AAL OR DAKARS?

Philly roads do suck...

This is very much preference, Dakars are a 3/4ton spring, empty they rides like a truck. Stock Tacoma springs ride very soft in comparison.

 

I'd say its a few hundred pounds with coolers, ezup, stove, and military chest full of kitchen stuff

 

Wheelers Super bumps. There is a steel perch that the bump is attached to. I looked at your pics and you have it slipped under your u-bolts, mine is bolted into the top plate of u-bolt flip. Other than that they appear identical to my eyes.

The B110 uses everything that the Dakar has to offer.

You didn't answer my question... As best I can tell, there is no technical reason why OME supplies too short shocks. Most likely the reason is marketing driven. Most likely OME didn't want the customer to have to deal with longer brake lines, etc. Which is really stupid...

I guess. IMO relocate is tricky, and it introduces more problems than it's worth. Like to rub shocks on tires? Wheel spacers to compensate?

I agree. And that was my point from the beginning. The 11" stroke in the factory location achieves this outcome. It does not hinder up travel, (super bumps do that), and is longer than the Dakar is at full droop.

Nah. Keeping the tires on the ground for traction is what truly matters and if the Tacoma owners wheels their truck, that should be a very important consideration in building the truck.

 

OME: probably A) keeping it all bolt on, probably expecting stock bump stops too. B) however much room they need in the shock for the guts. Those two drive minimum length. C) as you said, no extended brake lines and D) minimum length drives maximum length.

Wheel touching the ground and wheel loaded enough to provide useful traction aren't the same though.

 

Race truck parts, race truck problems .


You're absolutely right, worth it? Maybe?

 

lol

I think we can end our discussion now.

Thanks for the dialog, was fun.

I hope someone finds it useful.

 

Its all about stock bumpstops.

Your wheelers superbumps are ALOT taller than stock.

The dakar pack isnt all that much thicker than the stock pack. Maybe .75-1in total. Full stuff on my truck with a stock pack and a single AAL yeilds a compressed shock length of 14.75in, We will say 14.5in to be on the safe side.

Add an inch of thickness to the leaf pack (as that will be how much further away the axle sits from the frame with the dakar pack and stock bump stop) nets you a shock length of ~ 15.5in compressed necessary to be safe and not bottom the shock before hitting bumpstop. The B110 5100's are longer than that.

The reason why OME doesnt make a longer shock is simple. They dont want to bottom the shock before bumpstop in either a stock spring config or with the dakars. Its not worth it to them to tool up another special shock for use with the dakar pack when it would probably cause confusion with the end users.

There is nothing wrong with using the shock as a limiting strap for slow speed flexing, when you get to high speed whoops where the axle is dropping out fast then yes... you want limiting straps / not have the shocks be the limiting factor in down travel.

 

Likewise and I hope so

 

That does make sense. If OME designed their shock around the stock bump, then yes makes complete sense.

On the super bumps, they are a soft polyurethane, not a hard rubber like stock, so it's dynamic or progressive bump stop as they say. And to the best of my knowledge, nobody knows what they'll compress down to. I've asked Dan at Wheeler's repeatedly and they keep coming up empty. The best report I got from them was that they say that they'll compress down to about what stock bump is, probably true under hard impacts.

Very true, excellent point.

 

@Crom you happy with the B110s?

My plan has been to go back to Bilstein when my OME shocks wear out. Probably just 5100s up front and B110s in the rear, as planned.

 

Dakars = too stiiff
OEM = too shitty

Is there any leaf pack (Not AAL because a bandaid is bullshit) thats in between the OEM and the Dakar?

 

Wheeler's has an HD 5 leaf, not sure where it sits amongst other packs.

Made by Deaver, you could call them up. Custom packs are available also.

 

I've been very satisfied and would buy them again.

I've beat on them for 10 hours a day for several days in a row on the worst trails in the CA deserts, and they still perform like new one year later.

I've had all my technical questions answered by Bilstein and have limited lifetime warranty.

The only potential downside to the shock that I can tell, is I don't know how long the plastic dust cover is going to last. If it does go though, warranty claim will be filed.

 

Thats the only thing that scares me with the dakars.... I really want to replace the springs in my truck (i have HORRIBLE axle wrap with stock 4 leaf pack with a single AAL) buddy had the dakars on his truck and they were OK, but he was like me and always road around 100% unloaded. He ended up switching to alpro standards and likes them quite a bit. My qualm with the allpro's is 1 the pack is very thick and 2, no overloads.

I guess one could pull a leaf OUT of the dakars to soften them up a smidge.

I do really like the idea of the Dakars, with the B110's and properly spaced bumps / proper bumps, that sounds like a really nice setup that should be good all around.

 

Wheeler's has an 8 leaf pack. I bought the 8 leaf pack from them in 2012 and then recently added one more leaf after I put the shell on the back.. Pretty sure they were made by Alcan. I like the setup.

 

I found the stock leaf pack to be way too soft and bottomed too easily. I replaced the stock set up with Dakars with the third leaf removed with ICON 2.5 shocks and find that they provide an excellent balance of control, ride and capacity. I planning to add a RTT and when I do I will reinstall the third leaf for additional capacity.

 

Dakars with 200# in the back are okay. They are nice with 350# or more. That's the whole point.

Deaver will make a pack to give you any desired lift, and any desired wright capacity.

 

Sorry if this is already covered, but I couldn't sit an read 5 pages of comments. If I go with the Dakar pack, I am aware I will need extended u-bolts (7.5") and extended brake lines. I might as well go with new bushings for the $18 or so , but will my Bilstein 5100s be enough shock for the mean time?

I have horrible axle wrap and just want to get it fixed the first time. I threw my 450 sxf in the bed and the OEM springs are pathetic.

 

All I need is 2" in the rear. A 3-leaf AAL was in the cards, but Dakars now seem like a good option. My truck is my DD and is mostly unloaded, except for maybe a dozen times a year when I treat it like a 3/4 ton and load it down with farm stakes, barbed wire, lumber, an elk or two, tow some quads and other stuff, etc. I have 6112s up front set at 2.25" of lift and airbags in the rear aired up to level the truck for now, but they make for a stiff rear end. Don't want to dick with extended brake lines if I don't have to nor extended shocks as I'm not twisting the frame on many occasions. How many and which leaves in the Dakar pak can be removed to adjust the rear ride quality and height? Airbags will remain (I think they'll still work with the Dakars) for those times when I'm overloaded. I'm mainly looking for that supple ride with a mild 2.5" lift that won't rattle my teeth for the 90% of on-road driving that I use my truck for.

All this reading and I STILL can't figure out what will work best.

 

Hey @Crom . Just curious about your discussions with Bilstein. I've got the 6112/5160 combo. Both shocks are stamped with a lifetime warranty on their packaging. Based on what you've been told by Bilstein, if these get worn out with 100k+ miles on them, do they service them under warranty?