Copied from TTORA:

I posted a while ago about my bouncy rear end and never really got around to doing anything about it. I finally decided to do something about it today and heres what happened:

I got under my truck to take my shocks out and found that one shocks (drivers side) no longer had a bushing in it at the bottom so it was sitting loose around the mounting bolt on the axle. That in itself isn't good, but the shock was also not in tension OR compression, it was just hangin there. I took the shock off and it kept its length, i could push it in or pull it out fairly easily and it'd stay how i left it. The passenger side one behaves the same way. I also found, after turning them upside down, that there is some fluid around where the inner "shaft" slides in and out of the shock. To me this means they are both blown, but my questions are:

(1) My shocks are mounted triangular ( /\ ) (see pic in previous post for angles) with what looks like about a 30* angle off the vertical. If I were to replace these shocks, should I replace them how they were or should I try to put them back to stock?

(2) I'd need to flip my u-bolts back to stock in order to use the stock mounting locations...so thats a tradeoff. Is it worth it?

(3) The shocks I had were Rancho RS5012. What is a good shock to replace it with? Should I go stiffer or softer if I want the axle to stop dancing around? How good are adjustable shocks? I was considering the Rancho RS9000XL and also the Bilstein 5150 (model -12, longest one) remote resi

(4) The Rancho RS5012 has a compressed eye-eye length of 19" and extended length of 32.5". That length works perfectly fine for my triangular setup but is that too long to be put back to stock on my 2000 Tacoma?

Thanks and hopefully I provided enough info.

By the way, I'm driving around with NO shocks right now and my truck acts EXACTLY the same way as it has for the almost 2 years I've owned it, thats a big tell to me that my shocks weren't doing anything.

 

Did you do anything with this? You might be able to get away with the 12" straight up and down, but you would have to change the mounting points.

Those guys in the other post are saying you need a stiffer shock. maybe you will want to keep the same setup and go w/ 255/70

Info on shocks: http://www.4x4review.com/feature/shock-genius.asp

Here is the link with the bilsteins valving:http://www.bilstein.com/ValvingQuickReferenceChart.pdf

Angled option: http://www.offroadsolutions.com/prod...nsion_packages

Another great read about shock sizing: http://www.bajataco.com/travel-measurement.html


Bilistein size chart: http://www.allprooffroad.com/index.p...&task=view&id=

 

i ended up going with the 12" 5125s with the stiffer valving. what a difference it makes! i thought my rear end dancing around and vibrating was normal for a truck but its definitely not after driving around for a couple days with the new ones. when i took some measurements i found out that my 14" shocks were possibly too long and acting as my bumpstops, so i went a little shorter. there is a HUGE difference. they are still mounted /\ and working just fine

 

Ya, I have the 5150's on now and they are the 10" w/ 170 valving and they feel great. Only thing is they are too long of shock bodies and I either need to move the shock points or get smaller shocks or add bump stops. I had the 5125's 255's before w/ 8" travel and they were bumpy as hell.

 

can either of you help.. 95.5 taco 4inch lift looking at getting 5150s but need help with travel 12" or 10"

 

10 w/ bump stops probably. Check this way to measure and compare travel : http://www.bajataco.com/travel-measurement.html
and then click the bilstein links above for shock size charts and valving

You might want to spring the extra 160 and go with 7100' short body but it might cost ya some trickery on one of the shock ends.

ors relocation kit: http://www.offroadsolutions.com/prod...nsion_upgrades
(but built has one too)

 

got the same problem, I am working out the details on fixing the shock length with moving them. I will post up whenever I get it done.