King Shocks - Remove internal spacer?

It is going a bit sideways as some other interesting bits come up. I appreciate you weighing in.

I understand that @12TRDTacoma 's setup is vastly different. His coil overs are significantly shorter (nearly 3" shorter). I understand that his setup is longer stroke. This also means that his travel range is much 'higher' in an elevation sense. And his vehicle may ride relatively lower due to the shorter shocks. (setting aside preload/ride height variations)

His shocks are actually SHORTER. While also providing longer stroke. See here:

 

Yes I have.

Yeah my setup is a bit of a rare bird.

I didn't want to derail this thread talking about mine, however, because this is about your inquiries, not mine. What I was getting at is that height matters to an extent, but the travel is what is important in your situation, and as confirmed by Accutune your spacer removal will net you the additional travel you are looking for.

 

If these trucks can handle a 6.5" stroke,

How did we get to a point where the 'extended' travel shocks are only 5" stroke? Have we been had by corporate greed? Lol

 

@AccuTune Offroad - it would appear that the OEM Kings (for example) are closer to an 8" body and shaft with shaft spacers and internal spacers. Is it possible that king has configured the OEM shocks as such? If so, what is the logic?

From this thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...r-oem-replacement-use-2nd-gen-tacomas.226774/:

I'm tempted to take the internal spacer out and make a custom top hat to move the shock up 0.5"...

*wishing I did more homework before jumping on this used deal* - I would've preferred to have a longer stroke shock. I don't care about lift, I want the wheel travel.

 

Again, you're wheel travel isn't defined by the shock. It's defend by other suspension limitations. The goal of the shock manufacture is to find these limitations and produce a product that fits within those parameters. They use the shock as the limiting factor because there isn't anything else doing it.

Just because you can fit a 6.5" stroke shock doesn't mean you'll cycle it. Age old concept.

 

Too many variables to compare equally.

Standard shock lengths are measured "eye to eye." OE shocks are measured from the top of the top hat which provides deviation.

Additionally the standard eyelet on a King shock is 2". The Tacoma specific shocks are 5ish" (clearance of CV axles, etc.). Again, you can pinch hairs to net tenths of inches of travel but you're not going to find a significant amount of wheel travel unless you're willing to cut the wheel well out. Ask me how I know...

 

... You just said it "they use the shock as the limiting factor because there isn't anything else doing it". I am trying to get all the travel out of the mechanical limitations of the ifs, then back off 0.25" or so for the sake of metal.

We have old evidence of a 6" stroke shock cycling fine in Blackhawk88s old thread. Pics included.

We have recent, active evidence of a 6.5" shock fitting. And cycling. No photos, but the man himself is here and I take his word on it.

I didn't know OEM shocks were measured to the top hat mounting face. That does make sense, and does explain some of the gaps here, so thanks for that.

 

Just because the trucks can handle a 6.5 stroke shock does not mean you would be using the entire stroke of the shock as you drive around (or blast around) the road.

You are getting too hung up on numbers when you should be getting hung up on maxing out your suspension cycle range both upward and downward and having a coilover that utilizes the most of that. That should be the real take away here.

 

NO, we DO NOT recommend removing that .5" spacer that is in the KRS-25001-119A-EXT Coilover

 

Fair enough. I'm with you, that is the goal - max up and down travel.

 

Ahh! Okay, I misunderstood. My mistake.

I should add in there max up and down travel FOR YOUR SPECIFIC SETUP. Adding uniballs or delta joints and changing control arms will change your overall suspension travel capabilities over running all stock stuff minus coilovers.

 

Depending on how much money you want to throw at this, these are an option. 28 degrees vs 21 degrees of the stock CV.

https://jdfabrication.com/collections/05-15-6-lug/products/tacoma-05-18-4-long-travel-kit

 

But WHY?

 

Awesome. Thanks for the input. Is that due to an internal strength consideration within the shock itself?

LOL

Of course. It's the whole IFS as a 'system' together that Dictates the limits both up and down.

 

If I had to guess, because it hasn't been done before and they don't know exactly how it'll go and don't want to be on the hook for it.

 

I'm well aware of 81Trekkers work. Ive been following along closely. That man is a machine and I aspire to run everything he designs. Some day.... Some day I will probably say 'screw this money in particular' and Yolo on his kit.

 

lol fair enough. Should be par for the course around here tho with you crazy mf'rs. Im just following along trying to learn things about stuff

 

Now you're asking the tough questions. Thanks for taking my 10000 words and rephrasing it so elegantly. Seriously.

 

Because from what it sounds like, that spacer is what one of the pieces that helps hold the entire internal assembly together so if you pull it and try to reinstall it all you will either get poor shock performance or everything would just flop around in there. Lol.

 

"You should NOT remove that spacer, it's designed to have that in there for added strength to the piston rod. Without it, your shock would extend an extra .5" longer, roughly 1" more at the wheel and could damage your upper control arm or other components pretty bad."

Please don't assume what we do or don't know, you could simply just ask. We have in fact done this, very recently actually, and no it will not work with the specific application we were testing on. The balljoint will bind with that additional shock travel. Have we tried every upper control out there, definitely not.

If it was ok to run a .5" longer shock, don't you think Fox or King would do that? .5" may not seem like a lot, but when combined with the motion ratio on the front of a Tacoma, it does matter.