ADS coilovers - Life in the Midwest/rust belt

Got the ADS put on a few weeks ago. I'll update in a couple years. =P

The 3-year old Bilstiens that came off the truck looked like they were salvaged from the bottom of the ocean.

 

Posted this here yesterday:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...tures-bs-thread.341630/page-149#post-20312119

After one winter in Maryland (read, not particularly snowy or salty), my shocks look terrible.

 

Holy fuck-amoly.

This puts a serious deterrent on purchasing ADS now. As many have already mentioned, I have heard that the coating etc stands up to winter elements better than the "Big 3".

Have you reached out to the vendor (assuming Mobtown is not a vendor) or ADS themselves? Curious to know what happened here.

 

I heard the same thing. I have not reached out to anyone.

 

Joe, please reach out to ADS on our behalf. I think this is something we need to understand before others invest thousands in ADS suspension.

Like I mentioned in the other thread, I’m about a month away from buying ADS suspension and if MD will do this to your truck I imagine KY/IN/OH will be just as bad.

Any chance the fluid film prolonged contact of salt with the metal and that’s what caused the issue? Just thinking out loud

 

How has Radflo held up on customer trucks this winter?

 

I just sent them an email myself. I know Joe is a busy guy and, personally, I want to know myself. I am in the Midwest and have no doubts this would happen to me as well. Going to assess my brother's Kings and how his have held up and make a decision based on how (rather IF) ADS decides to respond.

 

@rdpoe @jowybyo

"It looks like you guys live in a very salty conditions they are actually fairing pretty well, the big thing with getting longevity out of our 2 step coating process is getting that corrosive salt spray off of the shocks asap. All of the bodies we make are zinc plated and then ceracoated for a double protection process all of that hardware should have been zinc plated as well. Salt is very aggressive and if left on any of the components for too long it will eat thru all of the processes that we put on, regular cleaning and even waxing or surface protectants will help prolong our coatings but if not taken care of they can only protect for so long

Thank you

Tyler Jameson
Ads Racing Shocks
520-748-0005"

 

The only issue is that literally nothing else on my truck is rusting except their parts. Heck even the reservoir isn't corroding. The zinc plating and cerakote doesn't seemed to have helped at all. I don't live in a particularly salty state. Yes, they use salt, but literally only like 3x this winter. We don't get a lot of snow. If I lived in Michigan or further north, I think these shocks would have corroded off my truck already. My comment to everyone, if they put salt on the roads at all in your area, your ADS shocks will look like mine.

 

I noticed that you didn't have any rust on your Daks either. Which are prone AF to rust.

I appreciate you sharing. This has almost deterred me from ADS completely. I MIGHT do some more research, however.

 

Unfortunately it has the same effect for me, which is a bummer.

I guess it wouldn’t be too hard to do 2-3 ceramic coats on top before installation. At least on the body and res.

 

Well, I can't speak for how other brands would have fared. I was told both from the vendor I purchased from and from others that ADS "specially" coats them to resistance corrosion better than every other brand. Maybe that's true, but then damn I'd hate to see what any other brand would have looked like after just one winter in a relatively mild state.

 

This is detering me as well I live in Canada these would last long, but i guess having a film keep the salt glued to it until the film doesnt work and then alot of glued on salt is ready to act all at once ...maybe thats what happend...

 

Didn’t seem to be a problem on anything else except the shock body.

 

Not mine and on a tundra, but thought I would pass this on. The rears get blasted so I would always expect them to go first

https://www.tundras.com/threads/psa-use-protection-wrap-your-shaft.43232/#post-1107200

 

I don't know, boys. I appreciate the good fight, but over the past 4 years of throwing parts on my truck, and seeing just about everything rust to shit, I'm kind of starting to just give up. You can't stop it. They can't all be sexy socal trucks. But rust sure isn't going to stop me from building and using this truck to go on my adventures.

My last ditch effort is to try either that Mavcoat or this CorShield.

https://www.theruststore.com/Cortec-CorShield-Extreme-Outdoor-Corrosion-Inhibitor-VpCI-368-P157.aspx


And I always hear those boots just make things worse.

 

I dont live in the rust belt, but I do live in snow country that has grit/sand/salt on the roads for a couple months and run boots front and rear on my kings and Icons so the shafts dont get pitted by gravel/sand. The fronts are just kartec coilover covers and the rears are just standard acorodians that i cut the bottoms off and they just dangle over the bottom eye. I used to have to reseal the shocks every 20k, now I am over twice that and they all are leak free and shafts look perfect.

I think i would just run roost shields if i lived in the MW to protect the shafts. Once they start to go it gets more expensive to rebuild.

 

This ^^

ADS does just as good if not better than the other guys.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...tures-bs-thread.341630/page-153#post-20484018

 

Any update on this since? I'm in Alaska and considering getting ADS shocks (or others) all around on a new tacoma

 

For those in the salty regions, you might want to look into a product called "Salt Away". I use it to remove the salt water off all my fishing and kayak gear after each trip. I fish in the ocean and my stuff is fully exposed and even dunked on regular intervals in the life of fishing in the salt.

It is diluted down with water and sprayed on. Give a minute or two to disolve the salt and then rinse with fresh water. Really good stuff.