Which shocks for a lifted road Queen

Hey all,

I have a 4.5" lifted rough country 2010 tundra. As many have mentioned the tundras have a bit of a harsh ride, and my 4x4 shop told me the rough country shocks are crap. He mentioned that if i want it to ride like a Cadillac i need to install Fox 2.5 Coil over in front and 2.5 resi in rear. I do not off-road the truck, and it barley sees camping these days. My highways are junk in ohio and i see alot of bed bounce which my shop has tried to correct. Bumps in the road are rather harsh as well.

Can i get some shock suggestions that are not Bilstein ?

I run Nitto Ridge Grapplers on 20x12 wheels.

 

I just replaced my worn out original rear shocks with Fox 2.0's. The old shocks were toast and easily compressed an slowly returned to length (talking about minutes to extend). The new Fox shocks were next to impossible to compress by hand so I had to use a ratchet strap to compress them for install. They look the part!!
I would be a liar if I said the truck rode any differently. I honestly couldn't say I feel any difference.

 

You should probably mention why you don't want Bilsteins.

 

What rough country shocks do you have? They came out with a coilover shock with adjustments now. It’s called the vortex.
For shocks anyone makes what your looking for. From King, fox, icon. They will make any shock you want.

 

Fox's are nice but the ride won't be that much better. I went all out and got ADS suspension with reservoirs front and back, valved for my truck weight and did a Alcan rear spring to remove the lift blocks and help fix the sag. I would say the rear springs helped the most, but it's still a truck. It's not going to ride like a car. I would say with the bed bounce you need to look at your rear springs, maybe worn out shocks. The stock Tundra rear springs are weak. Do some research and you'll see tons of people talk about this. My old ones looked like a W with nothing in the bed.

 

I'm digging these Toytec 2.0 aluma series shocks... Can't compare to anything but stock oem and they suck... Good luck

 

That's very true. My springs were also a "W" shape before adding the Roadmaster Active Suspension. Those are meant to aid towing but I just used them to re-arch the leaf springs and give me a cheap 1" rear lift.

 

Ok good points. My Tundra suspension is only a year old. I have my local 4x4 shop working on the truck now and explained what i want out of it. The kit only came with Rear shocks so when the lift was installed they put in some TRD coil overs on the front. This work was done by another 4x4 shop in my state. The current shop has said they believe one of the Rear Rough country shocks is starting to fail already in a years time. I did some research on lift kits and what i have found is that they make little to no money on the kit its self as the steel prices are high. Where they make their money is in selling a low end shock and mark it up. There are some videos online that show many of the shocks with cutouts and explain the internals in comparison to the piston. My guy says that if i got the BDS 7" coil over kit the truck would ride like a Cadillac and he has this setup on his own vehicles. I get the fact a truck is not a car, but i can say from experience when i was a chevy guy 2 of my trucks had a 6" Trail master kit running 35's it rode more than words can explain better than my tundra. So i know a truck can be much smoother on the highway. The Audi RS5 i use to have rode rougher than my lifted Chevy. I seem to be going from fast cars to tall trucks. Since my wife does not agree that having a car that can go 180 MPH is practical i have conceded to having something i can drive over #@$! with but i would like to keep my teeth as they are being rattled a bit hitting pot holes with this setup. All jokes aside here is the current setup. The rough country lift Trd coil overs in front Rough country rears. My new shop went through the setup and made some adjustments to geometry. I run a 20x12-44 fuel wheel with 35x12.50 Nitto RG rubber. I don't trail the truck and trailer very little. It sees some offroad only for camping. Mostly i enjoy having a big truck to drive to work but like the thought that if i need to do something with it i can. I will be honest i like it to look good. I like the way the coil overs have the reservoir cans its cool as hell. I would like the shock to be serviceable. But most importantly as i stated i have had other lifted trucks and want this to be a smoother ride while still being able to do what i did with my other trucks. The Silverado i had with the 6" lift i off roaded in West Virginia. I was not easy on it either we drove down creeks went through mud that was up to the bumper hit the trails fast and hard. I never had any issues with that truck and it ran Rancho 9000 series shocks back in the 90's.

So i am asking from you guys what you have experienced with your tundra with different shocks similar to what i hope to achieve.

 

I just found some more articles on lifted tundras with smooth rides. Looks like you either have a group of guys running King and Icon or a group running Fox. Most are using the 2.5 or larger pistons with reservoirs. So far all have claimed it will bring you close to the smoothness in a car and still use the truck as a truck. Any comments guys ?

 

Like I stated before. Any major shock company will have what you need. You just need to call them and tell them the lift you are looking for. Brand wise some have their own preference of brands. From what I hear lately icon has had a lot of leaking shocks while other hate kings wait times. Pick your poison. Any 2.5 coiolover with reservoir and adjuster will get you what you want. You can put them at any setting you like.

 

Make sure whatever you go with you get adjustable shocks. My old 79 toyota 4x4 I put rancho adjustable shocks on it back in the day, and it rode very nice once I tuned it for the road. Then I would readjust them for when I would go wheeling. Good luck on whatever you go with.

 

That seems to be the correct consensus i am getting from talking with the manufacturers. I just needed to hear it from you guys as well as you are the ones using them in real life scenarios. Feedback is much appreciated.

 

A little long winded, my apologies.

I have the oem kings with adjusters, but went with 700# springs because of heavy bumpers and a winch. Mine didn't ride like a Cadillac per say; but it rode pretty nice even with the stiffer springs. Much better than the stock [trd] ever did without the added weight and or road/activity conditions . They [kings] had some firmness to it; but I knew this going into it (ie heavier springs up front).

Speaking of firmness and a plug for Dirty Deeds.... He called tonight to let me know my rebuild/revalve and spring adjustment job was done; and they were shipped out today. I ended up finding one of my rear shocks was leaking oil at the schrader valve and had lost its nitrogen. Since I had to have that one rebuilt. I just decided to just send them all off to be rebuilt/revalved as I was getting ready to have surgery and wouldn’t be driving anyways. And since my truck needed to be down for one; another day or so to have them all done wasn’t a big deal. A little preventive maintenance if you will.

Keith also sells Kings besides his exhaust packages. And from my interaction and hearing recommendations from others; including coachbuilder. If you were to go with Kings; I would recommend at least giving him a call. He seemed very knowledgeable and was awesome to work with. I bet we talked at least 6-7 time before and after my surgery. He even let me use his shipping account to save some money on my shipping costs. fwiw I think he can do custom valving when he sells them to you.

that being said... it seems like most vendors I’ve seen, offer the same/similar services regardless of the brand they sell. If not, you can always call the shock company and have them valve it accordingly when they build them. And like the above mentioned, spend the few extra dollars and get the adjusters, it can makes a difference when doing anything other than normal driving. Especially if you have them valved "soft/plush".

 

It's the Coil springs that are really going to affect your ride on the road, though yes, the Rough Country struts are probably not helping things.

 

Going to upgrade to the 6" lift and put the Rough country 2.5" Vertex adjustable coil overs on and the rears with the adjustable resi on.