3rd Gen Owners with King Coilovers

well SOB, did not realize they had EXT rears.

 

@uhplifted what do you have your front setup as and how much did it settle?

 

Mine settled about an inch when I installed my OEM ones over night. I would assume after a few days they are def set at where they are ride height wise. They came from the factory at about 2 inches higher than a stock 2nd gen Tacoma, the 3rd gens come stock with an additional inch of increased ride height from the 2nd gens. So in your case you will probably need to walk it back about three threads worth. I would count the amount of threads of exposed threads above the collar on each coilover before you do this so you can get an accurate amount of threads that you have. I would expect that the left side should have around 2 threads more of preload to offset the "taco lean". If I had to guess, you probably have about 8 threads on the left, and 6 on the right exposed. I just adjusted my LT kings, granted they were new but you can adjust them on the truck without too much issue, if someone has a spanner wrench though they can come in handy when you get close to the resi lines.

Coot

 

I have the extended travels front and rear at 2.5 I believe. Probably settled about an inch

 

Thanks I'll give that a go as soon as I get them

Did you leave them the same height it came from King?

 

I got them valved from DSM and didn't change anything. Not completely sure if they changed the height or not

 

Thanks for the help! Like your setup man. Looks like you have the same tire size as me so I'm probably gonna go for the same height as you or just a little lower.

 

Thanks. I do have the Dakars in the back which give it some rake. But I try and keep about 50-100 pounds in the bed to keep the ride smoother and it levels it out a bit. I'm running 265/75/16 for reference.

 

Pretty sure you can pull a leaf on your Dakars, so it's not so stiff/as much rake. Check the manual and see, that way you don't have to lug around extra weight.

 

I like it how it is. I'm going to add a rear bumper at some point and that'll be enough to keep it smooth. For now I just keep my sleeping platform and hi lift back there and it's enough weight to keep the ride right.

I went with the Dakars over deavers because of their ability to keep weight in the back as I take my dirt bike in the bed

 

Thanks Op for starting a 3rd gen specific King Thread. I run them and can share my experience, which can hopefully help others. I have the ext. travel with adjusters all around as well as total chaos UCA's. 600 lb.in springs, and tires are 265/75/16 Duratracs (C) on OEM wheels with no spacers.

I only wanted a mild lift so the front passenger side is set at factory height (which was about 1/2" thread showing). I had to turn the drivers side to about an inch of thread body showing in order to remove the side to side lean.
Passenger:


Driver:


This gained me approx. 1.25-1.5" up front. Initially I had a single AAL in the back to maintain factory rake. However it added about 2", and made the back intolerably stiff... I would not suggest this. Next I went with the Deaver 10 leaf pack, which netted me about 1.5" in the back. I also had to add a 1/2" shim under the drivers side leaf spring pack due to the lean. The ride from the Deavers was strange... They were incredible on washboards and most off road situations with tons of flex. However on road, they had this weird kind of flat stiff unsprung feeling. Also I had the rumble strip effect when coming to a stop as well as other strange vibration issues with the pack installed, I am assuming it is pinion angle related. Here is a pic with the deavers:


I ended up removing the deavers and now just run the stock leaf pack with the 1/2" drivers side shim. So far this has been the best overall ride solution that I've tried. With this config. the truck sits level (don't have a good side pic yet):



Few people give many details on the ride quality of the Kings other than they "ride amazing...or clouds". In my experience that's not exactly the case. I was hoping that it would ride sort of like a floaty boat or a Cadillac but it doesn't. I think in general small cracks or imperfections in the road are felt more with this setup and the ride is just a little more bouncy and harsh overall. Large features like bumps/dips/raised road sections are soaked up better than stock. I do get a weird slight lurching or almost vibrational resonance at about 40-50 mph, and I cant decide if it is a dampening/pinion angle/ or tire balance issue. To me the overall on road ride quality is a wash vs. the stock setup.

The off road performance is however a marked improvement especially at high speeds. Rough logging roads, sudden drops, washboards are all smoother with the kings. Just don't have unrealistic expectations about them, you will still feel the pot holes in your driveway.

I thoroughly experimented with the compression adjusters and to me the best ride occurs with the dampers turned to the softest setting. I think if I had a heavy load in the back, increasing the compression would be useful. The adjusters turned all the way up gives a very stiff ride that would probably serve useful on large whoops or if you considered jumping the truck. I would be curious to know how everyone else runs their settings though!

Just my 2 cents and experience with Kings, sorry for the novel. I wish I could drive a stock off road again to accurately compare.

 

Great insight.

Have you hit large whoops or anything? On the stock suspension, all the above high-speed stuff makes me feel like I'm going to snap the struts/shocks in half.

 

I hit some very large whoops going around 30 a month ago. As @MotoEd said over the radio "I'm pretty sure I saw the sky underneath your truck" They held up just fine. The plastic tub and cooler I had in the bed however, did not end up so well.

 

And yes, by "high-speed" I mean like 10-15 on stock suspension lol. Any faster would probably break the suspension. I've never driven a truck at higher-speeds like that on big whoops and through deser so I can't really imagine how different it would feel compared to a stock truck. I'm sure it's a lot different and confidence inspiring, I would hope.

 

Well, I certainly didn't mean to hit them going 30, they just kind of appeared after a turn and I didn't have enough time to slow down. But ya, after doing that, I'm confident they will handle almost anything I throw at them.

 

Not exactly whoops, but maybe worse... sort of like alternating woops.. old mill pond road which in stock form you would want to go very slow over idk...certainly no more than 10 mph. I played with the adjusters here and found that if I turned the compression way up I was able to get through them pretty fast. The cool thing about the kings is that on rough terrain like that its never a sharp jarring or metal on metal kind of clanking around. Its always a well cushioned/damped feeling. There are some instances where I am blown away by the kings off road and others where I think it should be better.

Our trucks are light comparatively, especially the bed. I think this makes damping the system, keeping in mind ride quality and utility very sensitive. In most cases I would bet that changes to the stock suspension are generally negative. I am overall very happy with the kings though.

I agree with others about the quality of the shocks. I get the feeling that you would break a whole list of other parts on the truck before you broke a shock component.

 

I've driven lowered cars and sports cars with high spring rate coilovers my whole life, so I'm not very sensitive to the ride changes. If anything, I would encourage a stiffer ride on the tacoma personally.

 

I would definitely spring for the adjusters then, you might find they are too soft with the factory valving. I'm not sure how much it costs to valve these stiffer but you might be money ahead just getting the adjusters. Probably the amount of pre-load makes a difference as well. I have very little.

 

Or you can save money on the adjusters and just order from DSM, they'll custom valve for you

 

Truck looks great!

What lb. springs are you running? 600? 650?

What size tires?