If there’s one 2nd gen Tundra that needs the beefiest suspension on the market, it could be Buzz’s Tundra. Buzz can be seen around all the socal desert spots, Big Bear, and of course Mammoth Lakes, his stomping grounds when the winter hits and the fresh powder dumps.
First day was a dream, exactly what i expected, super soft... but stiff in the right places
Suspension Journey
The Tundra reportedly wasn’t stock for long, the first suspension upgrade the Tundra saw was a spacer lift on the stock strut. But spacers dont improve performance.
Needing more damping required a real shock upgrade, Buzz went with the Bilstein 6112 to provide more off road capability and handle his more aggressive driving style. One of the big differences the Tundra experienced with the 6112 was better response during harder hits offroad, and reducing how hard the suspension would bottom out to the bumpstops.
Daily driver comfort improved a bit over stock, but when going from nearly-dead stock parts to the beefy 6112 shocks, the improvement is dramatic just from not having blown shocks!
I can jump the truck now, and not be scared at all.
As for the 8112 upgrades, we were glad to have Buzz’s interest on these shocks, as Bilstein had recently just released the coilovers to market, and there wasn’t much ‘buzz’ about them yet. While there’s a huge selection of amazing shocks for the Tundra, we’re of the opinion that Bilstein has one of the best packages available with their new Zone Control technology.
With a triple-piston design, the 8112 features 3 compression damping zones, and 2 rebound damping zones, all controlled by 3 independent pistons.
Bilstein put more shock absorbers into their shock absorbers.
While the technology advantage is dramatic compared to the competition and usual shock absorber package we see in the offroad industry, we (along with our followers) were skeptical about how much difference it would make when the terrain got tough.
One of the biggest things our staff noticed was how the 8112 excels at creating that ‘bottomless’ suspension feel, where other coilover packages generally fall short on their own. Typically vehicles that want to achieve the best off-road performance are running hydro bumpstops on the control arms to stop the suspension in its end range during compression. But with the internal stops of the 8112, its buttery smooth with the bolt on shock package.
The rear 8100 60mm shocks dont have as much magic internally as the front 8112s, but the external bypasses still do make significant differences in ride quality and control when pushing the suspension to its extreme (Buzz’s specialty).
- Compression adjustment with 10 clicks controls how firm the shock responds during hard compression forces that move the piston out of the daily ride zone.
- Rebound adjustment with 10 clicks controls how fast or slow the shock (and rear suspension) rebounds out of the shock; a fully closed rebound setting is more damping force, meaning the slowest it gets. Fully open rebound means less damping force, being the loosest / fastest extension of the shock.
