I got a set of those and they have this weird threaded aluminum plug in the bottom. There is no tooling provision to tighten, no way to adjust tension and it's sorta loose. Pistons are also rough. Most likely trash fodder for me.
I had not even looked at the shocks that closely to notice.
So this morning I did. The seal head lockring is indeed smooth but it tightens to where it needs to be quite easily. This isn't supposed to be an adjustable feature on shocks so as long as I can get it to its proper tightened position then all good. If it comes loose a piece of teflon tape would likely take care of that.
Nice that they use what seem to be standard o-ring sizes.
Pistons are certainly cheap-o and have some flash and blow by space. Not a precision piece. Likely the Traxxas pistons would fix that. Bore on these TOOMOD shocks I have is 10mm.
Stock suspension oil seemed quite thin.
Springs are too stiff even for my heavier trucks. Fit Axial, Element and Traxxas GTS springs though. My shocks have a fully threaded body and preload adjuster ring so this is fine for me.
Also, the 90mm long shock I took apart has way more travel than it should. If you take the top cap off, put the lower spring retainer on the shaft and then bottom this to the body of the shock such as it would at full up travel, the piston fully protrudes from the top of the body by 1-2mm. So at least for the 90mm shock you should probably add a travel limit spacer to the shaft on the outside. Likely this is not an issue on every length and variation of the shock. They probably just made the 100mm shock and then in the name of cheapness shortened the body by 10mm (instead of shortening the body by 5mm and the shaft by 5mm).
Otherwise the piston and shaft will smash into the best part of the shock, the bladder. That's right, these have a bladder. Not necessary at all, especially for crawling, but if you want to go a bit faster (like a 2 speed rig) then having a bladder and being able to both eliminate air in the oil as well as provide pressure to prevent cavitation then the bladder is good.
I'm certainly not using the TOOMOD on a competition rig but I will eventually find a home for them that isn't a drawer.
So certainly, not an easy, cheap shock to just buy and slap on your truck. But if you like tinkering, you can probably make these work well enough for less money than even the Traxxas GTS shocks as long as you don't value your time.
The other reason the TOOMOD shocks are interesting is because they come in a few mixed length sets that could be applicable to the Tamiya Buggies I've been playing with lately. Or are cheap enough to just mess around with multiple sets. If the seal glands and shafts are correct sizes to not leak, then its a good starting point to make weird stuff.
