HUGE suspension mistake! (16.3% heavier springs on your Tacoma)

So, you're gonna add heavier springs to your off-road toyota tacoma, 4runner, gx, tundra, etc... Why can't you just swap them over? This is one of the biggest mistakes i see with overland suspension setups regardless of how good the shocks you're running are. I find alot of folks "upgrade" their spring rate instead of just rebuilding their shocks, although heavier rate springs do have their place! For 80-140 lbs addtional front end weight 650s work great and anything 150+ will require 700s. With IFS these numbers are not actually your spring rate at the wheel, which will be much lower than at the coilover. This is actually an advantage, it helps with quick changes of direction, reduces the impact of seal stiction, and requires less piston bleed since you can increase the spring rate at the damper.
Next video will be a deep dive into shock valving, it'll be super boring and technical so make sure you stay at the edge of your seats for that.
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Thanks for following along

[@richardbarrington4314]

Stoked to hear you say that all so clearly. Your comment about compression and rebound adjustments for a heavier spring helped validate my experience and stopped me questioning whether I really do need a softer spring for my ute.

[@1Larriva]

This video is awesome, it needs 500k views. Nobody else talks about the real stuff!

[@jasonlopez9260]

I’m a disabled vet and can say suspension is everything for my back as well!

[@4xhoser]

Good on ya Ian 🤘 the way you back up theory with actual testing and experience is awesome 👌🇨🇦

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

Thanks! I feel very fortunate to be able to test 20 different full sets of shocks completely blind on the same truck and the same trails... it's given me a unique perspective, and honestly gives me more questions than answers.

[@treehouseoffroad]

Definitely some wizardry behind shock tuning, the people who know what's going on generally don't share information with us civilians. Great video!

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

It's actually not as complicated as lot of companies want people to think. We're all just playing with different size washers that cover holes, and although there is no good math formula for it and the computer models often need 3 or 4 revalves before making it to production, it's stuff anyone can do with a day or 2 of training.

[@treehouseoffroad]

@@WheelEveryWeekend Would you recommend a linear or digressive shock on a truck intended for daily driving, trails, and slow speed rock crawling?

[@fullmag_tundra]

Great video here talking about springs. I recently went through some spring swaps last year for my setup, and so far it’s been great. I was running a lot of preload which was binding my springs but now I don’t have that issue anymore and I’ve been able to get tons of up travel back lol

[@polaris450fan]

Looking forward to the valving in the next video. 😀

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

Should be good, just gotta figure out how to actually organize my thoughts. I have a list of OEM valve specs from all brands on my website as well if you ever need a baseline.

[@polaris450fan]

Thank you. I have kind of an odd combination. I have a Hilux that has a total front weight of a 3200 lbs with an unsprung weight of about 880lbs on a solid axle with 220lbs/in springs and walker evans shocks witch are meant for a TJ wrangler. So i am eager to learn more about valving the shocks for my combination :)

[@dylanjischke1993]

Subscribed! I have a 17 taco trd off road. Went King 2.5 RR extended travel all around with adjusters, Icon Rxt leafs out of the box didn’t add any more leafs, Accutune ubolt flip kit, Dirt king upper control arms. Rides good obviously, looks great, but overall it’s harsh. I feel basically every road imperfection. Doesn’t matter much what I do with the adjusters. Even on higher speed small whoops more aggressive faster driving where I thought this set up would shine, I’m still over here buckin bronco. This was my “dream” truck so went all in on my suspension, but ride is overall harsh. Very rarely do I feel like all of the money/effort I invested is justified for how I realistically use my truck. After watching some of your content specifically your shock value series, I’m considering downgrading my setup. That comment you made about 2.0s and save money for gas got me thinking. I love getting out on trails and playing when I can, but realistically 90% of the time I’m just going to work. Makes me wish I went with a cheap fox 2.0 kit or bilstein 6112 something budget friendly. Saved my money for other mods. I’m sure valving/tuning is my real issue, but still I’m debating selling my Kings and going with a more budget option that has better daily drive “plushness”, but can handle the occasional off road sends. Have I completely lost my marbles?? 😂

[@CRAWLTV]

I am really learning a lot from your videos!

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

Thanks man!

[@freidrichnietzsche6643]

Installed King 2.5's w/resi adjusters (KING-25001-148) on my Chevy 1500 and they totally transformed the truck. Only regret is not doing it sooner. Dirt King UCA and cam adjusters, shackles and Deaver J1 mini packs out back. Great video & new sub here.🍻

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

King really nails OEM valving profiles, and there customer service is phenomenal... that being said, they charge 6 bucks per valve so just the shims for a revalve on 4 shocks is almost 300 bucks worth of shims alone.

[@freidrichnietzsche6643]

@@WheelEveryWeekend Appreciate the insight. Will hit you up when it comes time to revalve/rebuild them. Currently have 50k on the shocks but they're still hodling up well and I'm not offroad now as much as I was. Still nice to know they're there when I need them :) question for you: I'll be adding a bumper, winch, and extra battery. The kit came with the standard #700lb springs. Any idea what I should upgrade the spring to to get back to height and handle the extra weight? I only run a little preload (about 3/8-1/2" threads showing) as I don't want much lift and also like having some down-travel ;) Thank you.

[@phoneuser3569]

Would love to see suspension set ups for 2nd gen Sequoias.

[@niclucca7104]

These videos are way too professional, Ian. Stop making them so good. 😂

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

Don't worry, non-professional videos coming soon

[@rudedogii]

I used the Fox 2.5s on my Chevy Colorado from BDS it's for the BDS 5.5 lift kit. Terrible shock setup. Way too soft for any serious trail when loaded down with camping gear. Next I went with KONI Raids and 700lb. coils. The Konis have adjustable rebound, no gas, internal bumpstops, and require no maintenance. The Konis made a big improvement at half the cost of the Fox 2.5s!

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

That's interesting I've never had any first hand experience with the koni outside of their rep showing me a cutaway of their twin tube design. Being able to adjust rebound is awesome for changing spring rates. Fox makes a phenomenal product, the last 3 custom built trucks i've done have all had fox IBP's or bypasses but the stock valving leaves alot to be desired.

[@jesusmoreno4508]

Patiently waiting for the results on the Fox with the linear piston or more information on valving/tuning

[@DangerRanger89]

I need to get something for my ranger. You can watch my short to see it in action. I have rough country TJ front shocks and I recently went full ham in the back with 14” 2.5 remote reservoir FOA shocks. Valved light-light. The rear is great but the front is too soft. It has a 302/435/205 combo with a 75 bronco front axle with James duff long arms. Running stock Chevy 63 leafs out back and Deaver super flex 180ppi up front. It flexes great but bottoms out on the bumps…Locked front and rear and on 37 pit bull stickies. I’m debating custom shock towers and do some 14/16” comparable shocks up front. I love king and fox but the price point is hard to swallow with my rig…

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

Those rough country TJ shocks are likely valved as light as possible and reach shock fade almost instantly. Honestly, i do shocks and suspension for a living... and i still tell people half the time to search for them on facebook marketplace first. You can find some really good deals as long as you know what compresed length you can fit, and pulling them apart and revalving can be done with about 50 bucks in tools, and i have a few other videos that take you through step by step

[@wtf.1337]

picked up bilstein 8112s up front from you for my gx470 and love them! i’m trying to figure out what to run in the rear now with a steel rear bumper+swingout with a full size spare (~150-200lbs). coming from eibach stage 1, do you think that king 2.5s would pair well with them in the rear and would the eibach HD rear springs? would i be better off running the standard eibach rear spring? or just switching out to a different spring altogether? thank you!🙏

[@sethsmith6956]

King and sway a way use to be the same company in the 90’s. Fox for sure did not copy any design from King rather king copied the design from FOX. I would look into the new tech from Bilstein, they have some crazy patients out there

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

When i was on bilsteins podcast we talked about the new tech they have and the blackhawk stuff. I really wish they would advertise their performance offroad products better and step up into the 4.0+ bypass world (although the 4400 truck they sponsored this year was wicked fast compared to other rigs with much bigger shocks). I think at a certain point everyone is copying everything from someone, the owner of one of the shock companies you mentioned purchased a full set of zone control product line to try to reverse engineer it.

[@monocogenit1]

do you do any work on Nissan trucks? like the 23' Frontier

[@k1tig]

After watching that most recent suspension shootout, is there a valving you'd suggest swapping to during the first rebuild? Tacoma w/sliders + skid on 133"-600lb stock coils, 2.5 DCS's.

[@whrswaldo1]

Really looking forward to seeing you do a valving walk through and how to recognize the issues on low/high speed comp and rebound. My 1st gen taco with bumpers, swingout, winch etc has 650lb springs and king 2.5 oe ext travel but the ride has never felt right. I really wanna understand how to start in the right direction with tuning and adding a flutter to the front. Rear rides nice but the front in roughhhhh at times

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

I'm hoping to shoot some really simple explainers in the desert with different valved shocks hitting trails at the same speeds to show what the changes actually do. Is it the IFP king? I had those on our 1st gen and honestly they are pretty good but they come with i think 550 lb springs stock so you're way up there as far as spring rate iirc. If they have been on the truck a while they are also probably blown, kings seals do not last very long. In the front you're also very limited by the geometry, outside of bushing bind i believe the front only gets 7.4" of travel in stock form, which can be freed up a bit with different control arms and such, as the stock vulcanized rubber bushings are providing a spring rate at a certain amount of twist

[@whrswaldo1]

@WheelEveryWeekend kzbin.info/www/bejne/g2jcqZt8d9Z4j9ksi=b2oEuU43wIFrBzLt This is a video I made a few years ago, you can see in the whoops the lack of speed and how it seems to be lacking both compression and rebound dampening. I believe they are ifp but I'm not super savy. I just bought the "oe extended travel" to go with the spc uca and stock lower with new bushings. Stroke is something like 5" at about halfway mark on the lca so roughly 7.5" wheel travel. The front is normally a 600lb I believe and I went 650 for the v6/steel bumper/skids/winch set up. Rear is 2.5 smooth body with rr and comp adj. These were setup by filthy motorsports and rides much better than the front. Front feels good as long as it droops before compression, ie pot holes and washboard are rough but a water bar that gets the front off the ground has a soft landing. Slow speed feels stiff as the little bumps feel better after about 30mph but road driving it doesnt roll much which is nice and the high speed feels soft as the shocks will compress and make the vehicle feel unstable on harder hits. But they have about 6 years and roughly 40k miles on them with 1 Pismo, 2 rubicon, and at least 20 fire road runs on em. Due for a service for sure, just don't wanna dive into it until I have a better idea of how to do the tuning!

[@whrswaldo1]

The video is pretty bad but 3:18 shows the suspension moving

[@joereyna614]

I’ve seen a lot of vids for fox and kings but what is your overall take on the OME B51s? Great video by the way! Sub’d

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

My friend owns a shop and they had the bp51s on their shop truck and eventually threw out all 4 shocks after multiple parts failures and getting the run around from arb. Beyond that i cannot speak to any specifics however it is a twin tube type IBP similar to foxes product so on an IFS application you're narrowing it down to a 2" piston, the amount of valving you need on a 2.0 piston is very high even without bypass bleed holes in the inner cylinder, the set i drove where not remarkable in any way, to the point where we didn't even include them in our high budget blind shock test. Alot of the OME shocks will be built by bilstein from now on, however that will not result in an increase in build quality as they spec only highly profitable builds.

[@WeekendWarriors87]

I watched the whole series and it was very interesting. Have been debating over which shocks and what setup to get on my f150 for a while, and the challenge is there are so many different opinions (stiffer is better vs softer is better, stiff spring with soft valving vs soft spring with stiff valving, etc), I am afraid that I might spend a fortune only to be unhappy with my choice. For someone who is 80% road but wants mostly small bump and washboard compliance, soft spring AND soft valving? On a fox 2.5 is there still enough room to make it reasonably progressive so I can still hit some larger bumps?

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

So here is the really annoying part about shock tuning as far as washboard or rzr burn goes... there's 2 general valving theories, the first is to make low speed very firm and rely primarily on tire pressure and speed of travel to cover the washboard comfortably while the valving is absorbing the inputs without giving much, the second is lots of bleed and softer initial valving to get shaft speed so the tire can move up and down over every bump. We shot another 2 shock shootouts this year and at this point i have tested 20 sets of shocks completely blind on the same trails and i gotta say... as long as both options are valved well, they both work. The absolute biggest difference you can make either way is tire pressure and speed. Now that i have avoided answering your question, a 2.5 with adjusters may be right up your alley so initial valving can be soft for potholes and expansion joints and stuff however with enough shaft speed you can rely on the high speed comp adjuster to slow down the movements on big hits. The adjusters allow you to pull some valving from the main stack and because the adjusters are only acted on by oil that is displaced by the shaft if you have low total shaft movement inputs (like washboard can be) you can have a very comfortable ride and still hit big stuff.

[@WeekendWarriors87]

@@WheelEveryWeekend Thank you VERY much for the detailed reply. This is exactly what I was looking for. Initially I had considered the 2.0s, but I am thinking I need the 2.5s to be able to handle the soft stuff and the rougher stuff. I definitely get the tire pressure, I air down, but when towing you can only air down so much (and if you are on gravel washboard for an hour, then back to pavement, then back to gravel, like I tend to have, its a pain to air up and down every time, hence my desire for pillowy ride from the shocks for the first inch of travel). Definitely appreciate your input, and sounds like I can get the 2.5s dialed for what I want!

[@eliecerrodriguez8589]

Have you tried the ironman shocks

[@paulthompson661]

As soon as I have the cash I’m buying 8112 from your site! How important is it to get matching rears (8100) smooth body? I have eibach resi now can I run 8112 front and eibach rear??? Or would the 8100 rear be a huge improvement or noticeable? I want to go faster in the dunes

[@JM-ec9wt]

Limit straps? Hydraulic bump stops ?

[@JaquenHauf]

I’d like to hear your opinion on the new Dirt King coilover/shocks

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

They're Elkas, we've blind tested their 2.5s and now their 2.0s and i can't recommend them

[@JaquenHauf]

@@WheelEveryWeekend I have a 2012 Silverado, assuming you’d recommend the King 2.5’s and an upper control arm

[@tp7886]

I’m trying to figure out how to remove the lower stud pin from the coilovers one my F150. Does anyone know how to do that so I can remove the spring from the coilovers and rebuild my shocks?

[@123devinzz1]

whos truck is the white access cab in video?

[@xBigBear420]

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