[Zuk_89]

Best place to buy extended struts for a 96 swb vitara

[Gwagensteve]

Might need a little more detail there.

[Rhinoman]

I run 2" strut spacers they give the same effect.

[SierraDan]

Wouldn't an extended strut allow more shock travel?
The spacer just moves the travel down?

Or do manufacturers just extend the body without an increase in travel?

[got_bar_work]

U dont use all the travel of the stock strut so a spacer will do the same thing.
U can only use the travel of a extended strut if u were to cut down bumpstop towers to gain more uptravel.
The cv have about 8in travel but u dont have 4in of up travel before the stock bumpstop

[SierraDan]

Lol, that's funny as.

[Gwagensteve]

OME struts are the longest available that fit. There were some others available (tough dog? Ironman?) but I believe these were too long and if the suspension bottomed hard they blew through the top mounts.

Steve.

[christover1]

Dobinsons, Ironman, Old Man Emu and Lowrange are the only extended struts I know of.

Dobinsons have not been good to me, killed 2 already in last 2 years.
My original OME struts were old, I replaced them as they were losing a bit of dampening.
I now have 1 of the original OME and 1 Dobinson, both are functioning well.
Ironman are cheap and easy to get, but they claim suitable for mostly road use.
May try Lowrange struts next that are now available.
Suzuki Sidekick, Vitara, X90, Tracker Extreme Duty Strut, 1.5" 38mm Longer than Stock (KSP-HDSTRUT)

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/suzuki/s ... strut.html

[christover1]

Another Dobinson strut bit the dust, fortunately it made it through the desert without breaking.
This time it seized up, and lost all travel.
Also had a fair amount of slack in the shaft, which may contribute to jamming?
Was a bit rough to drive in the last day of trip, so could have been talking to me then.
I have run out of Dobby struts now and so I refitted my original Old Man Emu struts.
Although a bit soft from age, they have no slack at all, and run smoothly.
Return/expansion has perfect damping, just a little soft on compression, so not a bad thing really.
Steers and rides much better now.
I won't recommend Dobbies anymore.
Were great when first fitted.

[got_bar_work]

U can run a second shock next to the strut to try and get more compression valving. Mate runs a rs9000 with in cab controller next to a stock strut

[christover1]

got_bar_work wrote:

U can run a second shock next to the strut to try and get more compression valving. Mate runs a rs9000 with in cab controller next to a stock strut

That sounds like a good idea, may do that.

[Chop]

Do you have your swaybar on Chris? I had a dobby strut go on me a while back but it had a good run, and one thing i noticed without my swaybar on it let the struts max droop and I reckon thats what killed it. I put the swaybar back on to stop it and they survived the last beachport thrashing.

[christover1]

No, my sway bar fell off ages ago, but if I can't get max droop, I could stick to stock struts.
Which has been thought about.

[got_bar_work]

Limit straps would be a better idea
Some old seat belts would work .

[christover1]

Or new strut tops, as 20 year old rubber could be too harsh to cushion droop.
Have seen new tops for sale on ebay.

[got_bar_work]

Its not that
Its the spring trying to rip the strut apart every time u lift a wheel off the ground
Nothing but a limit strap will stop it. The sway bar will help slow down the rebound but it isnt doing anything if u lift both wheels.
all the dual arm ifs have a bump stop under the top arm to save the shock and cvs .
on our cars the strut has to do that job . With liffted springs and big tires adding more shock load to the top of the piston u can see why a lot of the struts dont last long

[got_bar_work]

Just found a new strut idea.
Some one has put a 12" shaft in a 10" ori strut body then used a stock bottom strut mount to press on the bottom of the shaft. This is on a pathfinder but same type of set up. What do people think.

[Zook_Fan]

Old seat belts won't be up to the task. They'll quickly stretch to the point that they are unusable.

[got_bar_work]

Hows the comp gv going

[Zook_Fan]

Sitting out the back waiting for a transfer case. Need a V6 manual transfer which I can't seem to find for a reasonable cost.

[got_bar_work]

Put a auto in it .
Are u staying with the 35 or going back to 33

[Zook_Fan]

Converting to auto seems like more effort than it's worth. It'd be cheaper and probably easier to buy an auto, swap the good bits and build a new cage.
I want to test the cv's on the 35's but will be moving back down for the sake of the rear axles.

[SierraDan]

got_bar_work wrote:

Just found a new strut idea. ORI

Glorified Airshock with a flash body.

New lower arm, add an upper arm and run a small coil over would be my choice.

Youve still got the Vitara front driveline though...

[Zook_Fan]

And that's the real issue. If you were going to the trouble of putting an extra arm in I'd be seriously considering swapping to decent cv's to get actual travel. Which means probably new hubs and brakes for strength, weight and to suit a new stub.

I don't mind the sierra centre up to 35's but with custom stubs, cv's, axles and arms the set up would start to climb in dollars quickly.

All way off the OP, sorry for the derail. Buy OME.

[got_bar_work]

What dont you like about the ori dan.
every thing I read about them on pirate suggest they would be as good if not better then coil overs for any normal car. Not as good in pure top end racing but getting pretty good now with the remote res.
What do u think of the fox coil over air shocks dan.
im looking for stuff for the gv that can be adjusted for the difference in weight between empty in the wattos and full dragging camper on outback roads

[Zook_Fan]

Have a look at recent ORI reviews. Plenty of people on Pirate taking them back off to put a regular coil over back on. They are fairly unpredictable and hard to get consistent seem to be the issues. They are also designed to sit halfway through their travel at ride height which doesn't suit most cars.

Why go coil over air shocks? The coils are there to supply the lifting capacity, there's no need for the air shock to be doing it too. If you're going to spring for coilovers just get a regular remote res coilover and adjust your spring rate by adjusting the preload on the coils for the differences in weight. You'll need to do a few calcs to make sure you can go from unloaded to loaded with the same set of springs without inducing coil bind but I can see it working right if you do your research.

Either way you go just remember that shocks are tuned for weight. If you continuously change this weight you will never have the ride perfect. Probably better than it is now regardless though.

[got_bar_work]

Would adjusting preload be enough for like 200-300kg difference. Dan Whats a good place to get coilovers locally

[Zook_Fan]

If it's all rear weight you probably could. Depending on your spring rate you will likely need around 3 to 4 inches of preload difference to maintain ride height. If you're okay with the back dropping a small amount then you could lessen that.

Or you could run your spring rate high enough for loaded and deal with the extra height when it is unloaded. Depends where you want to sacrifice performance, it's going to be a compromise somehow.

[tanshi]

got_bar_work wrote:

Would adjusting preload be enough for like 200-300kg difference. Dan Whats a good place to get coilovers locally

ask Dan from KPD4x4 about Radflos

[got_bar_work]

Will sit it up a inch in the back with normal load and 2 people and get the coil overs built to that then just wind up the preload as I add weight for long trips.
Its wont be that often so it wont matter to much . On a long trip I will not be doing anything extreme anyway.
Might have to hit up dank that way I know that it will be right and know who to get the adjusted if wrong