Bilstein 8112 Coilovers & 8100 Bypass Shocks Review - Toyota Tundra
Posted by Sean Reyes on
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. Spacers are great for an inexpensive way to get some bigger wheels and tires on your vehicle, but strut spacers dont add performance to the vehicle. In fact - they decrease performance by limiting droop travel of the shock towers.
With this Tundra's driving style, more damping was required, so 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 off-road, and reducing how hard the suspension would bottom out to the bumpstops.
The thicker 60mm piston of Bilstein's 2.6in bore shock body helped dampen far better than stock shocks or even Bilstein 5100s; namely slowing down those aggressive hits better.
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 off-road 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.
SHOP BILSTEIN 8112 ZONE CONTROL SHOCK SETS
