TRD Pro Kit on Amazon

I agree totally with you and appreciate the info shared. I had my eyes on those on Amazon as well. I want the Pro suspension for the ride quality as well as off-road compliance. So for me I’ve been researching the pros/cons of each setup. If I can get more bang for my buck, I’d love to. But I don’t think you get the bypass comfort in the ride zone with the other options like you get with the Pro suspension. Plus it’s Tundra specific. I’d love to hear more about your setup/install. Sorry if this is all off topic for the intent of the thread, I’m still learning.

 

I think your assessment of the Pro benefits are accurate. I haven't had a chance to take mine off-road yet, so I can't comment much about that performance (although I'm sure there's plenty of TRD Pro Tundra owners who can). As for on-road, the front made the biggest ride improvement for me and the rears and other changes helped incrementally. My 1794 came with 20" wheels too, so I think the move to 18" OR wheels and larger tires helped the ride as well. I went ahead and installed the TRD front and rear sway bars, which made a significant improvement in handling (although probably not the best for off-road use). The Pro suspension installation wasn't too tough and saved me over $750 vs. the "stealerships" price, but I've done a few suspension installs before. If you do install yourself, just keep in mind you'll need a large torque wrench rated over 200 Lb-ft for the front lower cap bolts and of course an alignment will be needed once completed. The rear shocks aren't as easy as stocks as you'll need to droop the rear axle completely and "help" them into place. Overall, I'm very pleased so far and don't regret my TRD Pro purchase.

 

I would be concerned with buying an item like this through Amazon. The Chinese will fake anything and they sneak them by all the time. From what I can tell, only this one obscure company on Amazon that sells TPMS sensors (notoriously counterfeited on Amazon) is selling a single pair of these.

 

From what I see on Amazon, these TRD Pro kits are sold and shipped from Metro24wholsale, inc. in Forney, Texas. Am I missing something? Does this company sell knock-off parts?

 

I did mine all at once. Kept the same wheels (and tires for a couple weeks), so I could isolate the difference in the new suspension vs the old. Night and day!

It’s pretty easy if you have a good metric socket set, ratcheting box end wrenches, some jack stands, and a good floor jack (or two).

I started with the rears. Never even took the wheels off. Removing the rear shock is as simple as unscrewing some nuts. You’ll have to tap out the lower shock bolt, but you can raise the frame in front of the axle with a floor jack so the shock is at full extension with no pressure on the bolt. Then it’ll tap out easily. The new rear shock goes in top first. Reinstall the same bushings and washers the same way, make sure it’s seated properly before torquing it down. Then you’ll need to raise the frame rail with your floor jack a little more because the rear TRD Fox shock body is a couple inches longer than your other OEM shocks (Bilstein or otherwise). This will allow your springs to droop to the correct length to line up that lower bolt. Tighten everything to spec and repeat for the other side. I found factory torque specs for everything needed in a thread on the forum after a quick search.

The fronts are a little more involved. A good coilover install video on YouTube will help if you need directions to follow. Wheels have to come off, obviously. Jack up the front end so your suspension droops, and make sure it’s supported. I use 6T locking jack stands plus my jack supporting the frame. I like jack redundancy when my truck is on stands. I loosened the LCA bolts and removed the steering knuckle and tie rod end from the lower part of the caliper. This allows the LCA to swing down and away after you remove the lower coilover bolt.

Then, when you remove the top coilover nuts, you can slide the entire coilover down and out. New one goes in from the bottom up. Make sure it’s oriented properly (TRD Fox coilovers are labeled L/R; you’d really have to try to mess it up), and start threading your nuts. Leave them loose, because the lower mount is a bit tougher to line up.

Get out from under your truck and use your floor jack to raise the LCA up so that the lower mount is lined up. You may have to use a pry bar to help it to pop into the lower mount up as you jack up the LCA because it’s going to seem like the coilover is twisted a bit from the way it needs to line up. It’s important that your top nuts are pretty loose so you have room to finagle the lower shock eye into that lower mount.

Tighten everything to spec and schedule an alignment ASAP. The hard part is tightening the LCA bolts you loosened to get the LCA to swing out of the way. Their torque spec is something like 200 ft-lbs. Check my memory on that. It’s a lot, and it’s hard to get that “click” from your wrench when your truck isn’t on a lift and you have very little leverage.

Good luck! I love doing this kind of stuff. Wrenching and doing my own maintenance is very cathartic for me.

 

Thanks for the detailed write up! I read through the older Bilstein Pro shock installation guide that was linked somewhere on here. Seems like something I’m willing to tackle. Still trying to justify the cost to the wife, but the sport suspension and 20” wheels on our county roads helps my case! I’d love to find a set of takeoffs but I know I’m not that lucky.

 

Very nice and detailed instructions Terndrerrr! Here's the TRD doc I used. He'll need good leverage and probably want a long handle ratchet (torque wrench) or breaker bar to loosen the lower ball joint/steering knuckle and LCA cam bolts...and be sure to match-mark the LCA cam bolt indicators BEFORE loosening - might not want to loose the original alignment location.

 

Thanks fellas! So do you think I would have better luck going through Sparks? I like the OEM aspect of the Pro shocks, so I kind of feel like I should buy them from a dealership to guarantee no trouble. Then again I bought my BBS wheels from Amazon so I dunno.

 

I had trouble finding these a few weeks ago. I bought the fronts from Sparks and the rears from McGeorge online (You'll need the small extension bracket for the rear axle speed sensor cable too). McGeorge has free shipping and good prices if they can order them (FREESHIP code at checkout).
toyotaonlineparts.mcgeorgetoyota.com

 

The shock body is aluminum, that alone is a great reason to buy.

 

I had already had an alignment scheduled when I installed the kit. And with the 2” of lift, it put my alignment WAY out of spec, so I wasn’t worried about getting my cam bolts back into the same location. It needed to be corrected anyway.

I didn’t use a breaker bar; I have a pretty large Torin torque wrench (Walmart special). A breaker bar might have made things a bit easier. But, brand new truck and all. Nothing was even close to being seized.

 

Sparks is fine. They messed up my order and removed the coilovers from their protective packaging in order to fit them all in one box. They were pretty banged up, which on principle was a pretty big disappointment. I started a thread about it if you want to see pics. It took another week or so to get the 2nd rear shock that they forgot to send me in the first shipment.

I have had far better experience with McGeorge for other parts. They’re usually a bit cheaper than Sparks as well. But when I tried to order the TRD Fox suspension parts from McGeorge, they cancelled my order and said they couldn’t get the parts for me. Whoever you order with, you might call ahead and make sure you can get them from that dealer. I looked up a bunch of other online dealers that had better prices than Sparks. All of them told me they couldn’t actually get the parts from Toyota though.

 

Both of the rubber boots on my rear Pros have fallen down. Did you see this problem on yours? Can you give me details about how/where you installed the boot? It's super easy and I followed the TRD instructions and didn't install the lowest retainer washer under the lowest cushion (and on top of the boot), but evidently this is causing a problem or got a bad set of boots (very unlikely).
Thanks.

 

before I bought my truck I thought you must be batshit crazy to spend all that money on the pro vs trd offroad. Then after I bought my offroad I started looking at upgrades. The pro looks like an effin steal now...

4+k (cdn dollars) for the shocks, 799 for the front skid plate, 3500 for rims, 900 for the rigid fogs, 1500+ for the exhaust. That sexy bed stamp which adds at least 50hp is clearly priceless.

 

Hmm. I just installed the shocks with the boots already on them. Never messed with the boots. They’re staying up just fine.

 

Many Thanks!
I can see from your photo that the lower retainer washer below the lowest cushion is installed as it was on the stock shocks. The TRD instructions say to delete this washer and I think that's causing my problems. The lower rubber cushion is moving/squeezing the shock boot off of it's molded/mounting washer, whereas having a retainer washer would isolate the top of the shock boot from the rubber cushion and probably prevent this from happening. Thanks again.

 

I bought my front and rear fox shocks (not trd pro) from Amazon, no problem

 

Ah, I see. My kit didn’t come with instructions. Maybe that was another thing Sparks screwed up for me when they shipped it. I didn’t know I was supposed to leave that washer off. I just installed the TRD Fox the same way my Off Road Bilsteins were installed. So far, no problems!

 

On the flip side, if you could get a good deal on a basic SR5, you can upgrade to make it a Pro for much less total $ invested vs. the factory Pro (less the fancy stamped bed, of course)...

 

I think the instructions are off and you installed correctly. It could be changes in the FOX suspension designs since they were first printed. I also noticed they state to re-use the stock sleeve, which is ridiculous since it won't even fit the FOX shock. I didn't get these instructions with my TRD stuff either and found on the internet.

 

Just make sure it fits/works ahead of time.

Free shipping is not Prime shipping. If you need to return it, the shipping back is on you. Might try to contact seller, sometimes if you ask nicely they'll send you a prepaid shipping label, those are the Good Guys!

 

This was my angle all along. My truck performs exactly like a Pro, I’m well under the price of a Pro, and my hood does not have the fake scoop. I’m not knocking anyone who digs the scoop; I just really don’t like it.

 

Say what you want. I still think they would look great under my Rock Warrior

 

Funny story about dealerships-a buddy bought a 20 Trd Pro and it needed an alignment in the days after he purchased. He took it back to dealer and they told him they couldn’t help him since it was “lifted”. It took a service manager to get involved and realize it was stock!!

 

Funny except for the service guy who had to eat crow.

 

Wow...

 

Reminds us we have idiots in all walks of life...

 

Well, I pulled the trigger on the Fox Pro suspension. Ended up ordering from Sparks. Not my first choice due to some of the feedback here, but they seemed to be the only options aside from the Amazon listed ones. I figured at least through a dealership I might be covered better with any issues down the road, but maybe not. I appreciate all the feedback I received! I’ll update once I get the parts in.

 

Ask for the Tundras.com discount. They did that for me and it saved 5%.

 

Yep, just buy a Pro and get the other stuff too. Other options out there for less dough