some thoughts on suspension lifts.

Seriously man, all I wanna do is steer you back in the right direction. I hate misinformation with a passion.

To get the same performance as a progressive spring you need a slightly stiffer non progressive spring. When you find that longer, slightly heavier, non progressive spring its an OME 885.

Your thought processes are good... you just started with misinformation as your starting facts.

 

ANY TIME YOU LIFT A TRUCK YOU LOSE TRAVEL! (as stated before this does not include long travel)
You saying "it's a fact" doesn't prove said fact, back it up with FACTual evidence"

I don't think you read the first post, or any of the posts in between, the point is to not get new stiffer coils, then compress them, that's pretty common knowledge around here.

I'm not new to this, I'm on my 3rd tacoma, and have been around here a year longer than you have. I'm not asking "how do I lift my truck" and until you came around it was a civilized conversation about whether the bilstein 5100's with eibach coils is necessary, and why they are necessary, if they have benefits over a an above coil spacer.

you came in with absolutely no evidence to back up anything you have said to this point, and are simply quoting what you have been told on tacomaworld.

You said this

IF you were dumb enough to add a 4'' spacer, it doesnt mean you get 8'' of travel the other way, regardless of whether it's up travel or down travel, you LOSE it completely.

it's 4 up and 4 down, if you take away 4'' up or down with a spacer, that means you can only go 4'' the other way, not 8.

 

and this... because you suck nuts at "conversation" it's not always a battle just because it's the internet.

 

I will try to dumb it down for you since you are not getting it.

You website you quote is not true for Tacomas. Its true for other trucks. Not Tacomas. Its wrong. None of it is right.

You obviously have no clue wtf is going on with the suspension. Let me give you the real scoop. Then you can at least have an intelligent conversation and laugh at how backwards and silly your areguements are.

Fact: your suspension downtravel is limited by the ball joint. Not a limit strap. If you had a shock too short extended length then the shock would limit travel. That aint the case with any aftermarket shocks I have seen.

Fact: Your truck limits uptravel with a bumpstop. Its on your lower control arm. Go look at it. When your lower control arm comes up it bumps and stops suspension movement. Pretty basic concept. If you makey bumpstop touchy you achieved maximum uptravel. End of discussion. No more facts needed.

Fact: your shock is attached at top to an immobile fixed point.

Fact: your shock is attached at bottom to the lower control arm.

Fact: piston collapses into shock on compression.

Fact: piston and shock length lengthens (comes out) on extension.

Fact: put a 2" lift spacer in (gain 2" lift) and the range between bump and balljoint droop shifts. The control arms can move 6" up or 2" down from ride height.

Fact: when you shove a top spacer on the shock it does NOT make shock extend... now the shock... fully collapsed plus spacer runs out if room to compress before you reach the bumpstop. Possible damage bottoming out on shock.

Fact: the shock extended length plus spacer reaches lower than the lower control arm at full droop limited by the ball joint.

Fact: the shock cannot be damaged by that droop... in that scenario it is not anywhere close to even stock extension. You are not pushing the shocks lower than its lower mounting point.

Your facts sound like you read a bunch of shit on F150 suspensions and yet you tell me I am regurgitating shit I heard on here? Bullshit. I am correcting misinformation spread by people who are foing that... like you.

 

And kid... I been lifting trucks since you were in elementary school. If you cant understand that 5100s allowing the bumpstop on the lower control arm to touch means maximum uptravel has been achieved... well I guess there is no helping you.

 

DevL is correct.

 

I understand the website is wrong about up travel vs down travel thats fine, and I understand that the shock can't compress enough, and bottoms out before you hit the bump stop when using an above coil spacer.

HOW/WHY do the bilsteins not bottom out the same way when you use them to lift the truck 3''? (lift coil and compressed from the bottom)
I see what you are getting at, but I'd like to know the mechanics of it.

 

I understand the website is wrong about up travel vs down travel thats fine, and I understand that the shock can't compress enough, and bottoms out before you hit the bump stop when using an above coil spacer.

HOW/WHY do the bilsteins not bottom out the same way when you use them to lift the truck 3''? (lift coil and compressed from the bottom)
I see what you are getting at, but I'd like to know the mechanics of it.

 

Because shock shaft movement is irrelevant in a precompression of spring. The only way preloading the spring can limit up travel is if the coils collapse, touch, and become solid and immobile before you reach max compression. Now... that does not happen because getting even close to that shortens coil spring life. So preloading may cause faster spring wear and give a shitty ride quality (which you experienced firsthand) but it won't limit uptravel. The factory and other coils are far too short compressed to allow coil bind.

Im glad we worked this out outside this thread. I hope you understand I just wanna help, not be a dick.

 

I dunno the first thing about first gens. Everything I referenced is for current model 2nd gen Tacoma trucks.

 

DevL is correct, the pics on your first page are horribly misleading and have some false information in them.

His explanation on 5100's vs. coil spacers is correct also. With a top plate spacer, the shock can bottom out before the LCA hits the bump stops. with 5100's, that's not possible since they operate in the same travel range as OEM shocks and are connected to the truck the same way OEM shocks connect to the truck (rather than being spaced down 3" at the top like a top plate spacer would do).

 

yea we got that covered.

What I concluded was that the eibach coils and ome coils react different to the preload the 5100's provide, by lifting the truck without too much negative effect on ride quality, they also deliver some lift due to being longer coils.

Part of this exercise was to figure out why people bash on top plate spacers so hard.

what I have found is the only downfall is they will bottom out when completely compressed, so for anyone that doesn't take their truck offroad often or at all, they are completely acceptable, even for dirt roads. for any kind of wheeling when they will be stuffed hard, they are a weak point for sure.

I guess if you got longer bump stops, you could stop the bottoming out, but it's prob not worth it at that point money wise, as the 5100's and eibachs aren't that expensive.

Although it got hostile for a bit, I'm glad we went over it

 

chill. thats 1st gen, i was talking 2nd gen, my spacer came today, when I get them on I'll test it out and see if it hits bump stops or bottoms out the shock on a 2nd gen.

 

Yes. Smaller top spacers are fine with a shock that has a short enough collapsed length. That is why OME offers them as options. They also have preload shim for the drivers coil to fight taco lean. Excessive top spacers or excessive preloading is bad... ride height is best achieved with longer coils.

 

FYI , OME doesn't offer top plate spacers

 

So just preload? I don't use either. Just the shim.

 

OME makes the trim packers, not the 1/4" top plate lean spacer. Those are made by Toytec.

 

No , I mean the top plate spacers that Toytec and DSM etc add to the OME kits to get the full 3" aren't actually OME parts , they are just generic spacers

The only OME spacer is the 5mm OME trim packer that goes at the bottom of the coil seat