Shock covers: Worth It or a Waste?

Alright, buckle your seatbelts for minor debate.

If you were installing new shocks, are shock covers worth it or a waste?

I'm putting in new Elka 2.5DCs and want to protect them and prolong their life. Is 100$ for shock covers worth it? What are your thoughts?

Please don't wine about use case and where one lives. The idea in general is what's being asked.

Appreciate your insight.

 

I'm not familiar with shock covers - do you mean covers (I googled but they were no where near $100), boots (I thought they usually came with boots), or rear shock skids (looks like closer to $150)?

If you are asking about skids, I would only issue this word of caution. I read on another thread that someone put shock skids on and they held water and caused corrosion on the shock/mounts. They took them off and drilled a hole for drainage. That's about all I have to offer

 

When I rebuilt my Kings at 50k miles, the fronts were slightly pitted but salvageable, the rear shafts were shot. I'm cheap and into quick solutions, so I bought these Pro Comp boots, split em down the middle and zip tied them on the rears. Works great.
They don't hold a lot of moisture and they're easy enough to pull off and clean everything. I wasn't too worried about the fronts, as they don't get near as much abuse unless you're following a paddle truck in the dunes where everything gets sandblasted.

However, I cannot speak for Elka except I've read they are supposed to be very corrosion resistant and built for the Canadian winters. Buying a cover designed by the manufacturer for that price ain't a bad gamble imo. They gotta help some.

Good opportunity to do some documentation and a review for the forum members interested in Elka's.

 

Specifically shock covers - neoprene sleeves or nylon that cover your coils.

 

Good insight. Thank you.

 

I think that's a benefit of ELKA 2.5DC been an aluminum body vs shocks like Kings.

Since I don't have the 4Runner with ELKA I cannot tell anything if they are resistant to any corrosion.

 

How much dirt/gravel road travel do you do? This is what a shock body looks like after being constantly sprayed by gravel coming off the tire for several hundred miles. I made the mistake once of not mounting the boots that protect the shock shaft. Those shocks were leaking after two trips because the shafts were so rough from being abraded by gravel.

 

This may be a silly idea, but what about cleaning & spraying the rear shocks with a bed liner material?

 

Oops, I thought OP was talking about these. Not rock guards. My bad.




My OME shocks were same. And I even have mud flaps in front. But still sand/rock blasted.

 

Funny, the accordion sleeves that came with my rear shocks (not on them) were recommended by mechanic not to put them on, as it traps moisture. I took his advice, but I never thought about risk of stone chipping.

 

These are serious shock guards (sleeves). I was thinking that they would be worth the investment to protect the shafts like @Yamahamer noted above.

 

Does anyone have shock covers like these?

 

So, I just spoke with Elka on the phone and they highly recommend that no one use covers over the coils for any reason. The moisture will rust them in no time (powder coated or not). They didn't advise on using rubber boots to protect the shafts on the rear shocks though.

 

I’ve noticed lots of erosion from gravel roads on and near the lower rear shock mounts. My dobinsons are “upside down” shocks, so the shaft is on the bottom. The pic quoted below should give you an idea of the abuse the shaft would get if unprotected.

My dobs came with rubber gaiters and they have holes that seem to allow for good drainage. I have around 30k miles on them, so far so good. Im sure the shafts would already be pitted without the gaiters.

 

After 30 minutes with emery cloth. No saving them.
The Pro Comp boots split down the middle allow drainage and air flow.

 

King has recently come out with front coilover from what it looks like is road debris covers. They are plastic and basically cover from the bottom of the coil up so it protects the shaft from being hit by rocks and stuff. I don’t personally have them but kinda wanna purchase some cause having shocks leak due to chipped shafts sucks.

 

Just found them on kings website, they are coilover shaft guards. I’m gonna probably get some for my LT Tacoma for my fronts and my 16” rears as well.

 

All of the ones I've seen had small holes all around the lower portion to allow for drainage of any moisture.

 

What are non-kings shock people doing to protect the shafts? It would be a shame to invest anything on a suspension without protecting it from pitting. Huge time and resource cost.

 

I used rubber boots that came with bilstein on 4runner. For my other truck, I got a plastic "roost shield" from Fox and modified it to fit my non-fox shock to protect it.

 

I used the rubber boots that came with my shocks.

 

Roost shields look great! What did you do to modify it?

https://www.stage3motorsports.com/803-02-052-Fox-Racing-2-0-Roost-Shield-Kit-Shock-Covers.html

 

I carved out the mounting area on the shield so it would nest over the shock body instead of clamping near the eye and cut the length short so it won't scrape the ground if i stuff the tire up through a rut. It would have been direct fit no mod needed if i didn't have the resi mounted piggyback. At full compression, shield hit bottom of resi so that's why i cut and flipped it around like that.




This is a bilstein 5160 on a tundra.

 

The boots look like crap, but they work. Just re-valved my shocks and took a test run.
https://youtu.be/JjMOURhuJ5c

 

@raimieb Elka 2.5 rears come with a rubber boot cover to protect the shaft from everything I can see in photos on their site.

 

Great news!! Thank you Snuffle!