[5ierra]

Firstly, I'm John, i'm new to the forum and i have an 89' Tintop Sierra. How is everyone?

Anyways lets get straight to the the meat of it all. My sierra, shes a good girl, but shes in need of some surgery, shes stock as a rock and i want to change that.

Was originally thinking SPOA but being a 'p' plater and living in QLD this is a no go

So i did some looking around and landed on a 2" sus lift (would like to go 3-4" sus lift but cant find anywhere in brisbane that does them, if you know if any please let me know)

Never the less, i've gotten a great quote on a 2" OME lift with Dakar light springs and Nitro charger shocks fully fitted. But i have no idea how they perform and if they are the right shock for me, i've look at Rancho, Bilstein, Trailgear and i have no idea which i should go with because they all claim to have great articulation (my end goal is to have a very flexy suspension).

Any advice you guys can offer would be great, i know alot of you favour OME so anything you can say about them would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers! John.

[Ben_Sierra]

If you have a read through the tech section, or use the search, you will find countless threads about springs.... I can recall at least 2 this week.

Personally, I have Lovells springs and I think they are fantastic.

As for shockies, the Commodore/Hiace combo is pretty popular and gives good flex...

[Choppy]

superior engineering does a 3" kit there near caboolture. I think anything over 2" in QLD is apparently illegal anyway...? However i run 2" with 29's and have just got of my P's and was never questioned or pulled over. alot of people like OME and if i ever get motivated to change my springs again ill be going with them. check wants 33's LWB build he runs OME and he has CRAZY flex.

[5ierra]

Choppy wrote:

superior engineering does a 3" kit there near caboolture. I think anything over 2" in QLD is apparently illegal anyway...? However i run 2" with 29's and have just got of my P's and was never questioned or pulled over. alot of people like OME and if i ever get motivated to change my springs again ill be going with them. check wants 33's LWB build he runs OME and he has CRAZY flex.

I was speaking with a block and they are apparently trying to make it illegal to have more than 50mm of combined tyre, suspension and body lift... thats all i know about, but i think you may be correct.

I've heard the OME springs are rgood for that, i'm also hopping to RUF at somestage too, remove sway bar etc. How do i find his profile to see his Suzi?

Also, with a 2" lift and larger tyre (29-30") will i need to extend my bump stops?

[atari4x4]

5eirra, was it you that i was helping on 3wd Action the other day... welcome to Auszookers, it's a grimbo free zone!

does Z link mean anything?

go the OME + commonwhore/hiace combo with RUF & a 2" body lift from just_cruisin it's the best kit around & it's locally made! http://auszookers.com/index.php?name=Fo ... pic&t=6186

with this combo you'll be able to run 31's but your gearing will suck...

you can either put reduction gears in your transfer case or change the diff gears (options available from vitara are 4.6:1 & the more common 5.1:1)

[tanshi]

google "queensland transprt modifications booklet"

this will help with whats legal.

with 30s you will probably need a small bumpstop extension

[5ierra]

Hey Atari, yeh its the same guy, mate told me the blokes on here had alot more tech know how so i figured i'd try my luck for advice here.

Yeh the Commo set up seems to be the go for most, alot of people are rocking it. I dunno though, i guess commodore/hiace van shocks in my sierra sounds off putting lol. Will the OME shock perform just as good? I have a pretty good deal on the kit plus its full fitted so the couple hundred extra is worth it i guess for labour and warrenty.

With the Ruf do you run identical springs as in ther rear or does this make the front higher then the back? Do i have to run like, 2" in the rear and standard rears in the front? and its just a matter of moving the rear front mount back 23mm isnt it?

[atari4x4]

it's the OME springs that you run & the commo/hiace shocks.

i'm a vitara person so hopefully a few of the sierra crew jump in & set you straight.

[5ierra]

Also, as for gearing, i've heard it can be usless at times having crawler gears without lockers because the Sierra's are so light, you need momentum for obsticles and when you cant get it you and have to crawl you lose traction and dont go anywhere... is this the case? Has anyone else experienced this?

[tanshi]

no, crawler gears are awesome. No one i know has ever said they have trouble getting momentum with them.

you end up with a much lower low range but you dont have to always use first. i climb some hill in 3rd low.

you also dont need lockers, i have them front and rear but very rarely turn them on.

[5ierra]

Sorry, Atari, i edited my post and fixed it, i do understand its the commo shocks, not the springs, just wrotie it wrong i should proof read haha.

Tanshi, thats a good thing to hear, i was getting worried i'd have to spend more money haha. 6:5.1's it is then

Also, i read through that book. It only stipulates that you cant lift by unsafe measures, ie: inserting leafs in one side to get lift. but it doesnt stipulate a height restriction from what i can see (i'm probably missing something)

[tanshi]

your not missing any thing. the rules up here state. you have to extend your shocks by atleast 2/3 of your lift. and your bump stops cant reduce the gap between the axle and your bumpstop by more than 1 third.

i havent found any where that states any actual limit on lift height

[5ierra]

thats a good thing to know


it does state however that you CANNOT have more than a 15mm increase in tyre diameter from standard.

[tanshi]

correct, but wheel size is different to lift.

[5ierra]

yeh, i know, i was just speaking to a mate aswell, he believes that that 15mm may only be for cars, and 4x4's can have up to 50mm difference.

[tanshi]

nah its for all vehicles

except for commercial vehicles which have no rule for them.
i spoke to QT and if there is no rule it means no change is allowed for at all.

[5ierra]

Ahh ok, i guess its all abit of a grey area, because the rule in the mod book is for raising and lowering, but there isnt really anything on raising, haha.

[89_tintop]

tanshi.. what do they state as a commercial vehicle??

[Choppy]

this is want 33's build thread anyway
http://www.auszookers.com/index.php?nam ... pic&t=5582

[royce]

yeah lift is dont reduce your suspension travel either direction than more than 1/3 of stock, so if you had 3inch of down and up before as long as you keep 2 inch either way your right, yes its geared towards lowering than raising but thats good for us

and tyres are 15mm diameter regardless of 4wd or not

[2stroker]

Royce I often wonder why people bother to extend bump stops which then limits their upward travel, why not just bite the bullet and reposition the shock tower to stop the longer shockies from bottoming out. If they are adding liftand longer shockies they are going to be running bigger tyres that are illegal anyway.

[royce]

if your new shocks lost you 1 inch up and gained 4 down you still have another 3", if you lifted your shock mount you keep your up and have 3 down you still have the same travel but its a lot more work and extensions can be needed anyway for tyre issues, commodore shock + a bit of 25mm shs is pretty damn good value for the results vs shock hoops and longer shocks that will cost a lot more and need a lot more cool stuff in the shed to complete

my 235s scrub on the rear arches badly so I have a 2" spacer, which let me run a longer compressed length shock for more than a 2" gain in droop so I havent really lost anything (and you cant really do anything with the top mount on a vit

[5ierra]

If i were running 30" and moved the shock mounts wouldnt the tyre scrub on full compresion? or am i going to get thta even if i extend the bumps?