I am sure this topic has been thrashed, but I could not find answers to my situation. I am considering upgrade of shocks to King, Fox, Emu, and am looking for recommendations as to brand. Almost all of my driving is one good roads but I would like to alleviate some of the “floaty” feeling without sacrificing too much ride comfort. I am leaning toward King remote reservoir all around. Is this overkill? Will they improve steering response? Are the brands pretty much a matter of personal choice?
Suspension upgrade
- Thread starter Pdx13
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I just did a 2" Iron Man lift and I really like it. Rides good and no more nosediving if I have to brake hard. You staying stock height and just doing shocks?
TLC2013
SILVER Star
I am very happy with my tough dog lift (adjustable 45mm shocks). Have around 500 miles on them. Excellent on road and off road. Eliminates the nose dive and body roll that is present with the factory suspension.The adjustments allow you to tune the firmess of each shock. Adds approx. 2" to the front and 1" in the back. At the same time I also added upper control arms to ensure my alignment caster would be within spec and above 3 degrees of caster. Makes a big improvement in steering feel.
If you are running stock tire size and wheels the 285/60r18 tires will look on the small size with a lift.
If you are running stock tire size and wheels the 285/60r18 tires will look on the small size with a lift.
- Thread starter
- #5
Thanks. This is helpful. Is it necessary to replace control arms if changing to a system othe than OME?
TLC2013
SILVER Star
From all my research the consensus seems to be that if the lift is under 2" you may be fine with the factory UCA. If you go this route find a good speciality alignment shop that is familiar with lifted trucks and can fine tune the alignment to increase caster. Ideally they would get the caster in the 3 degree range but that may not be possible with the factory UCA. Mid 2s may be possible but each truck seems to react a little differently.
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- #7
So, changing out shocks will necessitate an alignment change? Sorry for my ignorance.
It depends if you are lifting the truck or not. If you are, you should have it aligned. But even if the intent is not to lift, it is hard to see any coilover being exactly the same as what you are taking off, so I would have it aligned regardless.
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- #9
Thanks. I intend to keep the lift minimal. Looking for overall better handling.
Consider the Bilstein 6112/5160 combo, set at no/minimal lift the ride should be tight and controlled, no nose diving or swaying, etc... These were JUST released not long ago. Cost wise, in the middle between standard OME and King/Fox/ICON. And you can, but won't have to rebuild these as frequently as the "race" type shocks that need a rebuild every few years.
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- #11
Thanks very much. Those might be a smarter alternative for my purposes. I don’t mind spending the money for top end, but I don’t want to waste money on overkill just to say I have them.
One more option you might look at. My new Heritage rides considerably less floaty than my stock 2010 LC.
Sounds like the springs are different after reading the boards here. Clearly the HE is about and inch higher (7/8). Eric was looking into technical details. Might want to ping him. You could change out OEM for OEM HE if you can get the details of what the differences happen to be.
I always thought the rear end on HE higher because of no 3rd row to weigh down the back. I thought springs and shocks are all the same, at least with 2016+ LCs.
Just like Scott in SC, I just installed an Ironman 2” Nitro shock lift kit (The Green spring, not the Orange constant load setup) and absolutely love it. My 2009 doesn’t have Steel/aluminum rear or front bumpers YET. No rear drawer systems YET. The “KDSS lean” to the right that the 2” lift magnified was fixed by installing a 10mm coil spacer on the rear passenger side coil spring. Very happy with the product choice for what I use our Land Cruiser for right now. Didn’t want to go overkill YET.
I also installed Tough dog adjustables front and rear with SPC adjustable upper control arms. I am very happy with the way it rides. Just as soft as factory with no nose dive under braking. Does great off road. In my opinion King's and BP51 are kind of overkill for a vehicle that will only be doing occasional weekend offroading. I am not racing over sand dunes or on off road terrain where I will overheat a shock from working it too much.
Coil overs dont really improve steering that much (I did notice a difference changing my rear shocks). I used stock spring to keep the comfort. That's the one thing that will ruin comfort changing spring. Coilovers do make the car feel NEW all the time, as opposed to standard springs and shocks. I strongly recommend it for this reason and rear shocks. I do recommend remote reservoirs so you can dial in your comfort level but thats generally done once and you forget about it.
I would recommend calling Ben at Filthy Motorsports. He can ask the right questions and help you dial in what your looking for. He also will be honest with what you do and don't need. I went through him when I got a full set of King's 2.5 with 1.5-2 inch total lift and didn't need new UCA's just an alignment to bring everything back into spec.
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- #20
Thanks very much for the advice. I ended up going with Downsouth and ordered Fox 2.5” remote reservoir coilovers. Will probably do max 1” lift. I have 17” wheels ordered and plan to install 285/70/17 wheels and tires. I think that will give me the look I am looking for.