Tough dog coils and shocks - any good?

[joelt]

I'm thinking of buying some tough dogs and was wondering if they're any good or if anyone has had any significant problems with them. Looking at 4" lift for a GQ, coils, shocks, adjustable panhards front and rear, 3 degree caster bushes, RTC damper. Thanks!

[AFeral]

just fitted a set of 45mm ajustable tough dog shocks. very happy with them seem to take all the abuse i have thrown at them.

[GU BUG]

Mate I can't go off personal experience but 4 of my mates that have fitted Tough dogs to their 4by's have had them leak within the 1st 12 months, one was taken back after 1 month as his was leaking then when he got his new one, it lasted 3 months before it started leaking again . They're not as good of a ride as mine either with the Koni's but the Koni's are a little more expensive but as the old saying goes ' Poor man pays twice' .

My opinion, go the Koni's .

[Nelso]

I will never pay for anything with Toughdog on it again. My experience involved poor quality and poor customer service and I know plenty of other blokes who weren't happy with stuff they bought either. IMO you can get much better quality stuff for less like procomp so why waste your money on Toughdog.

[ZOOK60]

I will never pay for anything with Toughdog on it again. My experience involved poor quality and poor customer service and I know plenty of other blokes who weren't happy with stuff they bought either. IMO you can get much better quality stuff for less like procomp so why waste your money on Toughdog.

X2
I totally agree I know a heap of guys that wouldn’t touch tough dog stuff again.

[eighty8]

I'm thinking of buying some tough dogs and was wondering if they're any good or if anyone has had any significant problems with them. Looking at 4" lift for a GQ, coils, shocks, adjustable panhards front and rear, 3 degree caster bushes, RTC damper. Thanks!

Got that same set up on my gq, been in for nearly 12 months, have'nt had any problems except for paint flaking off the shocks. Have no experience with other brands so i cant compare. But anything had to be better than what I pulled out, sagged springs and seized shocks!

[V6XtraHilux]

no complaints from me with the tough dog shocks and leaf springs. Mine are the adjustable 35mm shocks, although Ive heard that the bigger 45mm ones for the 6' lift kits on the patrols and crusiers do suffer from the over-weighting of the vehicles, but generally speaking they will replace free of charge under warranty.

[physh]

No problem at all with 4 sets of big bore TD adjustables on an 80 series, a GU, and two 100 series.
Love em.

[me3@neuralfibre.com]

If you are in SEQ ring Jamie at GSA Wholesale Suspension.

Personally I reckon you can't go past Koni.

Paul

[PGS 4WD]

Weve sold them for years and yes ther has been the odd shocker fail, they have always been replaced under warranty without delay, I've tried Ride pro, and EFS shocks personally and havent found them to be as good as they seem to go off much quicker. I have no doubt the Konis are equally as good and possibly better but what are you doing with the vehicle and does it justify the exta $500 to do all corners?
We havent had anyone unhappy(or let us know anyway) with the performance of the shockers compared to what they were running prior.

Joel

[chunks]

I have fitted both Tough Dog and Koni Heavytrack to a couple of new Hiluxs that are used to travel regularly at high speed (and fully loaded) on the rough roads to Bourke and beyond. We found that the Toughdog setup was far superior to the Koni/King coils/EFS leaves setup in terms of ride quality, load carrying ability aswell as being far easier to adjust with the external adjustment as opposed to pulling the Konis out to adjust them. The difference is so great that the Koni setup is coming out to be replaced with a Toughdog setup.

That said i believe Konis are a very good product, just in this application the Toughdog seemed to be better.

[Mick.]

I had tough Dog 45mm shocks on my patrol for 4 years and not one leaked. They are now on my mates patrol and still no leaks.

I still think that the reason you hear of so many with faulty tough dog shocks is because there a very very popular shock on lifted patrols and cruisers and I half of the guys running them probably arn't running the correct sized spring which is probably causing a lot of the failers.


Cheers Mick.

[ZOOK60]

I had tough Dog 45mm shocks on my patrol for 4 years and not one leaked. They are now on my mates patrol and still no leaks.

I still think that the reason you hear of so many with faulty tough dog shocks is because there a very very popular shock on lifted patrols and cruisers and I half of the guys running them probably arn't running the correct sized spring which is probably causing a lot of the failers.


Cheers Mick.

Mate I prob agree with you but also wouldn’t that come down to the supplier? My mate has a 80s which he ordered a 4" lift supply and fit.
The day before it was booked in for fitting he got a phone call offering him a 5" lift for no extra. He took the 5" but funny thing ended up with the same shocks as the 4".
This guy is not at all into the hardcore 4wd its more of a tourer. He has already had 1 nob brake off one shock and the other side is leaking. The shock body hits the spring and rear sway bar on articulation. Also the front castor correction bushes have flogged out too. Not real good for a six month old kit that was supposed to have all the bells and whistles

Its all good and well saying take it back for warrenty but really you are buying a shock that is nearlly twice the price of the compeditors at $275 each. If they are that tuff why are there so many warrenty claims?

[Mick.]

I had tough Dog 45mm shocks on my patrol for 4 years and not one leaked. They are now on my mates patrol and still no leaks.

I still think that the reason you hear of so many with faulty tough dog shocks is because there a very very popular shock on lifted patrols and cruisers and I half of the guys running them probably arn't running the correct sized spring which is probably causing a lot of the failers.


Cheers Mick.

Mate I prob agree with you but also wouldn’t that come down to the supplier? My mate has a 80s which he ordered a 4" lift supply and fit.
The day before it was booked in for fitting he got a phone call offering him a 5" lift for no extra. He took the 5" but funny thing ended up with the same shocks as the 4".
This guy is not at all into the hardcore 4wd its more of a tourer. He has already had 1 nob brake off one shock and the other side is leaking. The shock body hits the spring and rear sway bar on articulation. Also the front castor correction bushes have flogged out too. Not real good for a six month old kit that was supposed to have all the bells and whistles

Its all good and well saying take it back for warrenty but really you are buying a shock that is nearlly twice the price of the compeditors at $275 each. If they are that tuff why are there so many warrenty claims?

Yes mate I agree. There is a lot of saleman out there who don't know one end of a 4wd from another let alone how to set up suspension.

Cheers Mick.

[JemmyBubbles]

The best thing I've done to my Shorty GQ so far was swapping out my 4" Tough Shocks for Procomp es9000's.

The day I put the 45mm adjustable tough dogs in I just didn't like the ride on any setting, not to mention they were so bloody big that they caused clearance issues - things are fidley enough in a shorty as it is. I thought I would be getting ranchos rs9xxx's when I ordered the kit from xxx 4wd shop, I was surprised when the tough dogs arrived but I was sure with all the hype that they would be better.

[ferog]

I'm for... I've had TD BB Aj on my 80 with 6" spring lift for 3 years & they are doing great so far, they have been used and abused for towing, offroad, daily driven and on long trips, I haven't detected any change in function since new.

[Jok]

I've just got a 2" lift on mine, tough dog all round. I had to put a coil spacer in front after they sagged almost an inch, although free length wasn't affected enough to replace(they said).
In the rear I run polyair bags and Ralph shocks, although not the heaviest coil. This give a good ride when empty, just pump up bags for heavy towing. Have had to space out bottom of right rear shock as it caught on the coil on full compression in the bush, just mangled the outer cover on shock, but didn't look or sound that good at time.
Not that happy with those (minor I 'spose) probs for the money spent,
but the ride and articulation have been good.
Would I buy them again- jury is still out, only 2 and 1/2 years on vehicle so far, but would take good look at others.
Jok

[JemmyBubbles]

Righto to further this discussion,

Say I have 4 leaky/not very shock absorbing tough dogs sitting in the shed. My warranty has well expired, can I get them repaired/revalved/resomethingarather.. to use them as spares for the shorty ? If so who do I send them to and how much $$$ ?

[badger]

ww shock absorbers in virginia, brisbane do them for about 100 each