Leveled Street Ride Quality - Spacers VS Coilovers?
07-07-2017, 09:53 AM
#1
Leveled Street Ride Quality - Spacers VS Coilovers?
I installed Halo Lifts Boss 0-3" Adjustable Coilover's & Halo Lifts Boss 2" Rear Shocks. The reason, to Level for Daily Driving & Looks not Offroading Performance.
The ride is very rough with the coilovers adjusted at 2".
If I replace the Halo Coilovers with Spacers & reinstall the Factory Shocks, will that give me a substantially softer smoother ride?
Thought I researched enough to make the right decision to make me happy...Well, I like the stance it delivered but hate the rough ride...Another costly lesson learned if I have to replace the Halo's to achieve a comfortable leveled ride!!
The ride is very rough with the coilovers adjusted at 2".
If I replace the Halo Coilovers with Spacers & reinstall the Factory Shocks, will that give me a substantially softer smoother ride?
Thought I researched enough to make the right decision to make me happy...Well, I like the stance it delivered but hate the rough ride...Another costly lesson learned if I have to replace the Halo's to achieve a comfortable leveled ride!!
07-07-2017, 10:37 AM
#2
Senior Member
I'm in the same boat, i've had several trucks before and a jeep, never entertained the idea of lifting or leveling, mainly two reasons: leveling can be costly, the cheap spacer option just doesn't sound like the real thing and could cause rough ride, two, trucks gets too high and can't get into garages! This is why I like the proportion of the Tacoma, small, flat body, big tires. F150 used to look like that but half ton these days all grew too big!
07-07-2017, 11:14 AM
#3
well couple things here... so anytime you increase the drive angles on the front end, you will pick up *some* decreased ride quality. This applies both options. With a lift kit, ideally you have relocated all the angles back to the stock geometry via brackets/spindles thus avoiding this scenario. (also why you can add a 'leveling' kit on top of a 'lift' kit)
Anyways, so with any coilover, you are going to notice a stiffer ride. The lift is coming from the stiffer spring rate. Ride quality can vary depending on shock quality, valving, personal preference, etc. But I would venture to say, the ride will be similar with any coilover that is preloaded to provide 2" of lift. If you dialed them back to 1", and then 0", the ride should become 'softer' each time due to less preload on the spring.
There are two types of spacers. Preload spacers that go inside the factory strut, these are JUNK. Most people have gotten away from them, but they still exist. Its basically doing what your coilover is doing now, preloading that OEM spring inside the strut.
The second type of spacer, the strut spacer, simply bolts in place between your factory strut mount and the strut, essentially making your factory strut longer without increasing/changing any travel/compression/preload on the OEM unit. Therfore, the ride doesnt really change as the spring hasnt been modified.
personally, I think that leveling kits are BS. Its a cheap way to do something that requires more money and effort. But in your situation, I think you probably would have a better street ride with the strut spacers. The coilovers are designed to ride stiffer, take the more aggressive abusive offroad scenarios, the OEM units are designed for comfort on the hwy.
I'm not going to touch on the negatives of the strut spacer, other than what i first said about losing some ride quality due to the tie rods and front end operating at elevated angles, but there are negatives if you *were* wanting to offroad this thing.
And I'm not bashing the coilover approach, I'm just calling a spade a spade. The spade is that you can't increase ride height from a leveling kit without sacrificing something.
Also FWIW, 99% of lift kits use a strut spacer to push the OEM unit down. If they were so bad, they 1) wouldnt use them and 2) people who be complaining about how bad their lift kit rides. The spacer itself isnt 'bad', whats bad is not offsetting the front end geometry for the increased height. Aka, the 'leveling' kit.
Anyways, so with any coilover, you are going to notice a stiffer ride. The lift is coming from the stiffer spring rate. Ride quality can vary depending on shock quality, valving, personal preference, etc. But I would venture to say, the ride will be similar with any coilover that is preloaded to provide 2" of lift. If you dialed them back to 1", and then 0", the ride should become 'softer' each time due to less preload on the spring.
There are two types of spacers. Preload spacers that go inside the factory strut, these are JUNK. Most people have gotten away from them, but they still exist. Its basically doing what your coilover is doing now, preloading that OEM spring inside the strut.
The second type of spacer, the strut spacer, simply bolts in place between your factory strut mount and the strut, essentially making your factory strut longer without increasing/changing any travel/compression/preload on the OEM unit. Therfore, the ride doesnt really change as the spring hasnt been modified.
personally, I think that leveling kits are BS. Its a cheap way to do something that requires more money and effort. But in your situation, I think you probably would have a better street ride with the strut spacers. The coilovers are designed to ride stiffer, take the more aggressive abusive offroad scenarios, the OEM units are designed for comfort on the hwy.
I'm not going to touch on the negatives of the strut spacer, other than what i first said about losing some ride quality due to the tie rods and front end operating at elevated angles, but there are negatives if you *were* wanting to offroad this thing.
And I'm not bashing the coilover approach, I'm just calling a spade a spade. The spade is that you can't increase ride height from a leveling kit without sacrificing something.
Also FWIW, 99% of lift kits use a strut spacer to push the OEM unit down. If they were so bad, they 1) wouldnt use them and 2) people who be complaining about how bad their lift kit rides. The spacer itself isnt 'bad', whats bad is not offsetting the front end geometry for the increased height. Aka, the 'leveling' kit.
Last edited by SilverSurfer15; 07-07-2017 at 11:20 AM.
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idrive (07-07-2017)
07-07-2017, 12:11 PM
#4
Gone Golfin
iTrader: (3)
Well.... I originally put 1.5" spacers on top of the struts and didn't notice much difference. The handling wasn't quite as good and yes it was noticeable.
About 2000 miles later I put ICON front and rear on and removed the spacer. The difference in performance in every way was noticeable. There is zero harshness.
I'm going to say the problem is your Halo's.
About 2000 miles later I put ICON front and rear on and removed the spacer. The difference in performance in every way was noticeable. There is zero harshness.
I'm going to say the problem is your Halo's.
07-07-2017, 01:45 PM
#5
There are two types of spacers. Preload spacers that go inside the factory strut, these are JUNK. Most people have gotten away from them, but they still exist. Its basically doing what your coilover is doing now, preloading that OEM spring inside the strut.
The second type of spacer, the strut spacer, simply bolts in place between your factory strut mount and the strut, essentially making your factory strut longer without increasing/changing any travel/compression/preload on the OEM unit. Therfore, the ride doesnt really change as the spring hasnt been modified.
With a strut spacer, you're extending the overall length of the suspension component, limiting your up-travel, and extending the down travel of the suspension past it's factory design-limits. Theoretically, ride quality would be more affected by this setup than a pre-load spacer since more of the suspension geometry has been modified. No doubt the reason these are more prevalent is because they are much easier to install and don't require a spring compressor.
But I'm genuinely interested in hearing about downsides that I have overlooked.
07-07-2017, 02:22 PM
#6
Read this, http://www.bilsteinus.com/fileadmin/...WebArticle.pdf
goes over it all in detail.
Pay attention to up travel, and understand why spacers aren't that great of an idea for a lift.
goes over it all in detail.
Pay attention to up travel, and understand why spacers aren't that great of an idea for a lift.
07-07-2017, 02:46 PM
#7
The second type of spacer, the strut spacer, simply bolts in place between your factory strut mount and the strut, essentially making your factory strut longer without increasing/changing any travel/compression/preload on the OEM unit. Therefore, the ride doesn't really change as the spring hasn't been modified.
personally, I think that leveling kits are BS. Its a cheap way to do something that requires more money and effort. But in your situation, I think you probably would have a better street ride with the strut spacers. The coilovers are designed to ride stiffer, take the more aggressive abusive offroad scenarios, the OEM units are designed for comfort on the hwy.
I'm not going to touch on the negatives of the strut spacer, other than what i first said about losing some ride quality due to the tie rods and front end operating at elevated angles, but there are negatives if you *were* wanting to offroad this thing.
And I'm not bashing the coilover approach, I'm just calling a spade a spade. The spade is that you can't increase ride height from a leveling kit without sacrificing something.
Also FWIW, 99% of lift kits use a strut spacer to push the OEM unit down. If they were so bad, they 1) wouldnt use them and 2) people who be complaining about how bad their lift kit rides. The spacer itself isnt 'bad', whats bad is not offsetting the front end geometry for the increased height. Aka, the 'leveling' kit.
personally, I think that leveling kits are BS. Its a cheap way to do something that requires more money and effort. But in your situation, I think you probably would have a better street ride with the strut spacers. The coilovers are designed to ride stiffer, take the more aggressive abusive offroad scenarios, the OEM units are designed for comfort on the hwy.
I'm not going to touch on the negatives of the strut spacer, other than what i first said about losing some ride quality due to the tie rods and front end operating at elevated angles, but there are negatives if you *were* wanting to offroad this thing.
And I'm not bashing the coilover approach, I'm just calling a spade a spade. The spade is that you can't increase ride height from a leveling kit without sacrificing something.
Also FWIW, 99% of lift kits use a strut spacer to push the OEM unit down. If they were so bad, they 1) wouldnt use them and 2) people who be complaining about how bad their lift kit rides. The spacer itself isnt 'bad', whats bad is not offsetting the front end geometry for the increased height. Aka, the 'leveling' kit.
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07-07-2017, 05:11 PM
#8
well there wont be any, you will need to go 4". But I think you have two options:
1) switch to a more expensive coilover, the ICONs. Everyone seems to love them, I have only experienced them on a few toyotas, but they were all fine. I would still say its firmer than stock, but it wasnt anything I would consider bad. Then again, I have also daily driven boggers so I'm not sure im good person to ask about it lol
2) Switch to a cheap top spacer and get your factory ride back.
You dont necessarily need a lift kit, lottttssss of people out their driving leveled trucks of all makes. But either way I think you are going to have a drawback, slightly stiffer than stock ride quality with ICONs but similar handling feeling maybe even better from less body roll, or softer stock ish ride with spacers and more of a loose/wandering/wavy type of handling feel at times. Your small bump compliance should be stockish with the spacers, but the large bumps might get rough if you start getting near the travel limits. But with a basic level and just driving around town, I cant see the spacers causing you an issue.
Also if you live in a place with bad roads, pot holes and such, the ICONs will probably shine. If the roads are decent, the spacers will be ok. The post idrive is informative for you, he ran both. You could ask him for more details.
The cheap coilover option is probably hurting your ride quality, maybe worse than I originally suspected. No one seems to really be running them on here? I havent seen much about the halos. At least not lately.
If money is no concern, buy the icons and be done. Also, what tire are you running? Because running an over inflated E rated mud tire or something similar will RUIN your ride quality even on a stock truck.
1) switch to a more expensive coilover, the ICONs. Everyone seems to love them, I have only experienced them on a few toyotas, but they were all fine. I would still say its firmer than stock, but it wasnt anything I would consider bad. Then again, I have also daily driven boggers so I'm not sure im good person to ask about it lol
2) Switch to a cheap top spacer and get your factory ride back.
You dont necessarily need a lift kit, lottttssss of people out their driving leveled trucks of all makes. But either way I think you are going to have a drawback, slightly stiffer than stock ride quality with ICONs but similar handling feeling maybe even better from less body roll, or softer stock ish ride with spacers and more of a loose/wandering/wavy type of handling feel at times. Your small bump compliance should be stockish with the spacers, but the large bumps might get rough if you start getting near the travel limits. But with a basic level and just driving around town, I cant see the spacers causing you an issue.
Also if you live in a place with bad roads, pot holes and such, the ICONs will probably shine. If the roads are decent, the spacers will be ok. The post idrive is informative for you, he ran both. You could ask him for more details.
The cheap coilover option is probably hurting your ride quality, maybe worse than I originally suspected. No one seems to really be running them on here? I havent seen much about the halos. At least not lately.
If money is no concern, buy the icons and be done. Also, what tire are you running? Because running an over inflated E rated mud tire or something similar will RUIN your ride quality even on a stock truck.
Last edited by SilverSurfer15; 07-07-2017 at 05:15 PM.
07-07-2017, 07:02 PM
#9
Senior Member
FWIW
I have the Rough Country 2.5 kit up front.
Rides, drives and handles better than stock. For some reason it's a great combo on a RCSB FX4.
Supposedly the complete shock replacement is the best policy, but my spacers work great. My buds at work also have the spacers on their trucks and they hog hunt most every night. Never any suspension problems.
I wish I could let you drive mine and you would see how smooth she rides. Even wifey complements the ride quality.
Just my 2¢.
I have the Rough Country 2.5 kit up front.
Rides, drives and handles better than stock. For some reason it's a great combo on a RCSB FX4.
Supposedly the complete shock replacement is the best policy, but my spacers work great. My buds at work also have the spacers on their trucks and they hog hunt most every night. Never any suspension problems.
I wish I could let you drive mine and you would see how smooth she rides. Even wifey complements the ride quality.
Just my 2¢.
07-07-2017, 07:23 PM
#10
Bilstien 5100's up front are also a good choice. Many guys here have them and have no complaints. I have then on the stock setting and the difference between OEM and these are unbelievable.