Rear Shock Advice

Hey all!

First gen 4x4. I recently put an Icon 1.5” progressive AAL on the rear end with Bilstein 4600s- which I know are not lift shocks. The reason I went with those was because my camper shell was making the rear sag, so the AAL just brought it back to stock height.

However… I just sold the camper shell, and now my rear is lifted by about 1.5”, which was kind of surprising because I thought my leafs were shot. Apparently it was just the shell.

How urgently do I need to upgrade the rear shocks? I just put the 4600s on so I’ll probably sell them, but I don’t have the money right now to order new ones. I’ll probably use either Skyjackers or 5100s but they’re both out of the question right now.

Is the limited travel going to make a huge difference off road? I don’t do any crawling or anything like that, just basic trails. Will the 4600s hurt the AALs in any way by limiting the travel? I don’t really care about hurting the shocks since I’ll have to chuck em eventually anyway, I’m more concerned about what else I could damage with the limited travel. Ride quality isn’t a huge deal to me, either.

 

Just will limit droop a bit is all. Basically the shocks will act like a limit strap if you ever completely unload the rear end. Unless you are rock crawling or on some aggressively uneven terrain, you shouldn't need that much down travel. And even then, with a rear locker it's basically a non-issue.

 

Awesome, thank you. I do intend to run the bed pretty much unloaded while off road, aside from my recovery & emergency gear. And I’ve still yet to install the onboard compressor for my locker.

That said I don’t even have tires large enough (or as much as a lift) as required for any crawling so that’s not a big worry. I do go over some uneven terrain, but I don’t think I’m doing anything severe enough to where the limit will be a problem. I only recall once in Ocotillo where I had one rear wheel off the ground and the sound it made was more concerning than the thought of getting stuck which I think was just creaking from the old ass leaf springs.

anyway, as long as the limit isn’t going to harm the leaves or the AAL kit, that’s enough for me for now. And it sounds like that won’t be an issue.

 

You should be fine. The worst case scenario would be you go to full droop very quickly and since the shock would act like a limiting strap you pull the shock apart.

 

For sure, thank you. Yeah that worst case is not likely to happen, at least not until I’m able to get proper length shocks. Appreciate the reassurance.

 

There is no such thing as “lift shocks”. You are fine.

You can however install slightly longer shocks to increase your suspension travel. Accutune sells some modified tundra rear shocks for this purpose.

 

Agree with others, it just limits full extension, but all shocks do this. I'd keep running the 4600s until they show wear, the change to 5100s will be really hard to notice.

 

thank you both for the input! I’m out on some dunes this weekend and she’s doin just fine. 4600s are doin their thing.