Coilover Adjustments

[ToyotaNewbie97]

Hi All,

Just installed the strickly street coilovers over the weekend. The install was quite easy and fairly straight foward. However, I wanted to get yalls input on the compression and rebound adjustments as I've tried many and all ride quite rough. I installed the viking 2 way adjustable coilovers up front and installed the djm 2" lowering block with viking 2 way adjustable shocks in the rear. Other parts installed are the urd traction bar, urd front and rear sways. Can height be a factor as to why my truck jumps up and down like a lowrider or a Nascar on a different setting lol?

Let me know your inputs.
Thanks

 

[sshadow69]

The correct answer... is this depends vary much on the individual. We all use our trucks different and like different things. I have been currently running C3 R8 for the front and C2 R7 for the rear and use my truck as a daily driver. I am using a Eibach Spring 2.50 inch I.D 1200.250.05505 on the front which is a 550 spring rate with my Viking 2 way adjustable Coilovers. I am currently running the factory X-Runner rear leaf springs with a 2 inch block also and the Viking 2 way adjustable rear shocks. Per Viking's instructions, rebound should be set 2 to 6 clicks higher than compression. In simple terms... the main job of a shock is to control the bounce of the spring and a spring is to carry the load. If you are telling me that the truck is very bouncy... my guess would be that the shocks are set too soft and need more compression unless the spring rate is too high for what you are wanting. If you are telling me that the truck is to rough/stiff than the compression is too high or the spring rate is too high. Bounciness can also come from the suspension sitting on a bump stops. Check to see what kinda clearance you have on your front and rear bump stops when the truck is sitting on the ground. You can check out my set up at https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/i-want-a-truck-that-toyota-never-made.690223/page-9 . I would say... try my setting as a baseline and drive around for a few days. If you don't like it... make a small adjustment only to the front or rear but write these adjustments down with notes... why you made the adjustment and this will help you dial in your suspension to your liking. I have made hundreds of adjustments trying to figure out what I like and every 6 months or so I may make a slight adjustment because my taste change. Hope this helps

 

[ToyotaNewbie97]

The correct answer... is this depends vary much on the individual. We all use our trucks different and like different things. I have been currently running C3 R8 for the front and C2 R7 for the rear and use my truck as a daily driver. I am using a Eibach Spring 2.50 inch I.D 1200.250.05505 on the front which is a 550 spring rate with my Viking 2 way adjustable Coilovers. I am currently running the factory X-Runner rear leaf springs with a 2 inch block also and the Viking 2 way adjustable rear shocks. Per Viking's instructions, rebound should be set 2 to 6 clicks higher than compression. In simple terms... the main job of a shock is to control the bounce of the spring and a spring is to carry the load. If you are telling me that the truck is very bouncy... my guess would be that the shocks are set too soft and need more compression unless the spring rate is too high for what you are wanting. If you are telling me that the truck is to rough/stiff than the compression is too high or the spring rate is too high. Bounciness can also come from the suspension sitting on a bump stops. Check to see what kinda clearance you have on your front and rear bump stops when the truck is sitting on the ground. You can check out my set up at https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/i-want-a-truck-that-toyota-never-made.690223/page-9 . I would say... try my setting as a baseline and drive around for a few days. If you don't like it... make a small adjustment only to the front or rear but write these adjustments down with notes... why you made the adjustment and this will help you dial in your suspension to your liking. I have made hundreds of adjustments trying to figure out what I like and every 6 months or so I may make a slight adjustment because my taste change. Hope this helps

Thanks @sshadow69.

Just want to give some background info to this story so maybe it can help me dial in this suspension.
Before suspension modification, heights were:
FDriver: 29 1/2"
FPassenger: 30"
RD: 31 1/4"
RP: 30 5/8"

Pops and installed the 2inch steel drop block by DJM with the Vikings 2 way shock for the rear. Upfront went in the Strictly Street Viking coil overs with 2.55 ID 10 height 650lb springs. Now I don't know if orientation of the coil over shock will play to the jolting ride. I have the shock installed with the C & R knobs at the bottom. Reason to stating that is due to the fact that when i lowered the coil height to drop 1.5", it felt as the coil inside had no preload and I can move the coil by hand while being installed in the truck. I drove the truck with the new heights of:
FDriver: 27 1/2:
FPassenger: 27 5/8"
RD: 29 3/8"
RP: 28 3/4"

The setup to these were 7C and 9R all around. The drive was not so great due the bouncy-ness and much noise from the suspension due to much stress im sure. I played with different settings and finally said to increase ride height in hopes to have more load into the spring.

Current heights are:
FDriver: 28 1/4:
FPassenger: 28 5/8"
RD: 31 1/4"
RP: 30 5/8"
Settings are currently 8C and 10R for the front and 7C and 10R for the rear. This is still creating a bouncy ride. A possible issue is that I dont know the difference of feeling too stiff vs too soft. I use the truck for daily driving with some spirited driving 1-2x a week.

Let me know yalls suggestions based on the info above.

 

[sshadow69]

Please understand that I am no expert. I have done lots of research and lots of personal experience... so I am giving you my personal opinion. I was told to mount the coilovers with knobs at the top. I think it is much easier to adjust them. I just start to jack up the front a little bit where there is space between the fender and the tire and the knobs are right there to adjust. I don't think this has anything to do with the ride quality but the knobs are easier to get to and I think someone said there is a clearance issue with the knobs at the bottom by the lower control arm and sway bar.

 

[sshadow69]

Also keep in mind that you are running a 650 spring rate and I am running a 550 spring rate. The 550 spring rate is closer to the factory spring rate and my truck will ride softer but not handle as great as yours because of that higher spring rate. Give and take... because I use my truck so much for a daily driver... I wanted the softer ride. I have a Subaru STI for the the weekend fun. Please keep in mind that you are probably going to have higher settings to smooth out those higher spring rate springs. I would try C8 R13 in the front and C7 R12 in the rear since your springs are stiffer than mine. Please keep in mind that the back of the truck is normally lighter than the front of the truck... so the setting should probably be lower. I would also recommend more clicks between the Compression and Rebound... like 4 or 5 clicks more on the Rebound side. I personally think this helps smoothen out the roughness with the rebound happening faster. If I wanted better handling and a rougher ride.. I would have these numbers closer. I personally, spent a lot of time adjusting the coilovers so that both sides of the truck were level... the same height from the ground to the frame of the truck. I personal use the frame as my reference point for adjusting the coilovers. I would use a white wax pen and make a mark on the frame in a few places and always measure at these points. I used 3 points per side each across from each other. I would adjust the coilover and then drive the truck around the block to relax the suspension. I would then measure again at these points on the frame and make a written note of this and then make some adjustments to the coilovers accordingly. Yes, I would look at the gap between the top of the tire and the fender but not use this as a main point to make my adjustments because there is too much play in the adjustments of how a fender hangs on the body of the truck and the play on the fender flare.

 

[sshadow69]

Please also keep in mind that with my research, people seemed to be having trouble getting the front-end aligned correctly when lowering their truck. This is the main reason that I used the DJM front lowering setup... upper and lower control arms. This dropped my truck 3 inches in the front and I used my coilovers to raise the front-end around an inch... so I am about 1.75 to 2.00 inches lower in the front end. I think those upper control arms really helped with the camber adjustment. I personally had some weird stuff go on with my alignment but that is a long story. All I am going to say about that is the shop you pick for your alignment and the person's knowledge of alignments really plays a big difference in the results.

 

[sshadow69]

I am using the Viking C210 Coilover shock setup. These shocks are double adjustable as you know, which means it has a compression adjustment knob and a rebound adjustment knob. Each knob has 19 positions of adjustment, providing for a total of 361 valving combinations. This is why I am telling you that you need to take small steps and write down notes on each adjustment (so many different options to choice from) and drive around awhile with one setting so the suspension can relax and you can really get an understanding of your current adjustment. Me personally, I would make an adjustment and drive to work and back home. This is a route that is the same and I know very well and is around 70 miles around trip. This gives the suspension plenty of time to relax and I can have plenty of enough time with this adjustment to have a better idea of how I want to make my next adjustment. I don't think you can get this from a short drive. Be patient and you will find your numbers.

 

[sshadow69]

I am just throwing this out there... I just got finished trying the 4x4 leaf spring swap on the rear of the truck and I am not a fan. The ones that I used were from a 2017 Tacoma TRD 4x4 with the 4 leaf spring pack. The leaf springs are higher in spring rate and are very flat and don't bow as much as the factory X-Runner leaf springs. In my experience the leaf springs lowered the truck 1 1/8 inch by themselves and I used a one in block to get to my 2 inch-ish drop. I had these on for about 2 months. I keep adjusting my rear Viking 2 ways adjustable shocks to control these higher spring leaf springs... so my numbers were much higher that the factory leaf spring settings (for my liking). I think I finally got to a good number and was happy with the 4x4 leaf springs about 70% of the time but would get this weird "donkey" kick from the rear-end that I could not explain or adjust out without making the truck ride real stiff in the rear. I believe it had to do with the 4x4 leaf springs being so flat and not having much bow in them for travel. Either way... I like the leaf springs with a lowered spring rate for me for a daily driver. My real point for bring this up... is that everybody is different and we all use our trucks different and expect different ride qualities out of our trucks. I love performance and handling but I put ride quality a step ahead, since I have to drive so much.

 

[ToyotaNewbie97]

@sshadow69, Thank you very much for your help and knowledge throughout this journey of suspension tuning.
Update: I tried the front 3C and 8R with rear 2C and 7R this morning and it was smoother. Small noticeable hops and feels like the power is not put down to the ground.

Then coming back from work I set the front to 8C and 13R with rear of 7C and 12R. This setup was more bumpy/hoppy/stiff but am a real fan of how the truck turns when i have a complete flat road/curve. However, on the curve i feel that the truck hops when doing a hard curve.

What move to you recommend next? Im thinking of just leaving the front and bumping up rear compression and see what that does.

I forgot to mention that I also have 4 pack leafs from a 2020 3rd gen 4x4. Also can be playin a part on the rear stiffness/bounce?

Im also posting on Tacoma world to get some insight. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/5lug-coilovers.541417/page-10

 

[sshadow69]

Remember, I am no expert. I just giving you my opinion from what has worked for me and things that I have learned over time. If you are telling me that you are getting a "hop" ... in my mind I think of a bump on the road that pushes up the spring to fast... if this is correct and you don't like this feel... you should increase the compression... this makes it harder for the spring to move so fast in an upper motion. I would recommend writing this down and making the adjustment of plus 2 on compression and plus 2 on the rebound on the rear since you are noticing the issue there. Drive around for a little while and see if this helped a little or a lot. If it helped but didn't solve the problem... try adding 2 more to the compression and 2 more to the rebound. From what I have been told... the shock is there to tame the spring. It is a very good idea to reach out to a lot of people to help solve this issue but take all advice (even mine) with a grain of salt. This is your truck and you want it dialed in the way you want. I am just reminding you of what I said earlier before I knew that you had on 4x4 leaf springs... I personally tried these and liked them about 70% of the time and I got a weird kick like thing from them ... that I called a "donkey" kick and I couldn't tame this with our Viking 2 way adjustable shocks without making my ride to rough for my liking... so I switched back. Please don't do this right away. Please keep trying everything that you can to over come what you are calling a "hop" first. I went back and looked at the previous message... so you have the 4x4 leaf springs and a 2 inch block... so you are roughly 3 1/8 inches lower than stock in the rear. 2 inches from the blocks and about 1 1/8 from the 4x4 leaf springs. Did you do a notch on the rear frame? Maybe you are bottoming out on the rear bump stop? I had factory X-Runner leaf springs and a 2 inch block.... so I was 2 inches lower than stock and I would bottom out all the time ( a hand full of times on my daily route to work). I notched my frame to avoid this. Depending on the size and material of the rear bump stop.. some of your problem could come from this?? If you notch your frame... please weld it. I have heard too many people cracking their frame from a notch kit and only bolting it. I used the DJM notch kit and got mine welded.

 

[ToyotaNewbie97]

@sshadow69
Update:
I dropped the rear settings to 2C and 4R. This made the ride smoother with less bounce. Then I finally decided to set the rears completely to 0C 0R and it is noticeably smooth. Still bounce and but not super rough. I can drive the truck now. Is this OK for the rear shocks to be at 0C 0R?

Also my truck did not drop from the 4x4 leafs. Therefore, I believe what's making the rear stiff is the 4x4 leafs.

 

[sshadow69]

I am not sure. I have never set my shocks to 0C 0R. I don't know if that is good or bad with the internal valves. Per the instruction manual with these socks it says "For good handling and excellent ride quality, the rebound should be set roughly 2 to 6 clicks higher than the compression". So I would guess if you are liking the 0 Compression then you should set the rebound to at least 2.

To my understanding, if you have bounce than the leaf spring doesn't have that much resistance... like a bad or blown shock. I would figure a 0 compression is like this (low resistance). Dialing up the compression on the shock helps to steal this energy from the spring eliminating the bounce. I have noticed that with a larger spread ... like 4... 5... or 6 clicks higher on the rebound helps to smoothen out the ride.

 

[sshadow69]

I have never heard of the 4x4 leaf spring swap with no blocks not lowering the back of the truck. Everywhere that I looked.... it said that it lowered it about inch... give or take. I am a little shocked that this didn't happened when you did the swap. Can I ask a silly question... did you do the center pin swap with the 4x4 leaf springs? Since on the 4x4 truck with the 4x4 springs the rear axle is below the leaf spring (raising the truck) but on our trucks the axle will be above the leaf springs (lowering the truck). You should have the smallest leaf spring on the bottom ... closest to the ground.

 

[ToyotaNewbie97]

@sshadow69
Yeah, it was test to see if it would drop the rear and hopefully get a drop like the non x 5 lugs. Unfortunately, it didn't drop my truck rear. Therefore, I believe thats why the rear of my truck is stiff and bounces more with the 2" djm blocks. I did not do the center pin swap or believe so since I just bought some used 4x4 leafs and swapped them in. I attached some pics. I also have some 450 springs coming in this week so I can install them to see if its really the coils or the 4x4 springs.
Lastly I left the setting to 8C 13R in the front and 0C 2R in the rear. Dont like the fact that once I take a hard turn or round about, the truck starts to bounce. Mainly from the rear i believe.

 

[sshadow69]

Thank you for the picture. It helps. From that picture, it looks like the 4x4 leaf spring is on correctly. I am still fascinated in the fact that they didn't lower the truck any but it is what it is. I saw in another thread where you installed them and posted pics of it no changing the height of the rear of the truck. Seems like everything is lined up correctly... maybe the previous owner swapped the center pin. I feel pretty strongly that the bounce is coming from the rear of the truck and from the 4x4 leaf springs. These Tacoma's have very little weight in the rear of the truck from these composite beds. Lets try something, set the rear shocks to C7 and R10... this is a setting that I was pretty happy with on my truck when I had the 4x4 leaf springs on but put like 200 to 300 hundred pounds of something in you back bed... yes it will lower the truck a bit but it will put a stronger load on the higher spring rate leaf springs (more resistance) ... preferable something that is not going to slide around... maybe strap it down in the center of the truck bed. Now go test drive the truck and see if you have as bad of a bounce. My guess is that it should claim it down but not fully get rid of it... but the ride should be a bit smoother.

 

[sshadow69]

The first thing that I would personally do, is to try putting back on the factory X-Runner leaf springs and not changing the front coilovers at all and see how you like the ride quality with that change. This is just my opinion, I am not sure if the new 450 spring rate springs are a good idea for the front coil overs... that is a huge jump from 650 to 450 springs. I don't think it would be such a bad idea for a 4 cylinder but with the weight of a V6. I think it would be too soft. Personally, if you did change out the front springs... I would step down to a 550 spring rate before doing a 450s.