TRD Shock Upgrade

boodabill

boodabill

New member
Hola from Baja, everyone. I recently upgraded my OEM shocks on my 2014 Trail Edition to TRDs, the Fox kit. I love the shocks, makes a world of difference down here, but the steering seems a little stiffer. I don’t always trust the mechanics down here so I’m wondering what people think.

By the way the rig is still crushing it, not a single buzz or click yet.

Gracias in advance.
 
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boodabill said:
Hola from Baja, everyone. I recently upgraded my OEM shocks on my 2014 Trail Edition to TRDs, the Fox kit. I love the shocks, makes a world of difference down here, but the steering seems a little stiffer. I don’t always trust the mechanics down here so I’m wondering what people think.

By the way the rig is still crushing it, not a single buzz or click yet.

Gracias in advance.
Click to expand...


get an alignment , ride should be firmer but shouldnt have an effect on steering
 
How did you get them? I thought you couldn't purchase them from Toyota?

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Turfboy said:
Do the TRD Fox shocks require the frequent rebuild as the high end Fox shocks?
Click to expand...

They shouldn't need frequent maintenance. The biggest issue on the higher end stuff is the use of spherical bearings - aka uniballs or spherical bushings. They're not very long lasting in the dirt because they're not sealed and they have a very thin layer of plastic that provides the low friction surface. Dirt and grit + thin plastic film = short lifespan. That's the primary reason I have to pull my shocks out every 1-2 years. They're cheap ~ $10 each and there's 2 on each shock. So it's not a big expense, but it is an afternoon of time. And there's almost always something seized on the hardware that I have to either use a torch or a cutoff disc to remove and then replace. It's never as easy as it seems like it should be.

I've never *needed* to do any servicing internally. I have replaced the shock oil, but never had a valve go bad or a seal go bad. And that probably wasn't necessary.

The OEM fox setup uses rubber bushings. IMO rubber is better in many ways. The most important in this case is that it doesn't wear out for a very long time. And they don't use remote reservoirs. Unless a wiper seal goes out, they're probably a lifetime sort of shock.

Between the two - I'd take the OEM bypass shocks over my FOX 2.5s for my personal use. They weren't on the market in 2015 when I setup my 4Runner suspension. If I were buying today - I'd look for something with rubber eyelet bushings not spherical bearings as a pretty important feature if I didn't want the maintenance.
 
Jetboy said:
They shouldn't need frequent maintenance. The biggest issue on the higher end stuff is the use of spherical bearings - aka uniballs or spherical bushings. They're not very long lasting in the dirt because they're not sealed and they have a very thin layer of plastic that provides the low friction surface. Dirt and grit + thin plastic film = short lifespan. That's the primary reason I have to pull my shocks out every 1-2 years. They're cheap ~ $10 each and there's 2 on each shock. So it's not a big expense, but it is an afternoon of time. And there's almost always something seized on the hardware that I have to either use a torch or a cutoff disc to remove and then replace. It's never as easy as it seems like it should be.

I've never *needed* to do any servicing internally. I have replaced the shock oil, but never had a valve go bad or a seal go bad. And that probably wasn't necessary.

The OEM fox setup uses rubber bushings. IMO rubber is better in many ways. The most important in this case is that it doesn't wear out for a very long time. And they don't use remote reservoirs. Unless a wiper seal goes out, they're probably a lifetime sort of shock.

Between the two - I'd take the OEM bypass shocks over my FOX 2.5s for my personal use. They weren't on the market in 2015 when I setup my 4Runner suspension. If I were buying today - I'd look for something with rubber eyelet bushings not spherical bearings as a pretty important feature if I didn't want the maintenance.
Click to expand...

lets find someone to build us retrofit kits. heck delrin is amazing, why not make bushings with that. people use it for LCA bushings already.
 
Turfboy said:
Do the TRD Fox shocks require the frequent rebuild as the high end Fox shocks?
Click to expand...
I could be mistaken but I understood that a rebuild is recommended at around 50k miles, similar to the Fox shocks on the Ford Raptor.

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thatgreen4LR said:
isn't delrin super rigid? it is best when it comes to holding things together but rubber is better for less vibration I think
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Yes. From my experience, nothing beats a quality rubber bushing in regards to durability, longevity, and ride quality. It's why OEMs (even the TRD Fox Shocks) are always all rubber or polyurethane. However, Fox uses what they use for a reason and that's overall racing performance, more fluid movement of the joint, etc. If Toyota used a flex joint, spherical ball, etc. on the TRD Pro shocks they'd be coming in to the dealer for rebuilds constantly and have a lot of upset customers.
 
To the OP question, if the TRD shocks provided some lift, then the caster angle is affected and change in caster will affect steering wheel feel. That said, lift will push caster toward smaller numbers which makes wheel feedback lighter and that seems to be the opposite that OP is reporting.
 
Gclark949 said:
To the OP question, if the TRD shocks provided some lift, then the caster angle is affected and change in caster will affect steering wheel feel. That said, lift will push caster toward smaller numbers which makes wheel feedback lighter and that seems to be the opposite that OP is reporting.
Click to expand...

yea i'm wondering if the shop aligned it for him and put it in specs the forums call for, which is more castor. its different, but better
 
honda250xtitan said:
lets find someone to build us retrofit kits. heck delrin is amazing, why not make bushings with that. people use it for LCA bushings already.
Click to expand...

If I wasn't so busy lately I'd be working on this exact issue. My thought was to try to find an OEM rubber bushing that would fit the LCA mounting bolt and then machine the lower eyelet to fit. I have a CNC mill that I could machine mine if I built some type of a holder for it to clamp it down while it cut. But I haven't had time to do it.

I think the physical space in the OEM eyelet area is probably too small for something like a delrin bushing. Not saying it's impossible, but that's the biggest hurdle to a rubber bushing too. The COM10 size spherical bushing used is just really small and has a very high load capacity (it's just not very durable in the environment we're using it). So I'm not sure what it would take to find something that is strong enough for the loads, but also small enough to fit physically in the shock without machining it out to a larger size.

I'd love to have an easy direct swap though. Even a sealed bushing would go a long way I'd think. Just keeping the dirt and dust out would probably double the lifespan.
 
Jetboy said:
If I wasn't so busy lately I'd be working on this exact issue. My thought was to try to find an OEM rubber bushing that would fit the LCA mounting bolt and then machine the lower eyelet to fit. I have a CNC mill that I could machine mine if I built some type of a holder for it to clamp it down while it cut. But I haven't had time to do it.

I think the physical space in the OEM eyelet area is probably too small for something like a delrin bushing. Not saying it's impossible, but that's the biggest hurdle to a rubber bushing too. The COM10 size spherical bushing used is just really small and has a very high load capacity (it's just not very durable in the environment we're using it). So I'm not sure what it would take to find something that is strong enough for the loads, but also small enough to fit physically in the shock without machining it out to a larger size.

I'd love to have an easy direct swap though. Even a sealed bushing would go a long way I'd think. Just keeping the dirt and dust out would probably double the lifespan.
Click to expand...

cut the bottom mount off the OEM fox units. tap it to match the threads on the king/ fox units, thread said mount to the king/fox units:humble::humble:
 
Turfboy said:
Do the TRD Fox shocks require the frequent rebuild as the high end Fox shocks?
Click to expand...


I think they are garbage. I've had three replaced already under warranty and am now waiting on another two to come in to get those replaced. And my off roading consists or riding in sand. Can't imagine doing any type of rock crawling.


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honda250xtitan said:
cut the bottom mount off the OEM fox units. tap it to match the threads on the king/ fox units, thread said mount to the king/fox units:humble::humble:
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the OEM fox is standard orientation (shock body down) and the aftermarket fox/king etc are shock body up or "inverted" orientation. So the TRD fox rubber bushing is on the wrong end.
 
Redsoxx1918 said:
I think they are garbage. I've had three replaced already under warranty and am now waiting on another two to come in to get those replaced. And my off roading consists or riding in sand. Can't imagine doing any type of rock crawling.


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Click to expand...


I’m curious what trouble you’ve had. I’m on my second set of front coils as well. Still problems


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