Hi all, I'm looking for suggestions for suspension. More specifically, adjustable dampers.

Hi all. I have a 2016 TRD Sport DCSB that I tow a lot with. I have a 24' pontoon boat that's not that heavy, but whenever I use it I have 3-4 people with me in the truck. The rear sagged too much and eventually started to hit the bump stops on every trip so I bought some Firestone airbags and an airlift 72000 controller.

The setup works wonder while towing. There is no rear end sag and I'm sitting around 55-65PSI when fully loaded. Looks like the truck at stock ride height.

I noticed the other day while poking around under the truck looking for anything obviously wrong that there was an oil drip down the back side of one of my rear shocks. I wiped it off and checked in the next day and confirmed it is leaking. I got 48k miles with about 10k of them towing a boat so I'm not upset. More spring means more wear on the shocks.

My question is:

Are there any suggestions for a replacement that will be better performing but give minimal/no lift? I've heard Bilstein 5100s are great, but they sound like they're better off-road whereas I'm looking for on-road and towing. 5160s also caught my eye...

Are there any replacement rear shocks that have an external adjuster on the top bolt? I figure I could turn them down while not towing and turn them up when I have pressure in the airbags.

My budget is around $500 for rear shocks. I will most likely replace the fronts while I have it up on the lift so lets say around $1k for everything.

Thanks for any help!

On the other hand... I could just go for a little lift...

I got looking into Old Man Emu sets and their site recommended the following...

Components in this kit include:

• Front Coil Springs (1 pair x 2885)
• Leaf Springs (2 x CS047R)
• Nitrocharger Sport Strut (2 x 90021)
• Rear Nitrocharger Sport Shock (2 x 60091)
• U Bolts (4 x OMEU53A)
• Driveline Spacer Kit (1 x FK29)

Optional Extras:

• Extra Leaf

Estimated Lift:

• Front: 50MM
• Rear: 55MM

Anyone run this setup?

 

I went with the 5100 kit from @HeadStrong Off-Road at the beginning of the year. I was between the OME kit and the 5100 w/HS coils as well. I'll admit I don't tow as much as you do, but I definitely could tell that the 5100 in the rear with the Deaver AAL stiffened things up for sure. I've had the bed loaded down a few times, handled notably better than the factory Bilstein 4600's. I ordered everything you listed in your potential OME kit (the Bilstein equivalent obviously), minus the driveline spacer. It was well under $800 for the coils, 4 shocks (with front assembly/hardware), AAL, and new U-bolts. Roughly speaking, my lift was about 2-2.25" in the front, about 2" in the rear. I was able to keep my factory control arms.

As for adjustable rear shocks, I can't offer too much there. The only adjustables I'd seen that weren't super expensive were from Rancho, but I think those were only adjustable on the fronts.

 

Thanks for the input!

I'll look into the 5100 kit as well, I just figured everyone was doing that lift for off-roading and the like. My truck never goes off road as it's my daily and I bought it specifically to tow a boat, but small enough to park in the city.

Maybe I'm out of luck with looking for adjustable, I'm specifically looking for damping/rebound adjustment and not so much height which is the tricky bit.

 

So I'll be completely honest, the Taco has seen very little off-pavement use since I lifted it. Mostly city use since I got my new job. I did it mainly because my factory shocks/springs were on their way out, so for me it was a "well for only a little more I can go ahead and lift/beef it up instead of keeping OEM components".

Give the folks at HS a call, they'll be more than happy to offer their take on the different kits that they have available once you tell them what exactly it is you're looking to do with the truck.

 

To get comp and rebound adjustment you would need to triple you budget.

 

Agreed. Sounds like for what you use it for, you don’t need the adjustments.

The OME kit will serve you well.

if you want to keep it stock height 5100s on all four corners will be cheap and effective. You can replace those 3 times before getting into the OME kit price range.

Marie can hook you up @HeadStrong Off-Road

 

I could be mistaken, but with the 5100 you can't keep factory height. You can get pretty close (within 1" of lift), but the rears are longer than the factory rears, hence requiring at least a little lift. Again, I'm no expert so I could be wrong, but I believe that's the case.

 

5100's are 0-1" for rears unless you get the extended B110. And the bottom notch on the fronts is 0" lift

 

The Fox 2.0 Remote Reservoir rear shocks with adjusters are a great fit for what you're doing: http://accutuneoffroad.com/product/...es-remote-reservoir-8-6-0-1-lift-cd-adjuster/

The adjuster will let them be tuned soft for the street, and then you can turn the knob to prevent bounciness while towing.