I assume you're not looking to make any modifications to the stock suspension? If you plan on doing more wheeling, I would go with the TRD pro, if you are looking for more of a street queen I would go with the KDSS.

You can get a trail (off-road whatever) without KDSS. (with all the bells and whistles a TRDP has less the bolt ons and the custom color) Seriously all you get with a TRDP is a cool color. If you like the color buy it! Not my money, don't care, I have no horse in the race.

3 is many in the span of years? versus literally 3 within 3 months? Not good stats but whatever, I just happened to point something out that just popped up. Were those KDSS issues user error? (at least one 1 had modified the suspension 2.5 inch lift in the front, another had 60K on the odo) Shit breaks or fails I understand that. Those are uncommonly high numbers, that's all.


Stuff does fail. Absolutely. That is why I said buy one "with or without KDSS"

I am sorry one of your rears is blown, that does suck.

You can even get an TRD Off-Road without a Sunroof now!

60k?! Crush it. Thousands to repair and nobody can work on it. Those are just the first three that pop up, you should read them and learn about your truck. Free new shocks actually doesn't suck too bad. "Just happened too" oops you told on yourself.

Drove a runner without kdss....then one with.

Bought the one with kdss. It's a solid system, Toyota as pointed out has been using it for years on their trucks and upper end Lexus models. It really is nice once you drive them back to back.

I'll add better shocks and springs eventually. If I could have bought a sand pro...I might have, but my wife loves her sunroofs and in the end, I saved near 5k by going with a TEP w/kdss, so we are happy.

My funds forced me to choose between Trail with KDSS or Trail Premium without.

I got the Premium and love the TEP accoutrements, not gonna lie...but I truly wish I could have gone Boss Hogg and got the Premium with KDSS. The ride between the two was no comparison for me, the KDSS road manners alone on the highway with high speed roundabout/exit manners were significantly better.

Oh well, I deal with the damn nose dive every time I hit the brakes and pat myself on the back as we all know getting the mirrors with guidelights was better...

60k just saying its not a one year old truck. Lexus will work on KDSS.

I have read them, what makes you think I haven't? I have read a couple others too. I can't say that I am not without concern. I can say I am more concerned with rodents eating my wiring. I know about my truck pretty well. Everything done on it and all of the the trucks I have owned for the last 30 years (apart from a steering rack in the middle of winter) I have done myself. If it fails, I'll buy the SST and fix it myself, definitely not scared. Expensive, yeah that is a sucky part for sure, I don't disagree. On road manners, so far it's worth it.

Glad they gave you new shocks, it would suck if they hadn't.

Not sure I am tracking "just happened to" I just told on myself? Lol wtf?

KDSS is a basic hydraulic system. Working on it is not brain surgery. If you can read and follow basic instructions, you can fix it. Toyota tells you how with very specific instructions. There are about 450,000 vehicles with KDSS sold every year. It's not rare. And there are very few failures.

So who here has actually driven both A TRDP and a TEP KDSS? How do they compare as a daily driver?

I test drove a 2016 TEP with KDSS and it did blow me away. But the dealer wouldn't come down to my price and it had dealer trade miles which turned me off since they lied about the miles over the phone.

I now have a white TRDP supposedly secured in April dealer allocation but a dealer close by has a 2016 Magnetic grey TEP with KDSS and its been hard to stay away from the lot.
If they meet my number I would probably pull the trigger.

I am so on the fence with TEP with KDSS vs TRDP.

I do like the fact that the TRDP is fully under warranty and no mods are really needed compared to the TEP.

I guess its a win win going either direction. Resale value will help with the TRDP markup.

I've driven both, but not owned both. I've actually driven about 15 different ones. For me - when they came out in 2010 I went and drove an sr5 and a limited. I had intended to buy a limited as my older 4runner was a limited and I had assumed that would be my first choice. I didn't really like the handling of either. Over the years I would occasionally do a test drive and always thought they felt like driving a Chevy Tahoe. It was just too soft and disconnected feeling for me.

The first time I drove a KDSS 4runner I was like whoa - this is different. It feels more like what I want.

A TRD Pro is more like an sr5 to me. The dampening is better, but the body roll and soft springs are still pretty similar.

I do however think that the right springs and shocks on an sr5 could also do a very good job of providing the handling that I like without KDSS. It's not the only way to get there by any means. It's just he only OEM suspension that I thought handled on the highway the way I like. As fate would have it, within the first year I had Fox front coilovers and GX460 rear air suspension so none of the original springs or shocks even stayed on for a year. I've since removed the GX460 suspension and gone back to OEM rear coils with a small spacer and Fox rear shocks and I'm happy with it. The only downside now is that the rears are only fox 2.0 IFP shocks. They are noticeably more jarring in small bumps compared to the front Fox 2.5 factory series.

I think there's a good argument for spending KDSS savings on Fox 2.5's all around. I have not driven a 4runner with a premium aftermarket suspension like Fox or King or ?? without KDSS. That's the data point I don't have. It might be great. I suspect as between the choice of only Fox suspension or KDSS I'd choose the Fox suspension. I just don't know. The difference between OEM Trail Edition shocks and Fox doing high speed travel over rough roads really is remarkable. And I do quite a bit of that around where I live. My 4runner would blow the doors of my FJ40 in high speed rough terrain even though the FJ40 has easily 2-3 times the suspension travel. It just works extremely well with the travel available in the OEM suspension, and rides nicely on the highway. The TRD Pro is somewhere inbetween. I personally don't think it's worth the money for the appearance package parts. And I don't think the Bilstein suspension is as good as Fox or King. Bilstein does make some fantastic shocks. The ones on the TRD Pro aren't anywhere near the top of Bilstein's range of options.

I suspect the new Fox internal bypass shocks on the Tacoma are going to be really fantastic if they're tuned well. If those were on the TRD Pro 4runner I'd be more excited about them.

My opinion is that the TRD Pro likely cut the KDSS option to keep the sticker price below the limited. It's not magic. But it is really useful to have a heavy stabilizer bar that can effectively soften up offroad. There are other ways to get there. KDSS just solves the problem in a somewhat complex way that offers a lot of benefits for daily driving. It's sort of the dream of every suspension designer who's ever dreamed up a forced articulation suspension for offroad use.

I think you really need to go test drive a few. What works for me may be something totally different from what you like. Some people might hate how stiff KDSS makes the 4runner. It's really not better or worse. It's just different. The only real conclusion I can draw is that TRD Pro models are too much of a price bump for what amounts to a lesser suspension and an appearance package. The Trail Premium with KDSS is the most offroad capable 4runner out of the box and has the best street manners. The Limited is the most comfortable. And the sr5 is the best value. The TRD Pro doesn't really fit as the best of anything for me other than appearance.

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I have built a TRD Faux with KDSS..... in my opinion it rides great on HWY and has little body roll. In 4 low it increases articulation since it "disconnects" .


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Lots of good points on here. I'll give you my personal experience as a new 5th Gen, prior 4th Gen owner. I had the 4th Gen limited with Xreas. After 150k miles there was a lot of body roll with my Xreas, probably failing. 150k was really good for that system to last that long.

I bought '16 TEP with Kdss. Good ride (way better than 4th gen) but a bit too much body roll and front end dive for my liking, but better than the non Kdss (IMO). I added the stock Trd Pro suspension and now it drives and handles perfect. I can't express how much better it is. I cannot say how it compares to a Trd Pro without the Kdss, I didn't even consider one of those because the sunroof was a must have for me.

And yes, you will most likely need to find a shop to add the suspension. My dealer had no clue how to do it. There are several good threads on here to DIY, I just didn't have time to do it myself.

Just my opinion. And happy hunting!

Ok. One last question (hopefully). Can a KDSS system be added to a stock TRDP aftermarket? Or is the TEP the only rig that can have KDSS?

As far as I know (and its not much) the answer is NO.