BAMF 1st Gen rear shock relocation kit

I believe I got the last one. Or close to it. IIRC they discontinued them.

What do you do with your truck? And are you willing to look at other options like shock hoops? They require cutting the bed I believe but if I were in your shoes now, I’d consider it more than I would’ve when I was looking.

 

Ok gotcha, thanks for the quick response!!

I do mostly mid to low speed wheeling, and want to get more articulation without going SAS. Not sure about cutting my bed yet, for the wheeling I do I'm not sure I fully need that, as I still need my bed for hauling stuff and dirt bikes haha. Let me know what you think!!

 

You don’t need a whole lot to accomplish 90% of the things most people here do.

My issues were basically washboard. My truck was getting shaken badly with the setup I had prior. I addressed it up front with a tuned Fox suspension. I weighed the truck, and Accutune set me up. The leaf springs I feel are somewhat limited, so I chose to rely on custom valved, longer travel shock to hopefully smooth things out. The shock angle happens to allow for more flex and the tune does a decent job of mitigating vibration. Airing down really helps....a lot. I spent a lot of $ to address washboard lol but I also gained a very compliant and slightly more flexy truck. Win win win. But not necessarily necessary.

Address your personal individual concerns and needs.

For general offroading? Choose your lift, slap some sliders on and have fun.

I’ve been mocked by guys in “nicer” (read more capable) rigs in Moab for attempting and succeeding some obstacles they went around. Yes they were Jeeps...

I have a lift and sliders. That’s it. Never been stuck, only backed out of one obstacle because of a 100% chance of sheet metal damage I didn’t want to deal with.

 

For sure, I've definitely noticed that. Everyone I wheel with have bigger trucks and I keep up just fine with airing down haha. I am on a budget as I am only 17 years old, and I also want to rebuild my whole front end and have about $2000 budgeted for everything suspension/steering rack etc.

I don't do much fire road bombing or washboard, but as being my daily vehicle, I want it to handle alright on the road. My main goal is to get more overall flex out of my truck, as well as lifting it around 3 inches. How did you get longer travel shocks to fit... did you have to relocate the mounts at all?

 

Matt at MCM fab is releasing a bolt in kit that is similar to this you could check out.

That said for 2k for suspension you're shopping way above your grade IMO. I wouldn't look to relocate anything until you have some shocks worth relocating. You can fit 9.5s in the stock locations and be okay or 10s even for 3'' of lift and then just get bigger bump stops. Relocate when you have the cash and get a proper short body 10'' performance shock.

 

Feels like yesterday I was 17. Take it from me and save as much $ as you can. It feels nice to have a bad ass ride. It feels even better to achieve your goals and still have $ in your pocket.

Please consider a simple 5100 lift from bilstein and either an add a leaf or Dakkar rear spring. That’s exactly what I just bought for my wife’s 4Runner. (Similar budget slight difference obviously.)

Look at Toytec my first lift was their boss lift...

 

That makes more sense! Thank you guys for the realistic advice, I tend to get dreaming often and need to chill out haha.

That all makes sense, thanks for your guys' input!!

Can I pick your brain one more time?
If I were to go with Dakkar rear springs, and some JBA STD UCA's, would I get some extended travel Bilsteins CO's(model number?) and maybe some 9.25" 5125 Bilsteins (Plus everything else needed to lift)? Would that be a solid setup to give me some more wheel travel for more flex? Thanks guys

 

No problem. We all do it. Trust us older guys when we say that the 17 yo kid in us is still strong. We just have experience, and some more money now...hopefully...and sometimes more restraint.

Yes you will get lift and a bit more flex. Both are good. Flex doesn't really help if you can't clear an obstacle, so lift helps approach and departure angles and keeps the undercarriage from dragging and high centering. Flex helps keep wheels on the ground and in keeping you in motion. If I had to choose just one it would be lift, but flex is good too which brings me to the following.

Ok, so the Dakkar springs do properly lift the truck. IIRC they are a bit stiffer to carry some load though. If your main goal is travel/flex check out the Deaver springs. A bit softer and thus fairly flexy. So if you end up carrying a load it could squat a bit. I don't know exactly how drastic the spring rates vary with them. Again, wait till I'm verified or you can call a vendor and see. Most are very willing to help. So again, what do you do? Weekend wheeling with a buddy and a cooler? Deaver may work? Plan to throw a bunch of camping stuff in the back? Dakkar. But again you could still throw a few hundred lbs back there with Deavers and be just fine. Ask the vendor.

With the lift you will need longer shocks. 5100's usually fit the bill here. If you are considering a longer shock than that your suspension may not even have enough travel to utilize the added travel.

Somebody chime in here for this....if you place a longer shock than needed, you may top out the shock on up travel (I may be wrong) given that the placement of the valve stack will sit higher in the body at rest, as opposed to the middle of the stroke on an appropriately sized shock. Ask about this though...I could be flat wrong. Either way ask the vendor.

As for the UCA's. Yes, generally speaking they will allow for easier alignment and about 1" of extra down travel.

 

Honestly the UCAs aren't needed. I ran two different trucks with stock UCAs for years with anywhere from 1.5-3.5'' of lift. (P.S. DON'T do a 3.5'' front lift, 2" is ideal).

No one makes an extended travel bilstein for the front. 5100s will be just fine though with some OME 883 coils or 881 if you don't have a bumper/winch.

9" 5125s will be good for the rear. You should plan on getting some taller bumps though to save the shock, Wheelers makes a nice kit for this.

You can't really extend the travel a ton with the stock geometery LCA/UCA combo other than a slightly longer shock which you're not in the budget for that so don't worry about it. The rear is also very constrained by stock geometery of the leaf springs, you can only really hope for 10" of travel overall maybe 11' depending on the leaf pack. Once you mod the leaf spring geometry then all bets are off. So the 9" shocks will work well with the Dakars.

Then just drive it and enjoy it.

Dakars will be just fine. The stock pack isn't ultra stiff for the year he has. Only if you add in the addition aal will that be a problem. Deavers or Alcans are great but twice the cost too. Dakars will be a great place to start or Allpro Standard leaf packs might be even better as they are nice a flexy too.

yes this can be the case. 9" ones will probably be okay though with no extended bumps but it would be smart to add them. Wheelers Super bumps are a good option.

Again, I don't think this is a needed first step. I ran extended travel Kings for years on stock UCAs with no issues and alignment was good and drove great. Unnecessary cost for a 17y old IMO.





Best advice I can give is get something simple and useable which 5100s up front with 881s and allpro standard leaf packs with 5125s will be a great place to start. Then DRIVE the truck. Try lots of stuff and figure out your driving style and what you like to do. Then you can come back and build the truck for that. Your plans will change a lot based on your experiences so go have some first. Then you'll be able to hone in if UCAs and extended travel race shocks are worth it or not. Or maybe a full long travel kit. Or maybe plans for a SAS swap. Or just leaving it simple and enjoying it.



Don't forget other small things as well:

-Extend the rear brake line
-Extend the BPV bracket(BAMF makes a bracket)
-Consider getting a new front main eye bolt for the leaf springs. Depending on where you live you'll have to cut them out(rust).


Check all the front end bushings while you're there. The leaf springs will come with new ones so you'll be good there. But the LCA bushings going bad is common with these older trucks. UCA bushings. Definitely consider replacing the LBJ's as they can fail and that is NOT a fun thing to deal with(I've had this happen 4 times in different ways). The Upper ball joint too. Then your steering rack bushings and inner and outer tie rods too.

Happen building!

 

Gotcha, I am just trying to get everything picked out and dialed so when I get the money and time I can crank it out.

That makes sense, I gotcha.

I don't plan on weekend wheeling with just some recovery gear and tools ect.- not much weight. But the Deaver springs seem to be priced much higher, kinda interesting. Thanks for all the info!!

I understand what you're saying with that I might get less up travel with longer shocks, ill have to do some checking!! As far as the front CO's, are the standard 5100's ok for the extra down travel, or do I need to get some extended ones?

Thank you!!

 

5100s are not extended travel.

To do that you're looking at a massive price jump to $1000 for coilovers minimum.

 

BlackDawg really expanded on and filled some very nice voids in my post. He is absolutely not wrong at all. Very nice!
I’ve never priced Deavers. I’ve never had issues with Dakkar’s. Also didn’t know the lengths of 5100 or 5125. Great info.

 

Ahhhh gotcha, thanks for all of the clarification guys!! I like the all-pro leafs, I'll look into those.

Thank you guys for all the info and advice, its greatly appreciated!! I think I'll go for 5100's up front and 5125's on all-pro leafs for the rear, and all the other lift parts and diff drop ect.

Is there a big advantage to go for the Bilstein 6112's for the front if I have some extra money? I heard they're beefier and rebuildable... not sure if its needed though!!

 

The 6112s are a much bigger shock. Which means bigger piston and more oil. So in general the dampening will be more controlled and it won't over heat as fast if you're bombing through a forst service road.

a 5100 has a 1.95'' body vs the 2.65" body of the 6112. The 6112 is closer in size to a full 2.5'' full coilover from ADS or King.

That said, they aren't rebuildable like a King/ADS/Fox shock. They are a mono tube design.


Since I don't know what you're planning on doing with the truck, hard to say if it is worth it. To me it's not as you don't really need the larger piston if you don't have extra weight. So the valving might not well matched for a stock 1st gen. But hard to say that as I've never driven a truck with them.

For an almost $300 difference, I'd go for the 5100s to start.

 

I looked at those for the wife’s 4Runner. They are on back order everywhere so I went 5100’s.

Yeah they definitely bridge the gap between a shock like a 5100 and a Fox factory series or other similar 2.5” shocks. They appear to have the service life more in line with a conventional shock and the performance of a larger bodied premium shock.

My Fox factory series shocks for example are recommended to be rebuilt somewhere around 50k miles depending on use.

For the price, they look great. But I’d still run the 5100.

 

Ok got It, Honestly I don't have long stretches of time on fire roads to even heat up my shocks, they're usually like 15min sections just between trails- so the 5100's are the ones for me.

Thank you so much guys!! I'm glad I got to save some money/put money into things that will really make a difference like armor/winch bumper and a rear locker. Really appreciate it guys