Tough Dog Adjustables

[its aford not a nissan]

thats true jessie the black cover on the shocks are crap . most people cut them off . i know of alot of people that the black dust cap scrapes the out side of the shock and scratches it and the rear one gets caught in the coil and breaks . in my case i didnt like them once they failed and never want to run them again so i didnt worry about warranty . i know of a few more people who have done the same

The rubber ones like on a Rancho hold the mud and grit in. Grit is the seals worst enemy.
The black guards are not the best, but they do protect the shaft from nicks and scratches, again, the leading cause of seal failure. If you damage your guard, call TD for a replacement.

i put rubber ones on mine but i havnt connected them at the bottom so it lets all the crap fall out but still protects the shaft from stones etc

[ISUZUROVER]

hit the bottom of the cycle with full force so you don't get the immediate and violent halt to momemtum and then the immediate and equally violent rebound.

Not sure what you mean by that??? Hit the bump stops??? There is no "violent halt to momentum" with leaf springs (until you hit the bump stops).

If the guy wants a more confortable ride unladen, then we are only talking about small amounts of suspension travel here. Overly stiff shocks will only make things worse.

As an example of how unimportant shocks are on (most) leaf-sprung vehicles: I once broke a front shock, and spent 2 days driving at a 4x4 park, and 300km driving home, with only 1 front shock. Couldn't tell the difference at all. I have 6-leaf springs - so plenty of interleaf friction. if you have 3 leaves or less you might start to notice the difference.

[Suspension Stuff]

hit the bottom of the cycle with full force so you don't get the immediate and violent halt to momemtum and then the immediate and equally violent rebound.

Not sure what you mean by that??? Hit the bump stops??? There is no "violent halt to momentum" with leaf springs (until you hit the bump stops).

If the guy wants a more confortable ride unladen, then we are only talking about small amounts of suspension travel here. Overly stiff shocks will only make things worse.

As an example of how unimportant shocks are on (most) leaf-sprung vehicles: I once broke a front shock, and spent 2 days driving at a 4x4 park, and 300km driving home, with only 1 front shock. Couldn't tell the difference at all. I have 6-leaf springs - so plenty of interleaf friction. if you have 3 leaves or less you might start to notice the difference.

Well if you can't tell the difference then your shocks are not much chop, although your 1 shock would still be dampening the otherside somewhat.

I will edit this post if I think of a better way to explain what I mean.

Shane

Shane

[Suspension Stuff]

How much do the Boss adjustables sell for mate ?

Im willing to try anything to get a softer ride with out the engineering and paperwork headache of 5 link conversion.

$200 each.

Shane

[ISUZUROVER]

Well if you can't tell the difference then your shocks are not much chop, although your 1 shock would still be dampening the otherside somewhat.

Not at all, the shock had been recently reconditioned by WW shocks and was working fine. It is just that leaf springs have inherent damping (if you have enough leaves).

If you don't believe me, get a copy of this book:
http://www.sae.org/technical/books/AE-21

It is a simple fact that The more leaves in a spring pack, the less damping you need. If you have 10 or more leaves (in 1 stage) then shocks are usually not needed.

[Nelso]

I have just spent the last 20 minutes on the phone with Simon from Tough Dog.
Simon said to me and I quote,

"If any customer has a genuine failure, we will cover it. Always have, always will. The biggest drama we see are folks doing silly things like running huge coils spacers (which can cause the shock to "top out" and damage the internals), running their shocks without a black cover, and the classic one is overspray on the shock shaft! If you have damaged or lost your black cover, Tough Dog will always replace them, free of charge. Always have, always will. Given the lack of shocks we see coming back for leaking seals, I can only guess that people are not returning them for warranty claims. I urge anyone with a real issue to call me nd ask for me directly. I will bend over backwards to help you out."

To me, you simply cant ask for more than that. So all of you guys who are reporting failures, why not call Simon and see if he can help you out?

Rick.

I know that you sell their gear and they have looked after you Rick but my experiences with them contradicts this claim. I had a big RTC steering damper that had major quality control issues as the spring and shaft rusted in two months. When I sent it back they repainted the body, and put a rubber boot over the spring to hide the rusty spring and shaft that was still there! In my experience they are deceitful greedy scum that have no interest in customer satisfaction; but not everyone it seams get treated the same.

Personally I think Tough Dog stuff is overpriced sh!t, but if you do have the urge to buy their products my suggestion is to get it through BBM as Rick has the magic touch and can get them to look after you if it fu<ks up.

[Troll00]

I have had both Tough Dog big bore with the in cab kit, and just changed to the EFS Xtremes, found the EFS seem better as they work to match the road your on, so highway seem hard, offroad slow crawling go soft and flex well, now I don't have the wife b#*chin stop playing with it while you driving ( controller that is)

[Gwagensteve]

I'm not sure why you're responding to me saying not to confuse popularity with performance or quality of the product.

Sorry for any misunderstanding - that wasn't directed at you Slunnie, it was BBM Rick who implied popularity means it must be a good product.

The fact that Rancho's were popular based on the sizes available is 100% true. Also, they were less than 1/2 the price of a revalved bus Koni, for example.

I agree they are almost a useful setup tool where you might be miles away from the stock valving or length, but they're no substitute for a quality, correctly valved shock.

PS I did pay to have Rancho's dynoed alongside the factory fitted bilsteins on my Gwagen to prove how suitable they were.

Steve.

[Suspension Stuff]

Well if you can't tell the difference then your shocks are not much chop, although your 1 shock would still be dampening the otherside somewhat.

Not at all, the shock had been recently reconditioned by WW shocks and was working fine. It is just that leaf springs have inherent damping (if you have enough leaves).

If you don't believe me, get a copy of this book:
http://www.sae.org/technical/books/AE-21

It is a simple fact that The more leaves in a spring pack, the less damping you need. If you have 10 or more leaves (in 1 stage) then shocks are usually not needed.

I understand about the self dampening of leafs and know they can be driven without shocks however if your shocks are not making a difference then they are valved wrong or at least not how I would do it. Shocks should make a difference or no-one would have shocks on a leafs sprung vehicle. I would suggest the compression of your shocks wasn't enough for you to feel what I am saying.

10 leafs is a lot of leafs. A lot of 4WD's don't have this kind of dampening.

I have had customers drive over 50kms on the highway to my shop in coil sprung vehicles with only 1 shock on the front. This could not be done if the dampening of the one shock didn't have an affect on the other side. Once he got here that one shock was fading badly due to the added dampening it had to do.

I have driven a vehicle with no shocks up front with a coil sprung vehicle and there is no way it could be driven that far without bouncing off the road.

We have had brand new Navaras in our shop with brand new aftermarket shocks and they were still complaining about the rough ride. I told the guy we would fit Lovells shocks for free with no obligation to purchase. We went for the test drive and the difference was amazing, we weren't being jolted around any more because of the rear leafs.

I won't mention the other brand of shocks he had but you can't convince me that Lovells shocks (a shock that is firmer on compression than some other shocks) don't make much difference to a leaf sprung vehicle.

[Suspension Stuff]

From Nelso's post.
We sell the Boss adjustable shocks and we use to get into the EFS Extremes and we still do Procomps. Because we sell these other brands we frequently here the horror stories of the bodge warranty job or no warranty at all because it is over a 2" lift.

From Trol00's post.

As you suggest the EFS Extremes are a far tougher shock then the Tough Dogs because of their problems, we do find that some of our customers find the EFS Extremes too harsh though, the same can be said for the Tough Dogs, it does depend on how much load you have on the vehicle. The Procomps are sometimes said to be a bit soft but now the Boss adjustable shocks are out we seem to have found the middle ground so it isn't too soft or too firm.

From Gwagensteve's post

I would agree that popular often means great advertising and for a while there wasn't much alternative. Years ago, I use to think Rancho were good until I had a set, I swapped coils over and changed setting frequently, it took a long time for me to believe that the shocks gave the rough ride.

We no longer sell the Tough Dogs even if the customer asks for them because of the probability we will have to deal with warranties (Although I don't think they are that terrible for a lot of people) so I would defintely recommend people to see BBM Rick if they want Tough Dogs because he seems like a decent guy and would look after their warranty.

I sometimes get myself into a bit of strife saying what I have said in this post, that is, bagging out products, but I think it is our duty to be up front and honest. I do believe the BBM Rick is an honest guy but just hasn't seen the light yet.

If sellers of these products were honest we would find out what was decent and what was not very quickly. The problem is, sellers can't bag out a product if they sell other stuff of the same brand (that is decent) or their supply will dry up very quickly.

Shane

[jessie928]

From Nelso's post.
We sell the Boss adjustable shocks and we use to get into the EFS Extremes and we still do Procomps. Because we sell these other brands we frequently here the horror stories of the bodge warranty job or no warranty at all because it is over a 2" lift.

From Trol00's post.

As you suggest the EFS Extremes are a far tougher shock then the Tough Dogs because of their problems, we do find that some of our customers find the EFS Extremes too harsh though, the same can be said for the Tough Dogs, it does depend on how much load you have on the vehicle. The Procomps are sometimes said to be a bit soft but now the Boss adjustable shocks are out we seem to have found the middle ground so it isn't too soft or too firm.

From Gwagensteve's post

I would agree that popular often means great advertising and for a while there wasn't much alternative. Years ago, I use to think Rancho were good until I had a set, I swapped coils over and changed setting frequently, it took a long time for me to believe that the shocks gave the rough ride.

We no longer sell the Tough Dogs even if the customer asks for them because of the probability we will have to deal with warranties (Although I don't think they are that terrible for a lot of people) so I would defintely recommend people to see BBM Rick if they want Tough Dogs because he seems like a decent guy and would look after their warranty.

I sometimes get myself into a bit of strife saying what I have said in this post, that is, bagging out products, but I think it is our duty to be up front and honest. I do believe the BBM Rick is an honest guy but just hasn't seen the light yet.

If sellers of these products were honest we would find out what was decent and what was not very quickly. The problem is, sellers can't bag out a product if they sell other stuff of the same brand (that is decent) or their supply will dry up very quickly.

Shane

Shane,

you are are stand up guy!

well done for speaking the truth. Its great to see someone stand by what they sell and be honest about it.

JEs

[DIRTY ROCK STAR]

maybe people should look at using some other options for shocks??
Raw4x4 make some big chunky ones and as they come from a history of making truck shocks they seem to know what they are talking about.
I have been lucky enough to see behind the scenes there and their research and development booth is cool to watch.
these guys dont just resell they actually design and test their products.
just my 2c having been part of the development of one of their products.

[truK]

Just thought i might add my experiences with TD shocks...

I've had toughdog big bore adjustables for just under 2 years now (on an 80 series with a set of TD heavy duty 2" coils). I ended up going with these shocks on the recommendation of a few mates within my 4wd club who have a lot of experience with driving on heavily corrugated track conditions and have tried a variety of different shock brands. With regard to adjustments i have had them on 6 pretty much the whole time and cannot fault the shocks in the time that i have had them. No leaks and no fading on corrugations. I've been very happy with them and i would get them again. Im only speaking from experience.

Last week i had a problem with the adjustors not moving on 3 of the shocks (i haven't adjust the shocks in over 12months) so i called the blacktown office and they said to bring them down and they would check them out. It was within warrenty but i was never asked for a receipt or where i had bought them. They fixed the adjustors/pistons and put new gaskets + bushes on as well. I found they were very helpful and polite to deal with.

I obviously can't comment for anyone who has had a problem with their shocks but for those that did it might be worth giving TD a call.