[Rossco]

I'm going to redo my suspension in the near future with 2" lifted springs packs with a few springs removed. I was going to use the commo/hilux shocks for the longer travel but I'm not really wild about going with a basic gabriel shock.

first of all I was wondering if anyone has used doetsch shocks and what they thought of them.

secondly can someone take a look on the low range site and tell me what I need? here is the link: http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/doetsch-tech-shocks.html

This is the first time I have redone the suspension on a car so don't know which hardware kits I need. I know that the hilux/commo shocks are approxamatly 20.7 inches extended and 12.3 inches compressed. this is give or take a few tenths for both. so I was looking at the 21.5/13.00, would these be ok without modified shock towers? I know its just a few cm but I just wanted to make sure before I spent the money to get them.

[Fatzook]

Whats your issue with cheap shocks?

Monroe Gas are brilliant on a sierra.

[Rossco]

No issue really. I'm just on holiday in the US now and I figured for the same amount of money I could go for these and save on shipping.
I just want to put on the shocks that will give me the nicest ride for around 200$ for all four corners.

[Fatzook]

fair enough.

Then I can't help. I have never used them before. Have you spoken to the guys at lowrange about it yet?

[Rossco]

haha righto, figured I'd come here quickly before emailing Sean

[Fatzook]

where in the US are you? LR are in utah. Nice area for wheeling, but the town is a bit of a dive ( Provo)

[Rossco]

im on the east coast. unfortunately its cold and there's shit all wheeling to be done. loads of lifted f trucks and wranglers though... i thinks the yanks do it to have a bigger looking car.

[Fatzook]

Thats a shame.

You need to make your way to MOAB UT one day. THEN you will see some big trucks!! Hilux truggies on 56" tyres driving down the street!! Thats my kind of town

[BlueSuzy]

chris_mac has them. He said they are good. But alot of people say they are crap on a quick search on pirate4x4.

Im getting bilsteins from lowrange atm.

[skyman]

The Doestech 8000k's are a very very stiff shock. They are used by trail tough to combat the soft YJ's leafs, and give good road handling too.

If you carry heavy loads, or have soft springs they will work well.

The Doestech 3000's are softer, and give you more of a cushy ride. These work well for high speed off road, stiff springs, or a light samurai.

Both are really well built and will last a long time. With my YJ's leafs being new and stiff, I sold the and bought used rancho9000's(adjustable)

I have heard though that bilsteins are even better than the rancho's.


A lot of you guys run the Monroe's and Gabriel's, and have a lot of experience with them. Here everyone is into bling and expensive parts (like friggen who's got the best/newest competition) so we don;t have experienced with them, I would ask around about cheap shocks and see if people are happy with them

A lot depends on your springs, and even more on what you want in a ride. What is nice for you may be a harsh, teeth ratting, back breaker.

I am a picky bastage, and my wife drives mine, so rancho's work well for me. I can run the grave roads at 50Mph, stiffen it up for the street, and run the rocks nice too. The DT8000's were hated by me, and the wife wanted to burn them.

FWIW
Utah is weird, so are the people. I have never had any problems there. They aren't a bunch bogan's or anything, they just act creepy to me and the wife. we fill up in Idaho so we only have to stop once on our way through the state. Not a good example of true american culture, that is for sure.

[shep]

skyman wrote:

FWIW
Utah is weird, so are the people. I have never had any problems there. They aren't a bunch bogan's or anything, they just act creepy to me and the wife. we fill up in Idaho so we only have to stop once on our way through the state. Not a good example of true american culture, that is for sure.

so it is a bit like Queensland then

[skyman]

Shep, you got me to actually lol..

[Fatzook]

shep wrote:

skyman wrote:

FWIW
Utah is weird, so are the people. I have never had any problems there. They aren't a bunch bogan's or anything, they just act creepy to me and the wife. we fill up in Idaho so we only have to stop once on our way through the state. Not a good example of true american culture, that is for sure.

so it is a bit like Queensland then

Well UTAH is the morman capital of the world. And funily enough Brisbane (here) is the Morman capital of Australia, so I guess we have heaps of wierdo's too

[alien]

gah every time i see this thread's title i see "Douche Shockies" and click it wondering just how exactly thats ever going to work.

[skyman]

haha, same thing here, I have a hard time pronouncing them in public heheh.

Fatzook, you are 100% right about Utah I had no idea you had a spot like that in Australia, and here I was thinning I was safe if I moved down to AU.

I'm serious about Utah though, we do try as hard as we can to only have to stop once. They seem to be decent people, but they are so different in the way they talk and act it really does creep me out. The state also has some weirs laws.

rsholzma
if you do a search on some of the US forums for "DT shocks, or Yj kit" you will get a few hits. hey are all Trail Tough sells with their YJ kit, and they sell a LOT of kits.

[chris_mac]

BlueSuzy wrote:

chris_mac has them. He said they are good. But alot of people say they are crap on a quick search on pirate4x4.

Im getting bilsteins from lowrange atm.

i got chip shocks from rocky road, i think it was $39usd per shock or something like that. they not doetsch shocks though but made in mechico . they work well with my soft ome "custom" springs.

[ajsr]

chris_mac wrote:

BlueSuzy wrote:

chris_mac has them. He said they are good. But alot of people say they are crap on a quick search on pirate4x4.

Im getting bilsteins from lowrange atm.

i got chip shocks from rocky road, i think it was $39usd per shock or something like that. they not doetsch shocks though but made in mechico . they work well with my soft ome "custom" springs.

mine are rockroad jobs too, they are VERY soft but I like them and they seem to be wellmake as mine have seen a flogging

[Red89]

I have run Doestech shocks in the front of mine for around 4 years now and have been very happy with them. I have done both high speed and low speed stuff and they have held up well. As said the 8000's are apparently very stiff but the 3000's I have suit my setup well.

I have also run Gabriel shocks and have been happy with them as well, providing you get ones suited to your setup so they are a bit hit and miss. I have used Jackeroo ones in the rear for a 3 inch lift which worked heaps better then the Calmini ones, however the Hyundai Excel ones I have now are too soft and bottom out too easily, I havent tried the Hilux/commo combination.

[Rossco]

Righto Thanks Red I think I'll go for the 3000 then. If you ordered from lowrange do you remember which hardware kits you needed with them?

[Red89]

Lowrange wrote:

99% of the time the hardware kits do not matter for the Suzuki, Toyota applications

Yes I got them through Lowrange, and no extra kit was required. Lowrange actually say on their website that the hardware kits shouldnt be needed for Sierras. Best bet would be to give them a call tell them you want them to fit the standard mounts, they are usually pretty helpful.

[Rossco]

alright so I spoke to sean about what sizes I needed. I told him that I wanted to mimic the commo/hilux set up. I looked up lengths for the two and the are in inches

commo: 20.70/12.34
Hilux:20.23/12.37

the two closest options to these lengths are 19.50/12.50 and 21.50/13.00. Sean told me to use the 19.50/12.50 but I think hes just going off the sizes and not setting up a custom suspension. would it be worth it to go the extra .6 of an inch (about 15mm) to get an extra 2 inches (50mm) of down travel. If I did this I'm assuming I would just need to extend by bumpstops a little further. just looking for some opinons here before I order.

[skyman]

Here's the deal, a longer shock will make for less uptravel as it adds droop. You can only fit so much shock in between those mounts. So if you add .6 to the length of the shock you loose .6" of uptravel at the shock.

You will gain droop with those longer shocks, but at the price of up-travel.

I guess it depends on how much up travel the Hilux/Commodore shock give you on 2" springs. If you have say 2" of uptravel, then you will lose 1/4 of that and I would say no.

If the Hilux/commodore shocks give you say 4" or so of uptravel, then you won't notice the missing uptravel, and the added droop would be worth it.

So to answer your question with another question, how much uptravel does the Hilux/Commodore setup have when used with 2" springs?

I hope that makes sense
--Sky

[tanshi]

enough

if you add two inch bump stop extensions which we do alot in aus to fit 31s you can use commo shocks and only loose the uptravel that you loose with 31s any way

[skyman]

Sounds good to me

*edit*

Here we have a lot of vendors recommended the longest shock you can get, and uptravel usually suffers. It's not uncommon to see people complaining about the ride, only to find out they are running less than 1 1/2" of uptravel lol.

[ajsr]

skyman wrote:

Sounds good to me

*edit*

Here we have a lot of vendors recommended the longest shock you can get, and uptravel usually suffers. It's not uncommon to see people complaining about the ride, only to find out they are running less than 1 1/2" of uptravel lol.

Ive only got 20mm clearance between the bumpstop and diff and mine rides ok

[JrZook]

ajsr wrote:

skyman wrote:

Sounds good to me

*edit*

Here we have a lot of vendors recommended the longest shock you can get, and uptravel usually suffers. It's not uncommon to see people complaining about the ride, only to find out they are running less than 1 1/2" of uptravel lol.

Ive only got 20mm clearance between the bumpstop and diff and mine rides ok

Whats it like over the rougher stuff like corrugations at speed? Bottom out much?

[zuk_244]

I used to have non ajustable Rancho's on my SPOA Sierra, I might as well had blocks of wood under there. It would throw you around, i had to go in !st on most dirt tracks and my missus would come for a drive coz it threw here boobs around too much

Ive had my Doetsch 3000 Shocks on all for corners and I reckon they are great!
Most of the forums that dont like them say that they are too soft. Then when you read down you find that they have them on big heavy Jeeps and F series trucks. I think they are perfect for light sierra's.

I measured the flex of my zook with no shocks in and just ordered the right length to suit. The only thing i had to add on was a little spacer on the mount coz the rubbers were squashed a little too much.