This is a video posted by another forum member in a different thread that illustrate the effects of a simple washboard road on your standard shocks. No RAM's in the video but the point is literally the same. They're not driving anything even remotely even close to what you'll do in the Baja race.
Granted this was probably a little free propaganda for the 17 Honda Ridgeline since only one shock failed lol
This is just a simple drive at perhaps 15-20mph, maybe 20-30mph if you feel your shocks can do it. The main difference is that in this case it's for miles on a washboard road to reach a wonderful destination. The Titan will match our RAM 1500's in size and weight, and that version (Pro4X) have better shocks than what you get in a RAM 1500. The Prox models get a version of Bisteins valved a little better for dirt roads, same with the Taco TRD Pro in that year (2016) they were just Bilstein shocks specially valved for the Taco with in theory little more offroad in mind, Keep in mind this was the flag ship offroad Tacoma in 2016. Same for the flagship offroad Nissan in 2016. Toyota later upgraded the TRD Pro with the Bistein 6112/5160 combo, better performance but still no cigar for the crowd who's paying money to say they want to travel a little faster than your standard truck or Jeep in dirt roads. , Now days you get Fox 2.5 with electronic adaptive zone in the TRD models and Raptors
Also notice what fails first in the trucks, in both instances: rear shocks. isn't funny how some will tell you don't need 2.5 rear body shocks cause the rear barely sees any abuse ?
Grab a set of front and rear King 2.5 or Fox 2.5, or Radflo 2.5 or Icon 2.5 all of which are offered for the RAM 1500 and a set of real aftermarket front UCA's and go enjoy roads like that leading to the Racetrack in death valley for a bunch of miles at double the speed, i bet you can drive even faster if you had the balls
Any of these shocks will take roads like that like with so much ease is not even funny talking about it. Super simple washboard that is far away from the forces your suspension will see in the real Baja race. Icon will be the weakest contender here because they don't give you a front reservoir but still it'll get you home without your shocks leaking at least on several trips to the same place. I bet the house the other 3 vendors will run longer before having to do any maintenance in the CO's because of the reservoir. Simple physics.
As explained many times, these are not shocks for everybody and not everybody cares to even make the drive on roads such as that one. if you want performance shocks and you're into this type of driving and terrain and let me tell you this one is a big laughing road when you have performance shocks, then performance shocks are for you and yes they cost more money for a reason, And i promise you won't have to drive at 5mph to get to the death valley racetrack with any of the big boy shocks.
From Edmunds notes:
"Couple the service record with the technician's farewell warning to "be careful out there next time" and you've got a clear message from the dealership that it thinks we abused the truck or put it through some sort of special kind of torture. Despite the service writer's commentary in the write-up, the Tacoma's broken bits were the easiest to deal with. They came in the quickest, we had no trouble with the dealership, and we were back on the road in no time.
The other trucks, our long-term Honda Ridgeline and our long-term Nissan Titan XD, however, were not so drama-free. The Ridgeline took
nearly a week to repair while the Titan took
nearly a month. Both are particularly long stretches by the Toyota's standards. In the end, the message from all three trucks was pretty clear: Go 5 mph on the road to Racetrack Playa or be willing to pay the price"
https://www.edmunds.com/toyota/taco...oma-suspension-breakdown-in-death-valley.html
