1ST gen stock Tacoma 4WD rear suspension travel

cr500taco

Adventurer
I am wondering what is the up and droop travel of the stock 8" shocks at ride height with the bed empty? I have about a 2.5" lift with replacement leafs and 10" Bilstein 5160 shocks and I am wondering if I lost any up travel or if it's about the same.

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tacollie

Glamper
One you change the leaves you need to cycle the suspension to figure out shock length. 8" is probably too short and 10" is probably too long. Check it boxrockets thread. He relocated his shocks to maximize travel.
Post 369 in his build thread.


Since this is your second rear shock thread I have to ask what are you trying problem solve?
 
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tacollie

Glamper
I recently tackled the relocation of my rear shocks. This was for two reasons. One reason was that I wanted to do a ubolt flip to get a little better clearance under the axle, but the factory lower shock mount is on the ubolt plate so by removing that I needed new shock mounts. Secondly, with my rear suspension set up the OME nitrochargers were limiting my down travel earlier than I wanted so by moving the shock mounts I could get a bit more droop in the rear suspension which is helpful in the rocks since the IFS isn't really flexy at all. I need all I can get from the rear end.

I welded in a new crossmember and used some new shock brackets from Ruffstuff.

after some tweaking I think I ended up with pretty balanced travel from the 10" stroke OME shocks. Right about 5" of travel in droop and compression. I'm using the whole shock for sure and with the position of the shocks I'm getting a bit farther drop than I was in the stock location. It rides a little different (not bad just different). I welded in a new crossmember directly underneath the the upper mount on the driverside. This positioned the shocks behind the axle instead of one forward and one back. I supposed there is potential for some axle wrap with this setup compared to the stock configuration but others are using this approach with good luck. I chose to keep the shocks parralel vs angled to the center. The angled set up can give a bit more travel, but you lose some lateral stability. I wanted to keep the stability so I kept them parallel, but they are angled backwardward at a similar angle to the stock set up.

I used the ubolt flip kit from Trail Gear. As part of this mod I also wanted to relocate the rear axle. Under compression my tires were rubbing the front of the rear fenders. I got some relocation plates from Roger Brown that allows the axle to be moved 3/4" or 1" in either direction. I chose to move the axle backward 3/4". One note is that by moving the axle the spring center pin no longer lined up with the hole in the TG ubolt plate. I had to enlarge the hole in the plate to get it to fit over the spring center pin.











Driverside compression. The tire is now centered nicely in the wheelwell. Before the relocation plates the tires were chewing into the front of the fender even after some trimming.


Passenger side droop. there was more droop to be had but the tire was starting to climb the wall. You can see a fair amount of twist in the top leaf under full flex.




I've spoken to Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters about this (who I feel is as knowledgable about the OME products as anyone) and from all the information I've been able to get the OME Dakars are designed to be fairly flat at ride height. This allows for optimal ride over rutted/washboarded terrain that these springs were designed for. But for playing in the rocks and really flexing the suspension this means that a flat spring at ride height is going to go into negative arch quickly when compressed. After talking to Kurt it doesn't sound like anything I should be overly concerned about. I supposed there is potential for quicker spring fatigue if this is a common occurance, but after running the springs for 3+ years now with no ill effects I'm ok with it.

Here is the compressed spring with some pretty heavy negative arch. That's as far as it will go since it has arched to match the bottom overload leaf. I suspect that ARB knew the springs would flex this far since the overload leaf is the limiter and is in this position? You can also see that the rearward angle of the shock doesn't bottom it out and leaves a couple inches of travel left in the shock.


This let me check measurements for bumpstops. Looks like a 4" bumpstop will be just about perfect.

The flexed side. This is almost to the most droop the spring will allow and the shock is within .5" of full extension. So the shock might still be limiting full travel but only slightly. I think this is the best I can get with this setup.
 

bkg

Explorer
Thread about this last week. Take shocks off, twist truck until one side is compressed fully and other side fully dropped. Then measure for shocks.

I’m not a fan of how Boxrocket did his... ONLY because of how much they are moved towards the center of the truck. But the concept of moving mounts to maximize travel is good.
 

Box Rocket

Well-known member
Thread about this last week. Take shocks off, twist truck until one side is compressed fully and other side fully dropped. Then measure for shocks.

I’m not a fan of how Boxrocket did his... ONLY because of how much they are moved towards the center of the truck. But the concept of moving mounts to maximize travel is good.
Valid point, but if you look at the rear axle and the different brackets for brake lines, ebrake cable, ubolts etc there aren't really any other spots on the rear of the axle tube to put the mounts unless you bend new brake lines and/or relocate brackets. I could have done lower shock mounts that dropped below the axle and possibly moved them out toward the leaf springs more but doing that reduced clearance under the axle. Putting them where I did was the best solution because if left a smooth bottom surface to the axle and didn't reduce clearance, and didn't require more work to other parts. It was nice that from a performance standpoint it worked well also. The new mounts were roughly 2" closer to the center on each side (total of 4" narrower than stock) but I didn't notice ANY increase in body roll or other negative affects on how the truck handled. If anything, it improved the ride of the back end of the truck by not having the shocks mounted in opposing directions. And articulation was improved significantly without changing any parts, just relocating the mounts.
_MG_0839 by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

GS_flex by Adam Tolman, on Flickr
 

cr500taco

Adventurer
One you change the leaves you need to cycle the suspension to figure out shock length. 8" is probably too short and 10" is probably too long. Check it boxrockets thread. He relocated his shocks to maximize travel.
Post 369 in his build thread.


Since this is your second rear shock thread I have to ask what are you trying problem solve?
I will be cycling the suspension to measure for shocks, but just haven't had a chance, yet.

I've seen Boxrocket's shock relocation, before and I plan on doing something similar if not the same. I have an e-locker rear end that I am going to throw in it, once I have the third rebuilt. The rear end has the lower shock mounts already on the rear end, due to the guy who I got it from having a similar shock relocation setup as Boxrocket's, but they are hanging below the rear end a little. I like the idea of the mounts being in the middle of the rear end, but will probably keep the ones that are on it for now to see how they are, since they are there. They are pretty beafy.

I was talking with a buddy of mine and we were just curious of what the stock up and droop travel is. But after finding the 8" and 10" shock collapsed and extended lengths, I don't think I haven lost any up travel with the 10" shocks.

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Lotsoftoys

New member
Lots of ways to shock relocate on tacos. All have their pros and cons. I went outboard for my style of driving and wants.
Edit: here I was measuring for shocks. Total chaos shock mounts
20171203_095008.jpg
 
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lumpskie

Independent Thinker
Another option is to run 7100 short bodies in the stock locations. When I did this back in 2009, everyone told me it would never work. Never had an issue with fitment and never ran out of shock travel.

20150429_135808_zpsqjpiqwuy_f84d317a68dc4528c4ffc50252ed31dfd4f2c5e0-jpg.1668084


20150321_175205_zpssezkbdmk_6ce9e4b50dce3378916aabe8fe5c95cfd56e6049-jpg.1668083

20150429_135951_zpsvbqvycdq_4037ea02253e412854d7fffe74257375938a59eb-jpg.1668089
 

cr500taco

Adventurer
Another option is to run 7100 short bodies in the stock locations. When I did this back in 2009, everyone told me it would never work. Never had an issue with fitment and never ran out of shock travel.

20150429_135808_zpsqjpiqwuy_f84d317a68dc4528c4ffc50252ed31dfd4f2c5e0-jpg.1668084


20150321_175205_zpssezkbdmk_6ce9e4b50dce3378916aabe8fe5c95cfd56e6049-jpg.1668083

20150429_135951_zpsvbqvycdq_4037ea02253e412854d7fffe74257375938a59eb-jpg.1668089
Sorry, just saw your post. I didn't get an email notification. I am about to get new rear shocks and was contemplating the idea of relocating, again. Checked this thread over and came across your post. The 7100's were suggested to me and I have looked into them.. Just curious, what length do you have and do you have a lift?
I have a about a 2.5" lift in the rear. I have cycled the suspension to get the measurement, but was told the 7100's might be too long.
 

lumpskie

Independent Thinker
Sorry, just saw your post. I didn't get an email notification. I am about to get new rear shocks and was contemplating the idea of relocating, again. Checked this thread over and came across your post. The 7100's were suggested to me and I have looked into them.. Just curious, what length do you have and do you have a lift?
I have a about a 2.5" lift in the rear. I have cycled the suspension to get the measurement, but was told the 7100's might be too long.

Here's my old build thread on Tacoma World:

I have 4" of lift in the rear. But, that shouldn't matter because, even with my springs going into negative arch, I couldn't bottom the 12" short body 7100s out. I think they were 16.5" (ish) compressed and 28.5'"(ish) extended. Everyone told me "it will never work"... "they are going to be too long"... etc. etc. But they weren't. The compressed length was just a little longer than 10" 5125s... but the extended was 2" longer. There are some handy pics in my build . Here's one more showing droop.

p1060707_zpswtcctixe_15242b3abbc770d82507516df805cc2cf42ece91-jpg.1668582


Feel free to ask other questions, if you have them.
 
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