Suspension input

I have heard that the Nitrocharger shocks gave a nice soft ride, they were out of my price range

 

OP, what did you decide? It sounds like you are on a good path. A lot of people here will push you toward Bilstein 5100's, but my experience with them on the 1st Gen Tacoma is they can be pretty rough on washboard and unmaintained forest service roads.

 

I’m still relatively happy with my Bilsteins. They’re much better now that I got rid of my sway bar and dialed a little bit of preload out of them. For a “budget” option, I’d say that they’re great if your willing to put a little bit of time into them.

 

I concur with the delegate from Seattle. I had Bilstein 5100s with stock coil (top setting), OME 881 (bottom setting), and Eibach coils (bottom setting) and I still couldn't find a setup with these shocks that was enjoyable. Too stiff for my taste, but I have no additional weight so I shouldn't be surprised.

I just ordered a full OME kit from Wheeler's and I can check back in when it gets installed.

 

I had early Tundra coils on my 5100s in the front, and a Wheeler's AAL in back. No swaybar. Even when I aired down my tires, long drives on rough fire service roads were grueling. The tiny bumps of washboard and unmaintained gravel roads don't stroke the Bilstein pistons deep and fast enough to activate their divergent high speed valving, so the Bilsteins often respond at their stiffest on washboard and gravel.

 

I wouldnt expect 5100s to do well on washboard roads. Gonna need to throw some serious money at suspension to not have washboards ruin your day

 

I'm definitely paying attention to this thread. I'm in the same boat with my 2001 double cab with 190k on it.
Right now I'm running stock front springs with 5100's that have been on there for over 100k and the rear is all original.
I recently added an ARB bumper and will getting a winch soon. The front end is also in serious need of an alignment so I'm hoping to freshen up the front end with new shocks and springs before having that done.
Is there anything else I need to consider replacing on the front end while I'm doing that?
I've also read plenty of about different leaf springs on the rear and I'm not sure what I want to do there. I would like for my truck to stay at or close to stock height and ride quality. I do on occasion haul my boat (1648 War Eagle Fishing/Duck boat) or a 14' utility trailer with an ATV or side by side. The ride and bottoming of the suspension has definitely gotten worse the past few years as the springs have starting showing their age and mileage.
Of course I'm also running the original plugs and wires, so I should probably get on with replacing those as well... Ha!

 

The, “while you’re in there” list can get pretty lengthy, but if you’re going to do a front end refresh,

Lower shock bolts
Lower ball joints
Lower ball joint bolts

all 3 of the above are common fail points that should be replaced no matter what

Control arm bushings upper and lower
Steering rack bushings
Inner and outer tie rods
Sway bar bushings and end links if you’re not going to use the truck off road. If you do plan to use it off road, just ditch the sway bar

if you’re going to lift it:

Aftermarket upper control arms to obtain correct alignment
Diff drop. Some people say you don’t need it... I think it does nice things for my cv axles

I’d highly recommend before you even start to mess with it, get underneath the truck and see if you can move the cam bolts for lower control arms. If you can’t, get to work on getting them out before you take it to be aligned.

 

what aftermarket upper control arms do you all recommend?

I’m going with ome 886 as I have the arb bumper and winch and saw my front sagging after install... so I’m looking at 2.5 plus my spacer which should give me around 3-3.5 in the front... going to do line extensions to, also curious if you have any ideas who’s got the best deal for them

 

Just to let you know youre posting in the 1st gen section.
Personally a fan of JBA control arms, the ball joints and extra range of motion is nice.
not sure who has the best deal on brake line, just shop around

 

Thanks Dash, didn’t even catch that.... and thank you for the input. I’ll check them out

 

Smooth on-road ride. Off road performance. Affordable.

Pick two.

But even if you spend $2k+ on suspension, you're not going to get a plush ride. It's a pickup truck... My Kings, while fantastic shocks, don't give you a "plush" ride. If you want plush, by a Cadillac, lol. Even high end shocks have to compromise (progressive vs. digressive vs. linear) based on the type of terrain you drive.

IMO, best all around budget suspension for a daily driver with off-road capability are the 5100s. 4600's if you want to just keep the stock height. But they don't exactly give you a plush ride. They are cheap (relatively), are better than the bilsteins that come on TRDs, and do well off-road - by far best bang for your buck. I hear Monroe shocks offer a good on-road ride, but I have my doubts they'd hold up or perform well off-road. IMO, the ranchos aren't really any different from the shocks you get with most lift kits like pro comps. Better than rough country shocks, but that's not really saying anything.

The OME shocks are great too, very comparable to the 5100s. If you're replacing your springs and shocks and want a lift, get the entire OME kit. But if you're on more of a budget, you can get the 5100s and an add-a-leaf in the back for like under $400. You re-use your coils. Ideal? Probably not, but again, cheap, but still will out perform most of the complete suspension "kits", especially rough county which costs almost 2x as much.

 

OT but I'm looking at 32 X11.50R15s on AR26 rims. Do these fit stock? i.e no spacers or trimming seams? I'm guessing the measurement between the mating surface of the hub and the inside plane of the tires is important so it doesn't rub on the upper control arm. Is there a standard way of measuring this?

The rims say 15X10J AR-26

 

In what regard? I've had both and would say they behave pretty differently.

 

Let me know what you think once you drive them a bit. I'm going to give my OME's their first run on fire roads this weekend.

Warning: the lower rear bushings are oversized (at least they are on my 2nd Gen) and I had to grease them and pound them into place with a mallet.

Also, do yourself a favor and hit them with a sturdy clearcoat before install. They rust pretty easily.

 

I'm starting to think a lot of our trucks' rough ride comes from the rear shackle angle. Might go look around a U-pull-it to see if there are any shackle hangers on other trucks that can be adapted till I can justify the expense of something like Hammer Hangers.

If someone was really determined and could weld a little, they might be able to move the OEM hangers back a smidge and reinforce them at the same time.

 

I'm referring mostly to the general build quality and price range. But I suppose it depends on how they're set up, like if you have the 5100s with stock springs cranked all the way up and whatnot, because I've heard from other folks that say they are nearly identical in how they ride.

 

I wrote a long comparison of them somewhere else on tacomaworld, but the short of it is they both ride pretty firm on pavement, but the Bilsteins handle hard cornering far better because of their digressive valving, while the OME's allow a lot more body roll. It's not uncontrollable but it's noticeable coming from Bilsteins. The flipside of that is the OMEs should be more compliant in flexy terrain. Most rigs tuned for offroad exhibit heavy body roll on-road. (I'll confirm the OME's flexy terrain performance after I have taken my new-to-me OME shocks on some more challenging trails.)

The Bilsteins are brutal on washboard. I am testing the OME's on washboard tonight, but the general consensus among users is they are somewhat better. The biggest variable on washboard is still probably going to be tire pressure.

One thing I like about the OME's is the rear shocks is they are more heavily damped on the rebound than the Bilsteins, which helps keep the back end of the truck from standing up when you slam on the brakes. In contrast, the Bilsteins let the bed rise up more in hard braking if the truck was unloaded, which decreased braking power of the rear tires and which I think probably contributed to me rear-ending another car in my previous (non-ABS) truck.

I should note I am comparing the 5100s to the 60091s. I don't know if that's the OME model that fits 1st gens, but the OME philosophy has remained the same for a long time: progressive valving vs. Bilstein's digressive valving.

 

I ran the OME's on washboard this weekend. They were not miraculous but they were fine; not harsh like the 5100s, and they respond satisfactorilly to hitting rocks in the road too. Big holes, on the other hand, were rough. It felt like the truck dropped into them. If the OME rear shocks being more heavily damped on the rebound keeps the rear suspension tight in hard braking, they may also be preventing the wheels from dropping fast enough into big holes, so the frame drops too. I would not say either the Bilsteins or the OME's do well with holes, but the OME's do better with washboard.

I played with the body roll more, and the OME's do let the truck sway more in a hard swerve, but you have to jerk the wheel pretty hard to find out.

 

Washboards are a tough one, maybe Kings up front. I’ll just drive slower and cuss more, until the fat money drops a bucket full at my feet.
A buddy of mine went all in on Kong’s upfront and Fox I think on the back, runs the Denali Hwy at speed and says it is much smoother, handles quite well, he generally is towing a trailer with a UTV on it. Seems that you do the homework and prepare to spend the money, and like jbrandt says, pick two out of the three. He’s right.

Washboards suck, of course if everyone drove sanely on dirt roads, washboards would be minimalized and not as nasty, but that’s just my opinion...