Setup/Tuning mistakes I see on almost every long travel Tacoma ever

Funny thing I’ve noticed after tuning a bunch of all generations of long-travel Tacomas: no matter which kit someone bought for what year truck, the same exact issues keep showing up. Most of these “bolt-on” packages look good until you put them through their "full travel", then it’s obvious why the truck doesn’t ride right. Below are the main problem areas I see over and over, plus what usually fixes them. Hopefully this is helpful for things to check on your current build or what to look out for if you're looking to heavily modify your Tacoma.


Front Suspension

Air Bumps

The most common setup is a 2.0" diameter x 2.0" stroke air bump, but on these trucks they’re usually mounted way too far inboard on the lower control arm. That placement severely reduces their effectiveness as a bump stop and actually hurts ride quality.

Think of it like this: if you mounted a coilover that far inboard, you’d need something like a 1,000 lb/in spring to equal the wheel rate of a 600 lb/in spring mounted in the normal spot. The leverage just kills effectiveness.

Air bumps are meant to act as true bump stops, not to be engaged at ride height or to control large chunks of your travel. Running a 2" stroke bump through 6"+ of wheel travel means it’s always active, which ruins small-bump ride quality while still failing to do its real job at full bump. It’s the worst of both worlds.

Fix:

• Shorten 2" stroke bumps to 1".
  
  
• Increase compression valving significantly.
  
  
• Increase relative oil volume to adjust the nitrogen ramp rate. (Subtract the displaced volume of your added internal spacer from the total fill calculation.)
  
  
• Always ensure you’re not hydraulically locking them out. Oil levels can be bumped up a lot in tuning, often safely doubled or more, but do the math on it.
  

Coilovers
I’ve never tuned a single setup where the coilover was valved to run with a bypass. None of the kits I've seen use different part numbers for “bypass-paired” coilovers. That means when you bolt on a bypass, the two shocks don't know each other exists and both want to fully control that corner and fight each other.

Even just a reservoir compression adjuster on a coilover can introduce too much compression in a two-shock setup. Adjusters work by forcing displaced shaft oil through an extra piston/shim stack in the reservoir. This can let you soften the main piston, which helps initial momentum, but it easily tips into over-damped territory once a bypass is added. One caveat is that a low speed compression adjuster can be used like a sway bar on the road, however this is not the correct thing to do as a shocks job is not to control sway... they make a bar for that.

Fix:

• Pull a lot of valving out of the coilovers.
  
  
• Add free bleed to improve responsiveness.
  
  
• Remember: just the seals and friction of a secondary shock slow direction reversals, even without valving. Multiply that effect across two shocks and you lose “snap” unless the coilover is softened. This is less prominent at a motion ratio but still there.
  

Bypass
The biggest issue: bypass stroke rarely matches the suspension travel. With a coilover, I always say to put the longest/biggest shock that fits. With a bypass, that rule doesn’t apply because the shock is position-sensitive. To take advantage of the zones, the bypass has to run through its entire stroke during the full suspension cycle.

Most kits don’t allow that. I see bypasses that never use the droop zone, or leave an inch of shaft exposed at full compression. At that point, it’s basically a smooth-body shock with tubes for decoration... which to be fair, does look sick.

Fix:

• Cycle your suspension with coilover springs removed. Make sure the bypass runs all the way through compression and extension.
  
  
• If your coilover tops/bottoms well before the bypass, something’s wrong.
  
  
• Be prepared to relocate mounts or swap shocks. Most bolt-on kits I’ve tuned needed new tabs welded to actually line things up.
  

Rear Suspension
Bypass
Correct length/stroke is the common failure point. A 16" bypass on these trucks almost never works. Example: one truck with spring-under was only using 11.5" of shaft on a 16" bypass... all the zones were ruined as longer shocks also have longer zones. Even 14" shocks can be too long unless you’re running longer length leafs and cycled the suspension carefully. I would rather run 2.5x12 bypasses in the rear than 3.0x16s on the rear unless you have actually pulled your leaf pack apart and correctly cycled it and are 100% sure on numbers.

Bigger diameter isn’t always better either. I’ve seen 3.0" and even 3.5" rear shocks on these trucks and they can make things worse until the valving is fixed. Conversely, 2.5" bypasses often buck because they need more compression valving out back. 2 biggest rear end issues:

• Bucking = rear kicks upward from force transmitting into the chassis. (Usually compression imbalance, not rebound)
  
  
• Packing = tire hangs in the air, failing to re-accelerate unsprung mass in time to catch terrain. This is easiest to see in high-speed video so I'll typically shoot a truck hitting a section at 60 fps and slow it down and watch frame by frame.
  

Fix:

• Match bypass length to actual usable travel. Don’t overshock it.
  
  
• Add compression to 2.5s, pull valving out of 3.0s+.
  
  
• Address bucking by making sure the bump zone is active (sometimes swapping rod ends helps engage it).
  
  
• Fix packing by reducing full-rebound valving section at the top of the stroke (reposition tubes as needed). Dirty fix for this is to add in bleed or reduce rebound valving at piston.
  

Examples:




2 biggest takeaways:

1. Shops consistently overstate travel numbers and sell shocks that don’t match the real travel (or even stated travel sometimes).
   
   
2. Bigger/longer shocks aren’t automatically better, especially with bypasses. Position sensitivity requires exact stroke usage.
   

My advice:

• In the rear, order shocks last. Most of the time you just measure compressed length and that determines stroke length, for a bypass you must actually measure stroke length. You have more flexibility to place the upper mount, so get the travel right.
  
  
• In the front, you’re stuck with kit-specified shocks, but cycle everything with springs off to make sure bypasses aren’t ornamental. Expect to weld and adjust position in a majority of cases. “bolt-on” is just a starting point.
  

Hopefully some of that is helpful. I feel like groundhog day because every single truck I've tuned recently has the same exact issues across this platform. They're all easy-ish issues to address but if your setup isn't riding right, it's worth checking these things.

 

Helpful information.
Leaf spring trucks I was told (2.5" shock) max compression, no rebound. I valved a buddies truck and couldn't figure out why it sucked so bad. Took it apart and had my formula backwards with no compression, max rebound. Set it up right and bingo, works great. My truck I've gone full circle from 2x15's compression to 8 back to 2x15's and finally have something going.
My front might as well be the picture on top but it works pretty good. I just need to go faster usually.