So I have had my suspension for about a year now and I can report back on the kit now that the honeymoon is over. Mine was the progressive coil 50 mm kit with adjustable dampers, castor correction and steering damper.
On road - The steering is vaguer, could be the tires...could be the bushing alignment, whatever it is its a lot more work to keep strait on the freeway. The fronts feel great and haven't sagged at all but the rears have sagged about an inch (from 38.5 floor to well, to 37.5) and it appears and feels as though the progressive coils are either entirely or mostly out of play in coil bind.
I also took a few chucks of paint off. they look like they have sagged more than an inch from fresh install, but now the truck is 100% level.
Off Road - The progressive springs aren't great off road. On the white rim it wasn't bad because the trail was mild and the truck was loaded but empty or on a rougher trail like elephant hill and the rebound control is way out of whack with the compression. If my time as a bicycle mechanic taught me anything about suspension its that if you had to choose only one suspension trait to be adjustable it should be the rebound and these shocks only close the valve equally for both compression and rebound. If you could fix the compression rate and adjust just the rebound, these would be great but right now you have to choose between a harsh initial hit and controlled head motions or a properly damped hit and a little more bob. Annoying.
I'm also annoyed at the fact that the rear springs are basically just acting as a spacer and that the progressive coils don't seem to be doing much. The fronts look much better and, honestly, I wonder if they are even progressive at all, they sure don't look it.
The shocks are holding up great, but the stickers were toast immediately, and as you can see in the above picture, the rod stone guard is rubbing away the paint on the body a little. I was worried about the durability of the control knob for the adjustments, but they still click nicely and haven't been ripped off.
Someone said once that they loved TJM shocks but their springs weren't very good...i might be inclined to agree. The rumor is that foam cell shocks break down with big heat...so far i either haven't got them hot enough, long enough...or it isn't an issue as they are working well. I might be getting some OME medium linears for the rear and ditch these after less than a year (but 15,000 miles)
Overall I would not recommend the progressive kit as they are totally linear after only a short time and the only added weight on the truck is sliders. Shame.
On road - The steering is vaguer, could be the tires...could be the bushing alignment, whatever it is its a lot more work to keep strait on the freeway. The fronts feel great and haven't sagged at all but the rears have sagged about an inch (from 38.5 floor to well, to 37.5) and it appears and feels as though the progressive coils are either entirely or mostly out of play in coil bind.
I also took a few chucks of paint off. they look like they have sagged more than an inch from fresh install, but now the truck is 100% level.
Off Road - The progressive springs aren't great off road. On the white rim it wasn't bad because the trail was mild and the truck was loaded but empty or on a rougher trail like elephant hill and the rebound control is way out of whack with the compression. If my time as a bicycle mechanic taught me anything about suspension its that if you had to choose only one suspension trait to be adjustable it should be the rebound and these shocks only close the valve equally for both compression and rebound. If you could fix the compression rate and adjust just the rebound, these would be great but right now you have to choose between a harsh initial hit and controlled head motions or a properly damped hit and a little more bob. Annoying.
I'm also annoyed at the fact that the rear springs are basically just acting as a spacer and that the progressive coils don't seem to be doing much. The fronts look much better and, honestly, I wonder if they are even progressive at all, they sure don't look it.
The shocks are holding up great, but the stickers were toast immediately, and as you can see in the above picture, the rod stone guard is rubbing away the paint on the body a little. I was worried about the durability of the control knob for the adjustments, but they still click nicely and haven't been ripped off.
Someone said once that they loved TJM shocks but their springs weren't very good...i might be inclined to agree. The rumor is that foam cell shocks break down with big heat...so far i either haven't got them hot enough, long enough...or it isn't an issue as they are working well. I might be getting some OME medium linears for the rear and ditch these after less than a year (but 15,000 miles)
Overall I would not recommend the progressive kit as they are totally linear after only a short time and the only added weight on the truck is sliders. Shame.
