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Shock top hat failure on our stock 2024 Tacoma Off-Road while offroading

tacogarage

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We went out with the new taco to try and see what it was capable of in stock configuration and I have to say, for the most part, it was great! We didn’t do anything crazy but we did test traction, comfort and clearance pretty well (although we didn’t record it all)

We tried not to beat up the truck too much but the truck did end up breaking…

E1E2E9A7-74ED-40F7-980A-7CFE2B6A5B63.jpeg
880B1A07-BF2E-425C-B616-8EA5B116FC3D.jpeg


On our way back we picked up some speed on a flat area of the desert, and without hitting any jumps, rocks, or washboard one of the top hats of out right shock managed to come apart.

These new tacos have no frame mounted bump stops like the 2nd and 3rd Gens. Instead, the shock has an “integrated” bump stop that is simply a piece of foam that bumps the shock body to the shock mount or “top hat” when at full compression.

Our only conclusion is that fatigue or a hard enough hit was able to crack the top hat, a cap holding the bushing for the shock shaft came out and the shaft was able to completely go through the hat. We were unable to locate the cap so we are unsure if the cap broke or simply slipped out after the hat cracked.

In any case the cap was being held in place only by a groove on the hat that might have about 3/32” engagement with the cap, both aluminum parts. The hat seems to be formed over what seems to be a cast cap.

A7B26E27-1E3D-4CF1-B66E-C9920FE48838.jpeg
1E2A526D-C6BD-4981-BC3B-73C460D34F06.jpeg
829BDA7E-EAB2-4FC5-A422-F1CDABAE92F6.jpeg


Needless to say, I believe the cap is not enough to take the force a bump stop normally would. I am not exaggerating when I say we DIDN’T HIT anything that would have caused a hard bottoming of the truck.

THIS IS THE 10TH TACOMA I’ve owned and we’ve hit significantly worse things on old stock shocks, without a break. Pot holes on a regular street would have been much worse than anything we did on this run. We’ve worked on hundreds if not thousands of tacos at this point and we’ve yet to see a shock mount break. Mostly because all other tacos did have a frame mounted bump stop I would assume, but that’s exactly the point, if you’re going to make “off road” shocks and integrate the bump stop, the hats better be able to take an impact. These don’t seem to be able to do that. I could be wrong and this could be a fluke but the way it is designed seems to me like a weak point that will hardly be able to take a good impact without a redesign.

We have a clip on this video of where this happened, you can see we picked up some speed but there’s no obvious exact point where this would have happened, like I said, we didn’t hit any crazy terrain while taking that shot.

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Tacanta14

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So with TFL's broken Taco, that's 2 that we know of with completely different problems. Guess I'll wait for maybe the '25 Taco Off Road.
 

Mykale220

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We went out with the new taco to try and see what it was capable of in stock configuration and I have to say, for the most part, it was great! We didn’t do anything crazy but we did test traction, comfort and clearance pretty well (although we didn’t record it all)

We tried not to beat up the truck too much but the truck did end up breaking…

E1E2E9A7-74ED-40F7-980A-7CFE2B6A5B63.jpeg
880B1A07-BF2E-425C-B616-8EA5B116FC3D.jpeg


On our way back we picked up some speed on a flat area of the desert, and without hitting any jumps, rocks, or washboard one of the top hats of out right shock managed to come apart.

These new tacos have no frame mounted bump stops like the 2nd and 3rd Gens. Instead, the shock has an “integrated” bump stop that is simply a piece of foam that bumps the shock body to the shock mount or “top hat” when at full compression.

Our only conclusion is that fatigue or a hard enough hit was able to crack the top hat, a cap holding the bushing for the shock shaft came out and the shaft was able to completely go through the hat. We were unable to locate the cap so we are unsure if the cap broke or simply slipped out after the hat cracked.

In any case the cap was being held in place only by a groove on the hat that might have about 3/32” engagement with the cap, both aluminum parts. The hat seems to be formed over what seems to be a cast cap.

A7B26E27-1E3D-4CF1-B66E-C9920FE48838.jpeg
1E2A526D-C6BD-4981-BC3B-73C460D34F06.jpeg
829BDA7E-EAB2-4FC5-A422-F1CDABAE92F6.jpeg


Needless to say, I believe the cap is not enough to take the force a bump stop normally would. I am not exaggerating when I say we DIDN’T HIT anything that would have caused a hard bottoming of the truck.
THIS IS THE 10TH TACOMA I’ve owned and we’ve hit significantly worse things on old stock shocks, without a break. Pot holes on a regular street would have been much worse than anything we did on this run. We’ve worked on hundreds if not thousands of tacos at this point and we’ve yet to see a shock mount break. Mostly because all other tacos did have a frame mounted bump stop I would assume, but that’s exactly the point, if you’re going to make “off road” shocks and integrate the bump stop, the hats better be able to take an impact. These don’t seem to be able to do that. I could be wrong and this could be a fluke but the way it is designed seems to me like a weak point that will hardly be able to take a good impact without a redesign.
We have a clip on this video of where this happened, you can see we picked up some speed but there’s no obvious exact point where this would have happened, like I said, we didn’t hit any crazy terrain while taking that shot.

would something like the preload collars that Westcott makes help with this issue?
 

AlexT

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That looks like a fun trip! That top mount though seems like a very weak design. Thin cast aluminum like that will eventually reach it's fatigue limit from repeated stresses, even if you aren't bottoming it out. On my racecar I have aftermarket adjustable top mounts that use a heavy duty spherical bearing in place of a rubber bushing and they've taken a lot of abuse over the years. My guess is that the TH and TRD Pro will come with upgraded top mounts with their upgraded suspension while the Off road once again suffers from cost cutting.
 

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tacogarage

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would something like the preload collars that Westcott makes help with this issue?
No, that would maaaaaybe delay it a bit, given that now the shock would normally ride closer to its lower limit. The shock would have to travel maybe a 1/4” more in order to bottom out.
 
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tacogarage

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Have you brought this to Toyota's attention?
We’re working on a fox for this in case it happens to become a larger issue. We’re also working on a couple other products so we still have the truck in our shop. We will be taking it to Toyota this week though.
 

ridetime

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Does anyone know if this bump stop-less design is on all trims SR5, TRD Sport, Limited, or just off-road?
 
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tacogarage

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Does anyone know if this bump stop-less design is on all trims SR5, TRD Sport, Limited, or just off-road?
Im going to guess that this is for all of them, (normally) top hats are the same on all trims and if the “off road” doesn’t have better bumps, I’d be surprised if anything other than Pro or TH have them
 

Mykale220

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No, that would maaaaaybe delay it a bit, given that now the shock would normally ride closer to its lower limit. The shock would have to travel maybe a 1/4” more in order to bottom out.
how do you think this could be remedied or avoided?
 

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Powhunter

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I’m not saying I agree with the design, but if there is a silver lining, this eliminates one of the primary downsides of a spacer levelling kit. If the bump stop is integral to the shock, then if you install a spacer lift, you don’t have to worry about extending your frame mounted bump stop to prevent damage to your shock.
 

Tacanta14

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It's always good to look for the silver lining, Powhunter!
 

Powhunter

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Reading on Tacoma World it sounds like the guys that cracked the top hat hit a pothole in the desert doing 60mph. I knew a guy with a 1st gen Tundra and he had 250k on it (this was years ago) and the only repair he ever made to the thing was when his wife hit a big pothole on the highway. I’m beginning to suspect this won’t be an issue.
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