Bilstein 6112

Looks really sharp man...very clean!!

 

That's the perfect combo. I did the 2nd notch on the 6112s, with a 3-leaf AAL and 2016 leaf pack, no overload and I love how it turned on. Handles just as good as stock, got rid of a little bit of vibes at certain speeds, less axle wrap and it handles a load so much better.

Full cord of wood and 3 people and it's sitting just about perfectly level. I can finally use it like a truck without dragging the rear bumper around on the ground.

 

Wish they kept the green paint job going for the 3rd gen...Nice truck btw!

 

Looks great! Do you have any pics of it unloaded? I eventually want to go with 3 leaf AAL without overload, also gen 2 with TSB leaf pack and 6112's on #2.

BTW I doubt that's a full cord (4 x 4 x 8 ft) but still I get your point. If I loaded up my access cab like that the rear bumper would be draggin'.

 

If those are the dimension it is not. It's probably a half full cord (face cord?) Wood measurements are dumb. It was 4x8, but only 18" wide pieces of wood.

I've posted it somewhere before, but here it is unloaded. There's definitely rake to it, but not to an obnoxious degree, and more importantly, it still rides well unloaded.

 

6112 Front Shocks setting #3 with 5160 shocks in the rear with 3 pack add a leaf with the overload removed. The back is 3/4" higher than the front creating a small rake. Barely noticeable. Tires are 265/70-17. I'm pretty happy with the results.

 

Sexy truck! Good photographer!

How much do you have wheel centre to fender?

Thanks!

 

Thanks! I take my own pictures & edit them

It's 22 inches from center of wheel to fender in the front & 22 3/4 inches in the rear.

 

That looks perfect IMHO. I think there's no way around knocking fronts up to #3 if you go with 3 leaf AAL minus overload, at least on the gen 2's. I like the level look with as little rake as I can get. Plus handling wise at least where I live and the snow etc., too much unloaded/high rear you get this snap oversteer after bad understeer which is a pretty awful combo.

Looks great mon. I like less of a rake though I think I'll just have to resign myself to upping front to #3 if I go with 3-leaf AAL. Here is my dirty truck as of today, not on level ground but close. 265/75-16's Falken Wildpeaks. So this is 6112's on #2 in front, 1/4" spacer driver's side, rear TSB leafs & 5160's.

 

How much did you get wheel centre to fender?
Thx!

 

I don't have the exact measurements and there is virtually no level ground around here. But I did measure on a level pad at a gas station before/after (but with my old wheels and tires) and got right at 1.5" lift in front. I was mainly concerned with leveling it after getting the TSB leafs vs actual overall lift and that was hit virtually on the nose F/R when I measured last. As I said earlier even with the DS spacer I need to tweak it very slightly with the RR adjustable sway bar link (the Helwig kit) to get the LF up a tad, like 1/16".

So the point is I guess with the TSB leafs on gen 2 you get pretty close to level with 6112 on #2 in front. Add the 3-leaf AAL w/o overload looks like you need to go to #3 to stay close to level, even with a bit of settling in back on the TSB's. Even then you'll have maybe 1/2-3/4" rake F/R.

 

If you're going for a more level look with very minor rake I agree. I tend to load my truck up fairly often through the summer, so I went with more rake to let it handle the load of either a heavy bed or heavy tongue weight.

This was just a week ago. Fairly heavy tongue weight because of where the mower was sitting, I needed room to load 3 bails of hay on the back of the trailer. As you can see, nearly perfectly level with that sort of load.

 

Oh I agree completely. It's funny I have nearly the exact same trailer now, and I used to have a 7x14 enclosed double axle trailer I used to haul big motorcycles (a lot). With the latter trailer it was almost impossible to load it up with 2 big bikes so that the tongue weight did not crush the rear suspension on the Taco. This was the OEM OR suspension prior to the 6112 & 5160's. So I put in a single AAL. Truck sat perfect when hauling and looked stupid (ass 2" high) + handled really evil when not hauling the loaded trailer, esp in snow. So I removed the AAL and ended up hauling less often when I moved to where I'm at now, and sold that trailer. However even hauling that bigger trailer unloaded or lightly loaded, the rear looked fine sat mostly level without the AAL in. FWIW I hardly ever load the bed up with heavy stuff, most is a dirt bike or tools. Mainly because I bent the tailgate trying to haul a big cruiser in it, way back in '06.

Fast forward, I needed a trailer for hauling small things and a single bike from time to time, so I got an open 6x10 with rear ramp like yours. Mainly for hauling wood (my primary source of heat in winter) which worked fine with the stock susp if I was careful about loading the trailer without too much tongue weight. Did that for a few years. The stock susp was getting tired, rear was sagging badly under load, so did the TSB leaf spring recall. Then it looked stupid high in back again, and the scary bad handling came back in ice & snow. Grrr. So that is what triggered the 6112/5160's, then found this summer that it stayed pretty level even pulling loaded trailer full of wood. I do try to load it up pretty evenly without too much tongue weight though. I can get about 1 to 1.5 cords of rounds in that trailer. Don't have any pics loaded but you get the idea (prior to splitting). The pile on the right is all green wood, some of those round weighed over 200 lbs each and were lots of fun to load and unload.

The second pic you can see the Taco with the 6112/5160's but old OR rims and worn out Yoko Geolander tires. Still sits pretty level after hauling ~ 7 trailers of wood out just prior.

So what is the point? In my case it is more than just for looks that I want it leveled or just small rake. I have found handling in ice and snow (up to 6 months of my year) to be very dangerous and unpredictable when unloaded and rear 2" higher than front. Raising the front of the truck up 1.5-2" to match, and then loading a (smaller) trailer more evenly eliminates most/all of the rear sag associated with towing, at least for my present needs. Also gets rid of some of the scary handling due to too much front weight bias. And I did not want to mess with air bags.

:

 

Really interesting point you brought up about winter handling with a light rear end. Even with stock suspension it wasn't great, and i usually compensated with about 400-600 lbs of water softener salt. I will go through it all eventually, so I just buy it in bulk in the fall and "store" it in the truck bed. That's probably what caused my rear stock springs to become so worn out in the first place. With the new setup I expect it'll be roughly level and should perform well enough.

I'm debating throwing a fiberglass cap on as well to kind of bring the rear down. i could always raise the front to match, but I wanted a cap eventually and kind of planned for that extra weight with a stout rear end.

 

Yep, I did not want to get into it but I did have a Leer cap on for a while, during the time I had the AAL in. It was not too bad with the cap and AAL, then I took the cap off and sold it. That is when it got really bad as far as rear sitting far too high and the extra bad winter handling. I tried throwing some weight in the bed but it would have needed a whole lot more than I was willing to haul around all winter, plus all my snowboards and winter gear etc went in the bed. I suppose the right thing to do is go with air bags but they seem like such a hassle.

I live 25 miles from Wolf Creek Pass in CO, go up there 30-50 times a year in winter to snowboard, then other times for just travelling through. 40 ft of snow average per year up there, super treacherous roads all winter long, steep grades, hairpins curves, huge drop offs. Very scary to have an evil handling snow vehicle. We'll see how this winter goes. I got a few snow days in earlier this spring with the then-new 6112/5160's and they did just fine. I am optimistic.

 

Wanted to add one thing to this discussion if anyone else happens to be interested. It isn't just leveling out the truck that fixes some of the poor handling, it is adding proper damping. One of the most important functions of shock absorbers that doesn't get much attention is properly controlling weight transfer under braking cornering and acceleration. The OEM Taco rear is not very good in terms of springs or shocks, both are too soft IMHO, so that rear flops around all over the place. Stick an AAL in there and now you have really stiff higher rear end, and consequently way underdamped with stock shocks, and too much weight in front. Really bad combo. Underdamped is really bad when towing too as that tongue weight will really pogo around when braking or turning.

My point here is to distinguish between just leveling the truck out for handling purposes, which is only about F/R weight bias, and leveling it out WITH a decent suspension that will properly control weight transfer F/R, side side, and diagonally, under dynamic loads. Matched springs and dampers. Eg if I had just put in spacers in front to level out the truck with everything else stock I'd still likely have a fairly evil handling vehicle. The 5160's do a far better job of controlling the rear than stock shocks. And the 6112's, there's just no comparison to OEM.

 

Probably worth mentioning too that just the act of raising the front will proportionally transfer some weight to the rear. I'd guess somewhere around 100-200 lbs. Not sure how much it ends up being, but it's not really significant.

 

I’m a little confused and would appreciate a little help!

I prefer a firm ride and would like to opt for 650lbs spring rate. But it looks to me the 6112s are always sold with the 600lbs spring. I know I can also purchase a 650lb spring separate but it just seems wasteful to buy the 600lbs spring and just toss it aside.

Are there any options to buy the 6112s paired with 650lbs coils? Thanks, and sorry if this has been covered I couldn’t find the answer I was looking for.

 

Alot of people describe the 6112 as a firm ride. If you havent ridden in a truck with 6112 to know for sure you want 650 lbs coils i would stick with the 600 lb coils.

 

I have read gen 2 front springs are in the 550 lb/in range. However more than spring rate determines if the ride is firm or not. The stock shocks (OR bilsteins in my case) I thought were not very good, underdamped both front and rear, with too-soft springs. As a result handling and overall feel was not good esp with some miles. Soft leaning to mushy and very sloppy esp driving a bit aggressively. Adding 6112/5160 even with slight lift of 1.5" I felt the ride was much firmer and far better nailed down, but not harsher, and as a result more comfortable and fun. Mostly from better damping and body/wheel control.

Hard to describe as it is subjective but imagine adding very stiff springs onto stock dampers. That would be no fun and pretty harsh, and pogo around as it would be severely underdamped. Slightly stiffer springs and better damping will be a lot firmer but not harsh, more like tight and "supple", if that makes sense. No slop. Anyway all this and more is happening with the 6112/5160's, with just a modest increase in spring rate. I had also thought maybe 600 lb/in was too soft but after running this set up for 8 months or so it is perfect for my needs, and a huge improvement over stock TRD OR suspension.