GTV
SILVER Star
Just get 30mm spacers.
LX 470/LC100 first-hand experience: Kings vs AHC (soft setting)?
- Thread starter DougieLX470
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- ahc lc 100 lx470 shock absorbers
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Thanks. Any particular spacers you would recommend?
GTV
SILVER Star
Doesn’t really matter.
Depends on your primary load. When I put on the ARB rear bumper and built a drawer set, it caused the rear pressure to get too high. I put in rear 30MM spacers and that helped, but pressure was too high. Then went to King Springs and the rear was too low (around 5 Mpa) and it was bouncy. Added some more weight to the rear and it felt better. Put in a full Slee skid plate set and pressure was good in back, but ran out of adjustment for AHC torsion bars and went to stock LC bars to get the take to where it should be. Added back the spacers to get a little more lift in back and now it seems balanced. Still love having the ability to adjust ride height for ranch roads and then drop it back to normal for highways miles.
AHC Is great if your have the patience to figure it out and how to adapt it for a more built truck.
AHC Is great if your have the patience to figure it out and how to adapt it for a more built truck.
Spacers or King springs are the only two good options. LC coils are entirely too stiff as they are designed to suspend the entire weight of the vehicle, rather than work with the Hydraulic rams. For your use, either would work fine.
Thanks for the help with this. I have looked into spacers and the airlift 1000 airbag (for when I tow). It seems that the spacers sit on top of the existing springs and so I am wondering how one routes the inflation hose for the airbags as they exit the top of the airbag and are usually routed out the top of the spring. Should one just turn the airbag upside down and route inflation hose out the bottom of the spring? Is that possible?
I ran mine upside down in my 80 series, but it did require a minor modification to the spring perch--I haven't run airbags in any of my 100s so far, so I can't say for sure. I have King springs in my LX and I am able to tow just fine and not use airbags. The king springs and AHC are a great(and simple) combination, but I do find that unloaded, the rear end sits a little higher than I'd prefer. By far beats the alternatives though.
The spacers are hollow rings. No need to change your airbag plumbing.
Oh! You are right…not sure what I was thinking or looking at before 
J Jamm. My truck is stock with third-row seats in place. These readings were taken with 3/4 of a tank of fuel rather than my full tank readings. So fully loaded I expect that the rear pressure will go up a bit.
Installed Dobinsons spacers but for some strange reason, the ID was about .150 smaller than the OD of the spring tower so I could not push them on to seat them by hand. Spring load could have done it but after trying boiling water and my heat gun to expand them-- I just turn down the ID on my lathe.
Pressure readings today--6.6 MPa front and 6.3 MPa rear- down from the 7-7.2 MPa before the spacers. With a full tank- the rear may go up to 6.4-6.5 MPa.
Front heights are 19.50". The rears are 20.5" L and 20.75" R- up about .500" from before the spacers. Again- a full tank may make a slight difference.
Height control sensors=== FR -0.2, FL -0.0, RR -0.3 but a few other cycles it read -0.1, 0.1, -0.1 so the average heights look pretty close.
Rear pressure is the same with the temp sensor connected or not connected.
trdcorolla
SILVER Star
Are you running aftermarket bumpers or a AHC lift? I have the same springs with a aftermarket rear bumper and AHC stock height and I'm at 5.4
Stock bumper, but Trekboxx fully loaded and pioneer platform/rtt. Will be adding sliders soon.
Any advantage to longer springs with a higher rate (ie 100 non-AHC springs) vs just adding 30mm spacer to the kings?
trdcorolla
SILVER Star
Your running heavy, LX450 coils might be a good next step but since those are probably hard to find a regular used non AHC coils might be the ticket. If I remember older threads about the King springs the 30mm spacers will barely get you to mid 6.x before your sliders. Are you at stock height? 19.75 front center hub to fender and 20.5 rear hub to fender?
GTV
SILVER Star
I've been asking myself the same question.
In addition to drawers and a heavy bike/rack, I've gained 250lbs to my roof over the last month. The tail now wags a bit under cornering and turning to sport doesn't do anything to mitigate it. It feels exactly like what it does when the coils are too light. I was previously thinking I could spacer it more (currently 35mm) but a spacer is only going to accommodate for static pressures. Spacers are fine to a point but a heavier spring is eventually going to be needed to control weight dynamically. I'm beyond that point.
I've traveled the journey from fresh new AHC LC100 springs > 20mm spacers > 30mm spacers > Kings.
With Kings and almost no additional weight the truck rides just fine with a little noticeable firmness in the rear. I say no additional weight because I have a slider system installed (I don't have a need for actual drawers) but also have taken out the 3rd row seats so I'm guessing that is net neutral. My objective was to be right in the sweet spot when the truck is fully loaded and with RTT, paddleboards, hitch rack with 2 bikes, and all the gear my rear is right at 7.2mpa and fronts at 6.5mpa with accumulator at 10.4mpa.
Unloaded the truck rides better IMO with the Kings to match my spirited driving around town. The rear is more compliant at the normal and soft setting. I rarely ever went above normal setting with stock springs/spacers unless firm handling was required (think switchbacks, etc.). Now I don't find myself going into a firmer setting at all, but I don't think that as a loss of functionality. The Kings are just taking care of any additional sway in the body roll on their own (and AHC).
But it's worth mentioning again what @suprarx7nut said, some folks are seeing pogo stick with Kings and their AHC. No common denominator identified as of yet but I'm not getting that behavior at all.
With Kings and almost no additional weight the truck rides just fine with a little noticeable firmness in the rear. I say no additional weight because I have a slider system installed (I don't have a need for actual drawers) but also have taken out the 3rd row seats so I'm guessing that is net neutral. My objective was to be right in the sweet spot when the truck is fully loaded and with RTT, paddleboards, hitch rack with 2 bikes, and all the gear my rear is right at 7.2mpa and fronts at 6.5mpa with accumulator at 10.4mpa.
Unloaded the truck rides better IMO with the Kings to match my spirited driving around town. The rear is more compliant at the normal and soft setting. I rarely ever went above normal setting with stock springs/spacers unless firm handling was required (think switchbacks, etc.). Now I don't find myself going into a firmer setting at all, but I don't think that as a loss of functionality. The Kings are just taking care of any additional sway in the body roll on their own (and AHC).
But it's worth mentioning again what @suprarx7nut said, some folks are seeing pogo stick with Kings and their AHC. No common denominator identified as of yet but I'm not getting that behavior at all.
Yes, agreed. You can up the preload with the spacers, but if you want a more dynamic/firm response the higher spring rate off that precise neutral point is what you need to chase. AHC keeps the neutral height spring rate in a pretty narrow range (assuming you're in spec) - but only at that one exact static height point. The spring rate is then largely determined by the mechanical spring as the suspension moves up and down. I haven't played with the non-AHC springs, but my assumption is that the spacer approach is more comfy, but with some roll and float. And then the stiffer mechanical approach should yield a firmer and more stout dynamic feel at the expense of limited comfort. That said, I imagine a heavy 100 with AHC on stiff springs is still quite a bit more comfortable than your typical conventional suspension setup so it's all relative.
It takes a lot of weight in armor or in cargo area to reach that point, but I think having a lot of weight up top adds a multiplier to the situation. That 250 lbs on the roof probable feels like 1000 lbs to the springs in a corner.
The common denominator on a few pogo stick cases that I have read on this forum is non OEM globes.
TreatSmash
SILVER Star
Do you have a reference for this by chance? Concerning the life of the "shocks?"
uHu
Bridgeburner
"Group experience", on this forum and elsewhere.
There are seals in the shocks, so they should wear out sooner or later. But it looks like later rather than sooner.
Even if they start sweating they still work as new, as the damping function is in the valves in the actuator. The only wear item is the globe/accumulator/sphere/gas spring, and an occasional change of fluid.
My shocks rust to pieces (together with the rest of the truck), but they still work perfectly.
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