Bilstein shock advice - mild lift, spring pairing?

[HanSolex]

I've searched. I've read the stickies. I've eyeballed builds. At this point, I'm just hopelessly overwhelmed and looking for some advice. I've got a '04 Sport Edition V8 4WD with dead X-REAS, and I'm looking to do Bilsteins and springs to replace them. I had 4600s on my Tacoma and liked them a lot.

Goal is a very mild lift, enough to fit 255/75/17s or so. Don't love the idea of spacers, would like to do it with coils and adjustable perches. I'm not going to be doing King of the Hammers, but I'd like to do rougher forest service roads, BLM land, that sort of thing. No winch or RTT, rig is close to stock weight with a couple people aboard and some light recovery gear.

Initial thought was 5100s front and rear, with Moog FJ springs. But I've heard folks don't like FJ rears – too soft. So I'm confused about what to pair 'em with. Superflex?

TL;DR - please help me pair front and rear springs with Bilsten 5100s for a mild lift and decent ride comfort and close to stock vehicle weight. Thank you!

 

[xtremewlr]

I've searched. I've read the stickies. I've eyeballed builds. At this point, I'm just hopelessly overwhelmed and looking for some advice. I've got a '04 Sport Edition V8 4WD with dead X-REAS, and I'm looking to do Bilsteins and springs to replace them. I had 4600s on my Tacoma and liked them a lot.

Goal is a very mild lift, enough to fit 255/75/17s or so. Don't love the idea of spacers, would like to do it with coils and adjustable perches. I'm not going to be doing King of the Hammers, but I'd like to do rougher forest service roads, BLM land, that sort of thing. No winch or RTT, rig is close to stock weight with a couple people aboard and some light recovery gear.

Initial thought was 5100s front and rear, with Moog FJ springs. But I've heard folks don't like FJ rears – too soft. So I'm confused about what to pair 'em with. Superflex?

TL;DR - please help me pair front and rear springs with Bilsten 5100s for a mild lift and decent ride comfort and close to stock vehicle weight. Thank you!

FJ rears aren't too bad. I have them in my 4R since getting rid of the XREAS. I went the route of installing stock Tacoma Bilstien suspension with the FJ coils in the back. You can get new Moog FJ coils from Rock Auto for under $70 shipped, so they are very enticing because of that. Yeah, I can see why people say they are a little soft. Gives a great, plush ride on the road. The Tacoma rear shocks aren't valved right for the 4R tho and I think that is causing a little of the bounciness I get, specifically over speed bumps. I've had no issues driving on the highway or off road. Forgot to note that I am running 265/70/17 with the Tacoma suspension and have no rubbing. These are just slightly shorter than the 255/75/17 that you want to run. I'll be going to a 285/70/17 soon and will see what I need to do for any rubbing then.

My suggestion would be to pair up Dobinson springs with the 5100's or look at a complete Dobinson kit. Since you want new coils (don't reuse the XREAS crap! Not even the coils) the price of the Dobinson kit isn't going to be much higher than what you are already looking at. It's a proven system that will give you the lift and perfomance that you are looking for. You don't need to get the UCAs either, just stick with the stock ones for now and you can change them out later if you decide you want to do some more upgrading. Gives you a solid base suspension that will work great for many years to come.

Dobinsons 1" to 3.5" Lift Kit for Toyota 4Runner 4x4 2003-2009

 

[Fern]

I have bilstiens and superflexes in the rear. No complaints.

 

[Warwicke36]

I just did bilstein 5100s all around with Toytec 2.5" front springs and Daystar spacers in the rear. I'm very happy with how it rides. I may get springs for the rear when I start towing my boat again this summer. I know you said you didn't want spacer but for a DD not concerned about towing or serious offroad capability this setup is great IMO.

 

[HanSolex]

Thanks guys. The Superflexes suggestion really helped, sorta focused my reading on that spring in the rear. My understanding is the Wheelers T12 is pretty similar, claimed 12% stiffer than stock, 2" or so lift. It's also significantly cheaper to order the Bilsteins and the T12s from Wheelers.

So, unless anyone wants to suggest something better:

5100s all around
Front Moog FJ 4WD coils
Rear Wheelers T12 coils

That puts me at $664 total, with tax and shipping. Not a bad deal I think.

 

[Drift Monkey]

Dobinsons C59-302 (2”) front, C59-599 (1”) rear?

 

[hinmo24t]

5100s. 255/75/17. Old Man Emu 883/895e for a low lift. barely rubs at all and rides great. full size spare on hatch with carrier and sliders, tools in hatch for weight references. FJ cruiser wheels for .5" wider on each side offset btw

 

[HiteBurleson]

Kind of along the same lines, is it worth it to get 5100's for all 4 shocks, or would leaving the rear stock and only getting new coils (FJ Rear) provide the same ride and/or any lift?

 

[xtremewlr]

Kind of along the same lines, is it worth it to get 5100's for all 4 shocks, or would leaving the rear stock and only getting new coils (FJ Rear) provide the same ride and/or any lift?

I'd go with 5100s on all 4 corners. The ride will suffer leaving the stock shocks on the rear, especially if they have any kind of mileage on them.

If you have the XREAS system currently, you need to replace all 4 if you are going to do any of them. It's a linked system front to rear.

 

[jcaino]

I'll add another vote for Dobinsons coils. Very happy with the ride on and off road. Details in sig.