Going fast can get you in trouble, but it can also keep you out of it… sometimes in the dunes you HAVE TO go fast because its more dangerous to go slow. Anyone who has spend time in the sand dunes should know momentum can be a valuable tool. With a vehicle like a 4runner, you REALLY have to learn to preserve momentum when driving because we have a heavy vehicle with limited power and traction. If you can’t keep yourself moving you get stuck, and have one hell of a time getting moving again.

I know I drive at the max capacity and capability of my existing suspension… which becomes a problem because it forces you to slow down, perhaps at the wrong time. I want enough suspension to allow for some margin of safety over unforeseen or choppy terrain and give me the headroom to allow me to keep that momentum up.

Real world example here: I wake up in the morning and generally go for a drive… the sand is super smooth, untouched by others and you can just cruise around. Its surprisingly pretty relaxing and leisurely and easy to maintain good speed. You are not even stressing the suspension here and it’s VERY impressive for a basic 6112/5100 combo. By mid-day, after a bunch of ATVs, side-bs-side, and other trucks have made tracks, it’s a totally different story. I can do the same drive and out of nowhere hit a fat section of deep tracks and all hell breaks loose inside the truck. Front suspension is bottoming out, rears bucking like crazy, everything in the back and in the fridge is jumping around. Yes, I’ll slow it down, but if that happens in an area where you need to maintain speed, the pucker-factor is real because you really just have to throttle though it.

What I am looking for out of tuned standard suspension, (or even LT) is safety and headroom. I don’t want to go faster for the sake of going faster, but I want enough performance headroom to deal with things unforeseen in the terrain. The added headroom could be the difference between a costly mistake vs just crapping your pants while the suspension does its job.

I think what excites me most about high end shocks is the tuning capability… at least I feel that is what I am missing right now to really get the most out of my standard suspension. I believe a property setup and tuned suspension has the chance of being greater than the sum of its parts.