[rob_macca67]

Hi all,
New to this site and to owning a '93 Suzuki Vitara LWB. Just fitted some Hankook RTO3's, now looking at suspension.....

Question: I looked around and come up with either LOVELLS Coils or KING Coils. I can get a complete Lovell's Suspension lift for around the $700 mark and the same for Kings. I spoke to the people at Suzisport and they reckon you can't go past King Coils. Apparently they have help designed a shock in conjunction with the manufacturer which they believe to be an excellent combination with the King Coils.
Has anybody had any experience with the Kit that Suzisport offer vs the Lovell's Kit?

According to suzisport, it's no point getting a shockies off another brand of vehicle as it won't have the correct valving, etc and therefore will not work effectively as one that is purpose built.....

Want to install the most suitable kit that gives good rear wheel travel plus good normal road driving as the vit is my daily driving vehicle. What's the go for the front struts in increasing the travel? I read somewhere that you can alter the front mounting to gain an extra 25mm travel??

cheers



Rob McDowall

[crikeymike]

I ran king springs several years ago on my Vit and i was very very happy with them.

I have no experience with Lovell's, but wouldn't go past the king springs. OME's are great too, which is what i currently run.

They are correct with valving. You want to buy shocks/struts that are made specifically for a suzuki. I highly recommend OME front struts, and there are plenty of good options for rear shocks, including OME.

[royce]

I dont think you would get a better front strut than OME for a vitara, there are other options around now but the OME has the runs on the board so to speak

Ive driven vits with kings that were soft and kings that were stiff, kings are good quality springs, jsut make sure you get the correct ones for your application

ive driven one vit with the suzisport struts, they are just normal ones with an insert bolted in, cant rememebr the brand but they were pretty horrid, they failed not long after as well

I have ranchos in the back of mine, I like em as I can change the valving to suit being empty or loaded which helps a lot with the ride, I had OME before that and they were good too, the ranchos are a bit longer though

the strut flip is just a matter of taking the top strut mount and turning it upside down, I did it recently and you just need a way to get the old studs out and redrill the hole to 8mm and new bolts to hold it together, gave me 20mm more travel

[steve]

royce wrote:

I did it recently and you just need a way to get the old studs out and redrill the hole to 8mm and new bolts to hold it together, gave me 20mm more travel

sounds like that'd make a good tech tip report thing royce, maybe even with some photos

[royce]

I am pretty sure westie already did, it was over that fast the camera didnt even get to turn itself on

[cj_zuki]

The OME kit is very good, the only downfall IMHO though is the lack of travel of the rear shocks. That said I also feel that is a reason why you will will probably not flog out the joint to the top of the rear diff. The OME is valved better than most and even if you buy some other springs and shocks still spend the money and buy the OME struts. The OME kit rides and handles better than stock too.

I wonder how many of the comments I hear about the stiffness of other kits is contributed to by incorrect valving of the shocks and struts. I know of one person with a lwb Vit who decided to go the cheap way initially but ended up complaining of the ride. I sold him some second hand OME bits I had and he was so happy with the improvement even though he was still using the other kits springs. It could explain why some people find the King springs stiff and others don't.

[royce]

I happened to be unlucky enough to know somebody who purchased a light blue SWB that was owned by one of the people that were very vocal about how crap the ride was with kings, the struts were so stuffed and stiff (like not far from seized) that nothing would of been nice spring wise

very true about the rear as well, I can notice a difference in ride for every adjustment click on my Ranchos, gets very bumpy very quick

[rob_macca67]

Where does one look in sourcing RANCHO's Shocks & what price could you expect to pay?

royce wrote:

very true about the rear as well, I can notice a difference in ride for every adjustment click on my Ranchos, gets very bumpy very quick

[sp1086]

Go here for the Rancho Stuff.

http://www.4wd1.com/

I had Kings & OME's all round and it was beautiful.. on and off road.

[Bruce]

Gooooo......... the Rancho Rears and OME fronts

[The_GRIZZ]

a just wondering sp1086 do you remeber how much the Kings and OME's cost?