Pics of Donahoe F/R Suspension

Pics & Review of Donahoe F/R Suspension

Here are a couple pics of my suspension as it is now. Have had the front coils and arms on since July. Just installed the rear 2" coil and shocks about a month ago. I am on a waiting list for the new Donahoe bump stops and will be installing them as soon as I get them. Also am waiting on Demello to finish up my sliders and those will be put on in a couple weeks. Other additions coming soon are the 4" spindles I posted up about, then some 35's (update=35's dont fit, biggest you can get is 285/75 without major modifications) , and hopefully some new rear links soon. All Pro Off road is supposedly working on them right now and will be coming out with something soon. They are already selling ones for the FJ, I hate that those came first! What the F... !? Anyway, that's it for now...

Oh, and a new front bumper and maybe a rear. My friends a fabricator and he has a 05 taco. He is currently working on making his own LT kit which will be x2 so I can have one if and when I can go that route. He's also working on making custom bumpers. I shall keep anyone interested posted on the developments.

Nice set-up!

I'd be interested to hear your review of your new suspension, especially the rear, for both on and off-road performance.

TIA

First off, let me say that I am very glad that I went with the hoe's! I love them and will always be a supporter, but I will say that there is some things that I personally wish that they would have done differently. When initially I only had the front coils and uca's, the ride was beautiful and handled wonderfully on and off road. But I could tell that I needed to do something with the rear and that is what pushed me to get that done (mostly clearance issues). Now that I have both the front and rear setups, I have realized that there is something left to be desired and I know that DR is already working on it. What I am speaking of, is that with the 2" of lift in the rear, I had to crank the front coils down another half inch or so to re-level the truck (eliminate the stink bug appearance). Not a real problem, but the on road ride suffers. With the preload near maxed, it is very stiff but I can live with it. This is when I found out that Donahoe has a internal shim or something that is a limiter in the travel of the shock. They do this as they were insuring that anyone that bought there coils without upgrading to a new set of aftermarket uca's would not have a issue with travel outside of the range and articulation acceptable with the stock uca configuration. It is being discussed recently that you can return your shocks to DR and they will re-valve and remove this internal limiter to allow more travel with aftermarket uca's (not for free though). Which is great and I am glad that I kept my stock coil overs with the spacers, but I am not looking forward to changing them out and not having my hoes for a month or so. They should have offered two different shocks, one for aftermarket and one that was meant to be used with stock arms. And secondly, I wish they offered a bigger rear shock. I am a go fast, go hard off road driver and the rear shocks get very warm and bit splashy after a while. If they just made them a little bigger in diameter or made a reservoir. What I am thinking of doing is just getting the tacoma resies and throwing them on my truck. My brother has them on his '05 taco and is happy with them. Also, I am waiting for there jounce "bump" shocks to come out. I haven't seen them, but supposedly they will be direct bolt on to the frame. I have had the unfortunate bottoming out of my shocks and require this addition.

But again, I love them and would not go any other route. With the few things that I have mentioned and then the addition of the 4" lift spindle, it will be damn near perfect until I decide to go LT. The spindle will allow me to sag out the front coils and regain that pillowy ride that I had before I lifted the rear. Plus allow clearance for 35" tires. Now if someone can get on the new gearing, that would be sweet. But I'm not that worried, the v8 can handle it.

In conclusion, I love my 4runner and the hoe's are a great addition. They are more than adequate for the occasional trail runner, I just go harder than the average joe! Soon I will have some more photos of my truck on the trail and some video too!

Nothing to dramatic, but here are some pics I took today showing a little bit of the range on the suspension. I will do a large post with more photos in the gallery section.

What kind of sliders did you order from Demello? bolt or weld-on?

I am in the market and would to buy something local.

Thanks, your 4runner is sic!

I ordered the weld on round tube. I started to get a little picky with him in emails of how I wanted them installed (cause I'm a control freak with my rig and I try to do everything myself, but this is outside of my range and I can admit it), and then he emailed me this pic.



Its a pick of the mount that will be welded to the frame. I was worried that he would weld the tube directly to the frame which would make it weak to a side impact and could punch through the frame where it was welded on. But after seeing this pic, all my wonders and suggestions went straight in the can. Just seeing those beautiful "roll of coin" welds shut me the hell up and I just wanted him to finish as fast as he could. He is gonna help me out by doing the install on a Saturday as I, along with 99% percent of the population have to work to support my addiction to mods!

Jason's a real stand up guy and an awesome fabricator. His work speaks for itself. Plus it didn't even phase him when I was questioning him in the beginning.

what size tire/wheel are you running in these pictures Bela? Are those the 35" ?

nope, not 35's

those are 285/75/16's

major, major mod'ing required to fit 35's. Only one person done it to date I think.

what suspension/body lift setup do you have in those pics, as in how many inches?

in these pics it is the standard donahoe lift at all 4 corners.

0-3" in front (mine is set to 3" in these photos)

2" lift coils in the back with the DR rear shocks

no body lift

Are the upgrade upper control arms neccessary when adding the front coilovers?

I've been looking around for a suspension setup and was curious if the upper control arms were neccessary.

thanks

It is not necessary, but recomended.

the lift that the coilover adds, can add stress to the stock ball joint and they have failed a few times.

if you dont use all the available lift in the coilovers, or dont wheel alot, you should be ok.

Question about your rears

Bala de Plata said:

It is not necessary, but recomended.

the lift that the coilover adds, can add stress to the stock ball joint and they have failed a few times.

if you dont use all the available lift in the coilovers, or dont wheel alot, you should be ok.

Click to expand...

I was considering getting the Sonoran Steel 7.1 system. Was debating between getting the coilovers or not. I remember you mentioned u werent 100% satisfied with your donahoe rears. Have you decided to change them? I am asking because the 7.1 system uses a landcruiser stock shock. If the donahoe rears are so so then i would feel better about not getting a matched set from donahoe.

Thanks.

I dont know what the 7.1 is, I know sonoran, but have never heard of that package nor can I find anything online.

So dont have any advice for it, cept that I would have to think that the DR's are better than a stock landcruiser shock. I wouldnt believe that there is anything better about a LC shock over you current stock shock except ext length.

I dont have the rear DR's anymore, but that is because i am in the middle of a LT build on my rig and will be going with smooth body fox shocks.

I would recomend some of the sway's or fox shocks on all pro's site

allprooffroad.com