At what point should you relocate rear shock mounts?

Hey all,

I’m in the market for new rear shocks and I’m trying to figure out if relocating the rear shock mounts to fit 14” shocks is worth it or overkill.

I’ve already replaced my front suspension with Fox 2.5 coilovers and the the rear leaf packs with Deaver stage 2s. Unfortunately the truck still rattles like hell on trail, and I’m thinking the culprit is my rear Icon 2.0 shocks.


Right now I’m leaning toward’s replacing the Icons with Accutune’s 9.4” Fox 2.5 tundra shock (
https://accutuneoffroad.com/product...series-remote-reservoir-9-4-1-5-3-0-lift-dsc/) but also have the option to spend ~$1k more in parts and labor to relocate the shocks and get ~4” more of travel.

At what point is that extra travel necessary? If I’m not bottoming out my current suspension, do I need the extra travel? I’ve also read on here that weight is one of the largest factors for needing more travel and my truck is pretty heavy at 5200lbs. My end goal is to get a smooth ride on rocky trails so I can drive faster without rattling my truck in half.

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

 

@ARCHIVE

 

IMO you'd notice a greater benefit from replacing your rear leaf hangers with archive garage hammer hangers. They take out a lot of flex in the rear and allow the leafs and shocks to do their job. They'll make the rear end feel more solid and planted.

For me and why I did a relocate, it was to maintain the high quality ride of a King but keep the increased travel of a bilstein b110. That's an 11" stroke shock you can git in the OEM location. Cheap travel, meh ride.

For spirited driving, up travel is more important. A relocate helps you gain overall travel but it's in the droop department.

A relocate is never a bad thing. But it sounds like you would be fine with a high quality bolt in shock and use the money towards hammer hangers instead.

Or ball out and do it all.

ETA: The tundra ones are nice but they mention you'll need to limit up travel a little to prevent bottoming out. This is disadvantageous for your needs.

 

Thanks Randy, you hit all the points. Hammer hangers are a great foundation mod, and surprise many owners in the ride quality department, @Dstin because you wouldn't think Toyota made something so lame as the stock hangers.

Shock relocation comes in when you want/need the droop and flex, but don't want to lose any bump travel, and conserving bump travel on Tacomas is critical because they have about 3" stock, super lame

 

Appreciate the responses from both of you, sounds like the route for me to take is hammer hangers + the tundra shocks (unless there is a different Fox 2.5 shock that will fit with more up-travel, which I’m not seeing)

 

I'm looking at collapsed specs and the tundra fox's are 0.1" longer than the EXT Kings designed for a Tacoma. Accutune says you need to limit up travel with the tundra fox's but it's probably a cover their ass type of deal. I'm sure it will be fine.

I agree that hammer hangers and tundra fox's is the way.

 

The Tundra 2.5s are 15.4" compressed, which is about as long as should ever go in stock location, and Accutune uses the Archive Ubolt flip opt 4 Super bumps which protects the shocks from bottom out

 

I'm looking into this myself, def want to get the @ARCHIVE hangers, but can't figure out if I need to consider a relocation kit too. I'm not going to race across the desert at 70 mph, I'm going to slowly make my way over trees and rocks on tight trails. Would a shock relocation kit help there? Give me more travel or something? Just gonna be a standard 2-3.5" lift f larger tires

 

You need to replace the rear shackle hangers, they are very flexible which causes the suspension to get out of control. It doesn't seem like the case, but it is a fact. Install Archive Garage Hammer Hangers and you will be surprised at the difference. Deaver springs are also not magic, they aren't the best ride either, people mistake the stock springs for the reason the rear ride is bad, but it is caused by the poor shackle hanger.
Read the reviews on post #1 in our thread and our site listing to hear real world experiences with Hammer Hangers and how surprised people are with the difference.
Hammer Hangers have been on the market nearly 6 years, they are tuned very well, please support the original.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/hammer-hangers®-by-archive-garage-2005-2023-tacoma.519625/
https://archivegarage.com/explore-archive/ols/products/tacoma-hammer-hangers

 

So every Tacoma needs Hammer Hangers, but not every owner needs to do a shock relocation, it depends on how they use the truck IMO.
If you want maximum offroad performance, then yes, a shock relocation is advised. If you are using truck as a moderately capable road trip expo vehicle, you may not need a shock relocation.

The real problem comes in a soon as you start to put long shocks in the stock location. A longer travel shock almost always increases the collapsed length of a shock, therefore it can quickly start to hinder your up/bump travel, forcing you to space your bumpstops up to limit up travel, which is a terrible idea on a Tacoma that comes from the factory with a dismal 3" between the bumpstop and frame before adding any weight.

The Archive Garage relocation kits allow you to gain a lot of droop travel, BUT ALSO KEEP ALL your bump travel. Watch out for bad offerings like certain shocks from Dobinsons who offer an excessively long collapsed length "long travel" shock for stock location that requires you to space your bumps up to 3", completely destroying all your bump travel to gain a little more droop, terrible methodology.
This is why we offer shock relocation kits, so you get the best droop and bump travel.

Eric
https://archivegarage.com/explore-archive/ols/products/taco-shock-relocation
https://archivegarage.com/explore-archive/ols/products/tacoma-shock-relocation-trail-2

 

Hammer Hangers (be sure to get the cross bar) are a great change.
Shock Relocation was a great change.
Longer & better quality shocks were a great change.
Custom leafs for my truck's actual weight was a great change.

Basically they're all going to yield an improvement - but if you don't have HH yet, start there. If you can afford to do HH and SR at the same time, that's even better.

 

Looking at Archive website it looks like the cross tube prevents OEM spare tire mounting. Is that a correct assessment?

 

Correct

 

HH and Crossbar made a HUGE difference on my truck! Currently stock location Fox 2.5's.

 

if you have good shocks
Good leafpack
And stock crappy hangers

then fix the hangers and re evaluate.

relocate tower after that seems optional and personal preference if you want longer travel off road. At the cost of more money. And potential need for spacers to see if the tires clear.

 

Hows the hangers without crossbar,keeping the spare in stock location is a must in my application.

 

I have hangers with cross tube and no spare.
Later I’ll put it on a swingout.

dirt king invented a new one that clears a spare. Don’t know what size.

 

Interesting. I didn’t know DK came out with one.
This brace is compatible with the OEM spare tire, although compatibility with certain aftermarket rear bumpers may vary.