Taco PRO Owners: Interested in a spring upgrade for front?

I have a set of the test springs which were installed at Eibach back in February. Not sure if any changes or adjustments were made to the final design, but I have 1.5" lift in the front of my 2018 TRD Pro. The ride is definitely an improvement on road. Slightly firmer than stock (not in a bad way) but still compliant and controlled. One of the things I hated most about my TRD Pro was the weird harmonic bouncing that happened on interstates, particularly on concrete with the gaps cut between slabs. Heavy loads exacerbated it, and my trailer made it even worse. The new front springs helped, and a rear add-a-leaf made it much better. Less body roll and a much firmer truck like drive. I have now added an AirRide rear air suspension with Firestone airbags and the Tacoma just handles so much better with weight in the bed. I drove my Tacoma with stock wheels and tires for about 5 months with varying stages of suspension upgrade. Every upgrade was an improvement. I now have E rated LT285/75r16 Yokohama Geolandar A/T GO15s and, as expected, it has created a bit of a harsher ride. But they fit with zero rub in any on road situation i have put them through. I depart for a 14 day tour of Colorado on Friday. I'll put the whole setup, with trailer in tow, through it's paces. More to follow...

 

Thanks for the insight! I carry about 350lbs consistently in the bed and would like to raise the rear back up by strengthening the springs and getting the rake back. What AAL are you running with your stock rear pro shocks?

 

I'm running a bit of a 'custom' setup in the rear. I came across a spare TRD Pro leaf pack with less than 100 miles on it for dirt cheap. I bought it and cut the bushings off the main leaf and added it as the third leaf. It rides really well and gave me about 2" lift in the rear unloaded. I have about 600lbs constant load and my Tacoma sits almost dead level front to rear. The Firestone airbags keep it level and firm when I add the trailer and last bit of gear. I will eventually do a full leaf pack. I still haven't finalized my setup and want to ensure I have the correct capacity springs before committing to a full leaf pack replacement. I definitely don't want to have to do this again based on the price points of full leaf packs.

 

Hey, so I'm installing my springs, and have the passenger side pretty much done. Only thing left on that side is to torque down the bolts, and put the wheel back on (and the sway bar, but I might leave that for tomorrow). I only ended up removing the sway bar and end links, the two bolts holding the lower ball joint, and the four fasteners on the strut itself (three 14mm's up top, and the one 19mm nut and bolt on bottom).

I ended up having to heavily encourage the bottom of the shock into place, as it had a few degrees of twist relative to the two flanges on either side that it bolts onto. I knew the long way to fix this problem would be to compress the spring again, and rotate the bottom eye relative to the three mounting studs on top, but I didn't do that.

Is this something I should be concerned about, or is this one of those problems that will "fix itself" as the suspension settles?

 

I actually ended up using this technique:


It was relatively easy and I didn't have to deal with a spring compressor which is a huge plus imo. With this method, you rotate the shock into place and thread the bolt through the eye before compressing it onto the spring and through the perch. That being said, it seems like that bottom eye should rotate and settle into place on its own even if the spring is already compressed.

 

Gang,
We're looking for a SoCal Local who's modded up for some video/photo shoot. Please shoot me a DM if you're interested!

 

any new word on the 2020 springs?

 

no change since last update.

 

Just a heads up, I just got a call from the alignment shop letting me know they couldn't get it back within spec without new UCAs. So YMMV on that. I don't have exact numbers yet but they said it was about a half a degree off of what Toyota recommends.

 

Which spec? Caster, camber, toe, thrust angle?

 

Sorry, camber. Though going into the shop they did not make nearly as big of a deal as the guy who called me this morning, so it might have been a false alarm. Here are the specs they were able to get it to:


Any alignment gurus in here? It honestly feels fine and I think I'll probably ride it like this for now unless I notice something off

 

Not a guru, but those numbers look fine. I was about to tell you to take it somewhere else, no reason they shouldn't be able to get it in spec. Let us know your thoughts once things settle in.

 

I ended up very similar to you. They told me that they couldn't adjust the caster without putting the toe out of spec, which sounded incorrect, as I thought camber and caster were the ones that were linked. Anyways, between firestone and the local dealership, they have only ever touched my toe. I think things were less screwed up, because I touched neither the control arm bushings, nor the ball joints when I swapped the struts out. Alignment is below.

 

No problem, this is why I asked though! There is a lot of grey area around "spec" and alignments. The little steps are the manufacturer spec and there is a tolerance hence the range. You're in the green (within range) and are almost exactly spot on with the numbers. Personally, I would say this is good to go.

 

I puchased the Kit on the 4th of July. Waited for a couple weeks for shipping info. Called them yesterday and was infomed that the blocks for the rear are backordered from their supplier. Eibach said December is the expected ship date. Guess I know what I am getting for Christmas.

 

Should just change order to front only and order some add a leafs.

 

Your not wrong.

 

Do we have an ETA on the 2020+ springs?

 

Just got mine installed, 100x better than the garbage spacer lift I put on there before lol. Never again!

 

Nice! Interesting to hear your review on the difference between a spacer and an appropriately designed spring

Pro-Tip: You can touch up any exposed steel from those installation scuffs with nail polish. I'm not saying paint the whole thing, but its best to touch that up right away for corrosion resistance.