting the whole rear set up by end of January with Walker Evans shocks. Then hopefully new Coilovers and UCAs by May. Finally gonna be able to support the RTT again.

 

AAL to Expos is night and day. But so is OME shocks to Kings with resis and BAMF reloc kit on top of that

 

Especially with my shell, tent, and Swingout bumper.

 

Thanks for the help on the suspension. I think I'll be getting the Kings with the CDC if I can swing it. The suspension is one of the things I was expecting to blow some money on. There are a lot of things I'll probably forego in leu of a nice mid travel setup, which I think is likely more important than some other glamping items.

Also, has anyone ever worked with a product called "starboard?" Apparently you work with it like wood. It seems like it would be a great product for a bed drawer/sleeping platform.

 

I make these fishing rod holders and the flat plates are King Starboard. You can order sheets in different sizes. I haven't used anything larger than for what I needed for that project, but it was very easy to work with.

 

Well start reading up on how to rebuild and tune shock valving. Kings are not a suspension that you just install and forget about.

 

What ? Are you implying that cheap shocks like Billies are better because you can't tune them ?

 

For someone who doesn't want to dick with their suspension they might be a better option.

 

Not at all. Kings are clearly "better" in terms of performance but they do require more work to get them set up correctly. Also if you get the one with spherical ends, they will wear out and the valves can also which means you will need to periodically pull them apart and replace the ends/valves and recharge the nitrogen to get them tuned up again. Just more work and shock tuning isn't a "one-banana" job. It takes some knowledge, experience and a bit of skill to set them up correctly.
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Monotube shocks like Bilsteins, Nitrochargers or Fox 2.0s won't need that same level of regular maintenance.

 

There is a serious string of crappy shock advice going on here. How can anyone possibly imply that a Billie or OME is a better shock for anyone in any circumstance ? Why would you want or need to " dick " with the valving on a King more than any other shock ? Why is anyone implying that rebuilding or revalving a shock is going to be a " need" if you go with a brand like King over anything else ?

Same thing with the resi vs non resi question someone asked - why on earth would anyone steer someone away from a resi ? A resi clearly prevents shock fade even on graded dirt roads.

 

I think they meant that billies are less custom. I put mine on a while back and haven't thought about them since.

I would have to think more about fully adjustable shocks. They aren't better shocks. They just might be a better solution for someone who doesn't want to deal with rebuilding kings.

 

The shock isn't better. The situation might be

 

I understand people who may think I have no clue what I'm talking about since I run "cheap" shocks on my personal trucks (Nitrochargers on my current cruiser and on my Tacoma, but I've run several other types too). But I do have some time around high end shocks and know what properly setup Kings can do. Let me put it this way, the guys from Canguro Racing who I just raced the Baja 1000 with are some of the most knowledgable guys I've ever met when it comes to this stuff. We run triple bypass Kings on the race truck. Even with all the collective knowledge the team has, we still have another "outside" guy come out when we test to help us tune the shocks. Also, it's not uncommon for the shocks to need a total rebuild after each race. So I'm just pointing out that I'm not just making stuff up, nor do I know everything, far from it. And for people who want the high-end stuff they need to be prepared for the setup, tuning and maintenance that goes with them.




I get that most people on here aren't racing competitively so their shocks aren't going to need to be rebuilt as frequently. But ask @jberry813 how often he rebuilds or tweaks his. It's not like its every month, but it's more often than replacing a monotube shock.

And for the record, I'm NOT saying that "cheap" shocks like Bilsteins or OME Nitrochargers are somehow better than high-end shocks like Kings. And by all means, if someone has the money for them and is willing to spend the time with the right maintenance then go for it! Good suspension is awesome. All I'm saying is the vast majority of people on this board won't use their suspension in a way that benefits having the high-end stuff, where a quality monotube will work quite well for what they need for much less money. But again, if you want to spend the money on the high-end stuff that's great. For me there are other things I'd like to spend my money on (and my time) and I can get good performance from a quality monotube shock for what I do. All that said, I'm in the middle of planning a suspension overhaul on my cruiser that would use bypass shocks.

 

I believe in you

 

Did you even read what I wrote? I don't think anyone is saying a Bilstein 5100 or OME shock is going to be better than a King or ADS etc. As far as tuning and/or rebuilding, sorry that's how it works. Sure there are plenty of people that just leave them and they eventually wear out, just like a monotube shock will overtime. But isn't the point of a high-end shock that you CAN rebuild them and not have to just go out and buy new shocks when they wear out? So when the time comes to rebuild them, there is some knowledge needed to do it correctly. That's all I'm saying. And shock tuning isn't exactly simple to do correctly. The only thing I suggested that started this whole thing was that the guy that asked the question should read up on shock tuning so he would know what he was doing when the time comes.

But what do I know? My opinions have never been popular here, doesn't bother me. I'll go back to being silent.

 

Buying a high performance shock and not taking the time to revalve it to your personal needs is leaving valuable performance that you have already paid for on the table.

 

Jeeze. You are retarded. The answer is so obvious, but you're not interested in that... All you want to do is win an argument. Jason is right, everybody else is wrong. Please. GTFO.

The obvious answer is cost. If you don't need a resi shock, then why waste money on one? The cost is considerable. And for a daily driver, the time spent to rebuild a shock means downtime for the rig. A lot of people don't want the pain of dealing with that.