Suspension overhaul, what to do.

My bilstein 6112/5160 setup is toasted after 28k miles and I’m looking to upgrade.

my road is very bad, reasoning for my bilsteins to have bit the dust so quickly. Also my lower control arm camber bolts are seized (no suprise, thanks New England) and my leaf pack is flattening.

I’m looking at oem new LCA drenched in anti seize, camburg uniball UCA, KING 2.5 front and rear without adjusters, deaver leaf packs and coach builder rear shackles. Looking for a 2.5-3” lift out front and 2.5 in the back. Basically some rake when no rack and level when loaded up.

my bed all summer has a UPtop overland rack, tent, awning, two bikes, bike rack and camp gear most weekends and ranges from 500-750 lbs.

I’ve contacted deaver for leaf spring options and haven’t heard back from them. Any recommendations on packs?

also kings seem to have two, 2.5 options. One has a black finned resi and one has the classic smooth silver. Any difference between the two internal wise other than possibly better cooling capabilities? I’m gonna be ordering all these parts during the winter for a lovely spring time install, just want all my ducks in a row and part numbers so I’m ready to go. Any help is appreciated !

 

After 28k?! geez...

I've had great luck with Dobinsons over the years. I've had them on two 4Runners and just installed a full kit on my Tundra.
Simple and reliable.

 

I don't necessarily think they're toasted after 28k, but what I do think is that the suspension may no longer work for you since it seems like you're carrying quite a bit of gear.

It does seem like you've already done some research on your own on wanting a set of Kings front/rears with no adjusters. The difference between smooth body and finned is most likely heat dissipation. Most likely geared more towards racing as when the suspension cycles, the oil will heat up - the finned reservoirs will allow the oil to cool much quicker to reduce shock fade.

You state that you also live in New England and being in New England with salted roads, I would probably not recommend going uniballs unless if you can do the maintenance after every drive; sealed ball bearings (such as JBA or SPC) might be more practical unless if you're willing to take the gamble.

Look into swapping your coils to higher rates to compensate for weight? Deaver / Alcans may be the way to go with adding some bumpstops such as superbumps or timbrens?

 

I agree on shying away from uniballs, even here in Washington they get squeaky even with normal maintenance. My buddy has to replace them on his taco regularly.
I’ve had good luck with the icon UCAs with the delta joints. The delta joint I think is retrofittable to other uniball control arms too, double check that though

 

Finned doesn't really do anything on street driven trucks. More for looks; the fins aren't big enough to dissipate heat efficiently. It's not a TT or class one doing 90+ with 4.0s. BUT with that said, I overheat my twin tubes every time I'm off-road and I don't have a lot of gear. I'm not an overlander, I'm an off-roader.

For the NE climate and winter conditions, 2-3" lift Elkas would be perfect. They have aluminum bodies, so the rust and oxidation will be slowed greatly. Just gotta be concerned with the shafts. With the uniballs, just pack a dam of grease around the uniball. It will create a barrier to catch a lot of stuff before it reaches the uniball. It looks like hell, but it works. Also, LSK makes stock length uppers with sealed uniballs.

 

Their toasted lol all the fluid leaked out with the duro bump stops.

 

I was looking at Elka, but isn’t it tough with spring rates? I read you could only get 600 lb springs with them. I haven’t found enough info about them. My friends kings held up pretty well over winter for 3 years but I’m always down for other opinions

I had total chaos UCA on my 4 runner and didn’t have an issue but I’m not against delta joint uppers.

more or less just trying to figure out what to do for rear deavers lol

 

Your situation makes a good case for rear airbags.

 

Dang, how do you think it even got to that point at just 28k?

 

the road we live on is atrocious. My neighbor broke broke his leaf springs and I’ve had to replace the suspension in my car already once and that was in 6k. Honestly need coils strictly for my road

 

Cheaper to get gravel brought in and grade the road than keep replacing broken suspension parts.

 

Unfortunately the road is pretty long. Supposedly it’s gonna get repaved but I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon

 

Call Alcan, they will build you a custom pack for the weight of your setup, lift, normal use. They used different shackles. Built mine for my camper etc. Ride is money.
https://www.alcanspring.com/

Go with the new Camburg X Joint. I would stay far away from Uni in your environment.

I run fox 2.5 fronts and rears. They are great.

The other way to go is OME Heavy Load BP51 kit.

 

I had fox 2.5 resi on my wife’s TT fj and they are great. Just do not hold up at all to winter, I love fox and had them on all my sleds and bikes. I know they came out with aluminum shocks, they just don’t have them for tundra yet only tacomas. If they drop them for the tundra I’ll definitely buy those.

 

Found this on a Raptor forum: https://www.amsoil.com/p/heavy-duty-metal-protector-amhsc/?zo=1678239&zo=1678239

Or I found this on Tacomaworld:
“Your first concern should be the piston rod, because dented and rusty piston rods are the leading cause of shock failure. You're on the right track with adding a boot to protect the rods, although it is critical that boots are well ventilated.

Fox piston rods are made from 17-4 H900 stainless steel with a hard chrome coating. This is the strongest, most dent resistant and most corrosion resistant combination you can get.

King, Bilstein and newer Icon shocks use industry standard 1045 base material with hard chrome coating. These are good and less expensive, which is why it's the industry standard.

Sway-A-Way and Radflo use Nitro Steel piston rods which is a 1045 base with nitride coating. They are stronger and more dent resistant than regular 1045, but substantially more brittle and not very corrosion resistant.

There is some more detail here, including hardness test numbers.
http://accutuneoffroad.com/articles/fox-vs-king-2-0-coilover-shock-comparison/

For the body King uses Cad plating which is a bit more corrosion resistant than zinc used by everyone else.”

 

I haven't really looked at them too much myself, but it does appear to be a standard 2.5" body. You should be able to get some other springs and put them on there. @Toytec Lifts might be able to give more info on the perches and their compatibility with other springs.

 

If you’re looking at buying Deaver and running new shocks with one of their packs I’d give MCM fabrications a call. Matt over there has their shit down to a science, might be worth picking his brain. Also depending on what you’re doing and your setup Icon makes a sealed delta joint that is made out of aluminum and could be worth your time

 

I was looking more into deaver and the more I looked the more I wanted to go with Alcan. If I’m spending 1200$ on leafs I don’t want my springs popping or having any issues considering I’m going to be spending about 6 grand all said and done.

Alcan got back to me and it’s about 8 weeks or less for custom made packs specific to my setup, cab and truck. Kinda awesome.

 

I've been in Central Mass for about 5 years now. The mag-chloride road salt is rough on suspension parts and brake rotors.

I found a broken leaf in the oem spring pack earlier this year. I think it was a combination of the rear leveling block and road salt that killed it. I switched to the OME Dakar pack with the extra overload spring and OME greaseable rear shackles so I could get rid of the leveling block.

The oem springs had gone flat so a real rear ride height comparison is difficult, but it's at least 2-3" higher now. (The OME shackle is the same length as the stock shackle.)

I was worried about a harsher ride with the extra overload spring, but it was pretty bad already with the flattened/broken oem springs. The rear feels much smoother on bumps now, but there is noticeably more body roll even with the Helwig rear sway bar installed.

I have a Leer canopy that weighs about 200-ish lbs, but I haven't put a heavy load on the hitch or in the bed yet. I have airbags with Daystar cradles so I'm not that worried about managing rear squat if the OME springs can't keep up a heavy load.

 

I haven't replaced the front oem shocks and LRO 3" leveling spacer yet, but I'm thinking about using the OME heavy front springs on adjustable front shocks since the rear rides so much better now. I just haven't decided which shocks to go with for the front.

One of the sales reps at Toytec recommended that I avoiding uni-ball and delta-joint UCAs because of the excessive road salt in NE. I'll be using the SPC adjustable UCAs when I replace the front shocks since they use a sealed upper ball joint.