[OMEGA]

Morning all, was lookin on eBay for bits and bobs and saw some cheap lift kits, suspension on mine is due for replacement anyways so was considering getting one but before I did just wanted to put it out there and see if someone has already purchased one and how good/bad the kit was?

[Zook101]

Everyone Told me they were cheap and you get what you pay for Etc Etc.
I Bought a Blue Pac 2'' Lift Kit For My zook and I Must admit its Not Bad And looks Heaps Tougher You Will be Surprised how Much Lift you Get From Those Old Leafs
$610 Leafs, Shocks, Bushes, Steering Dampner Cant Go Wrong!!

[1-low-dat]

So a good kit you reckon?? I was looking at getting a set of those aswell but not too sure about them, other wise ill call ARB and get some OME 2" lifted springs

[Zook_Fan]

Go OME springs, it's really not that much dearer if you run OME springs, gabriel shocks and new bushes from anywhere. That way you'll have nice, comfortable and known to perform springs. Have a search on here, there are countless threads asking the same question with plenty of tech in each one.

[1-low-dat]

Yeah i think id rather do that hey, sorta works out a little bit cheaper anyway.
He told me $101ea for front pair of heavy duty 40mm lifted springs and $111ea for the rears and there just 40mm lifted ones too, but i dunno why the rears are more expensive??

[Gwagensteve]

There's more steel in them that's why.

Don't get HD springs unless your car is heavily laden. It will sit too tall and ride poorly.

Steve

[1-low-dat]

Ohh really, i got a steel bullbar on the front that i forgot to mention, but with the rears does that sounds right?? they are just 40mm lifted springs

[Gwagensteve]

They're 40mm if the car is the right weight. People make the mistake of running HD springs in a light car all the time. You'll get lots of lift but the car will ride and handle badly.

Steve.

[1-low-dat]

Thanks steve, what would you suggest??

[Gwagensteve]

Here's your answer:

Zook_Fan wrote:

Go OME springs, it's really not that much dearer if you run OME springs, gabriel shocks and new bushes from anywhere. That way you'll have nice, comfortable and known to perform springs. Have a search on here, there are countless threads asking the same question with plenty of tech in each one.

I think ARB quote that HD springs are for cars that run 100KG+ of payload constantly. That doesn't include the driver. "regular" springs will be fine if you're not laden heavily all the time. A bull bar alone isn't enough to take you to HD springs.

40mm of spring lift is plenty. Many people who start out with more lift hate the ride (and the lack of droop travel) and remove leaves until they end up with a good ride and around 40mm of lift.

Steve.

[1-low-dat]

Ohh yeah sweet as, thanks for that mate. So just a regular set of 40mm springs and that should do it? And they bushes, i was told by a mate that the polyethylene bushes give you a soft ride but they wear quicker like it says up there. And yeah the gabriel shockies, toyota hiace fronts and holden commodore wagon rears??

[neofitou]

I suggest you pm Dank for a price on EFS nice and long and cheapish and not random ebay ppl an actuall zooker.

[tazmanier]

have normal duty 40mm raised blupac kit installed. all the bushes and shackles are good. thats where good ends.
strait up I mesured the eye to eye of the front supplyed shocks. they would have bottomed out before the bumpstops. called them, bla ,bla, bla stalling for time, lost intrest. installed oem length front shocks. rear shocks will miss bottoming out by 2mm so there "good(see below)". I didnt like ride of it (to hard) so i removed a leaf from all springs. still at 40mm lift. it got sierra lean real bad after 1 week. put extra leaf in front right. ride still good. 6 moths latter with no heavy weight it has dropped 20mm. drove from syd to tassie with estimated 100-120kg in back (yes i should have installed extra leaf in springs) rear right spring was sitting 20mm of bumpstop all way. bottomed out 5-10 times. after trip rear right stayed at aprox 25mm and left 30mm from bumpstops (both fucked). pulled out both springs and rear right shock has lost precharge (mabey 2mm is not enough to ensure shock wont be hurt by hitting bumpstop?).
Istalled OME normal duty (they call it medium duty) reares for $100 each and left them alone. put 40kg in the back at all times and ride quality as good as its gona get.
fronts have now sagged (remember front right has the right number of leaves in it) to stock height. I will be getting OME's for these in the future.

lessons?

OME are built well (slipper pads on all leaves, paint is tough, rubbers around the keepers).
dont pull leaves out. want a better ride? buy a coily.

[1-low-dat]

Hahaha thats pretty interesting mate!! Well i wont be getting blupac springs then haha, i might order some OME's tomorrow, and pop into supercheap and grab some shockies
Thanks guys for the info, much appreciated.

[JrZook]

tazmanier wrote:

(mabey 2mm is not enough to ensure shock wont be hurt by hitting bumpstop?).

2mm of travel left once you hit the bump stop is definitely not enough to save the shocks from damage. Usually factor in at least ~20mm of bump stop compression in to your compressed shock lengths.

[Zook_Fan]

Totally disagree with the don't pull leaves out for a better rid statement. In any suspension set up you want the absolute lightest spring possible that will hold the load correctly, the rest of the suspension should be damped by adequate valving in the shocks. Putting heavier springs than required to compensate for shocks not doing there job is quite a compromise.

If you carry various loads, rear passengers from time to time, etc. then the lightest spring possible may be the full leaf pack. If you run a constant load all the time and never really go above or below it much then removing leaves and fine tuning spring rate with this method is highly beneficial.

[Gwagensteve]

X2. What's the difference between an OME medium and heavy duty spring? The number of leaves.

Steve

[JrZook]

Gwagensteve wrote:

X2. What's the difference between an OME medium and heavy duty spring? The number of leaves.

Steve

From what I was aware of the HD OME packs run a full length secondary spring under the main. If this is the case I'd rather go the HD leafs and remove the lower leafs. Full length secondaries help support the main and don't tend to bend/wrap as easily.

I run custom length 6mm packs all round. 4 front, 4 rear + 1 extra on the DS rear and the koni's. With this setup the vehicle still rides and flexes without any weight in it whilst still being able to carry 4 ppl + tow a jet ski and not ride the bumpstops everywhere.

[Wazz]

Heres my comparison.

Std out of box bluepac. stiff and go kart like handling.

Got efs acouple weeks ago and out of the box they have a similar ride to the bluepacs with i think one front and 2 rear leafs removed from packs.

As for shocks i noticed the bluepac rears werent long enough and would limit droop but the fronts seemed to be ok. I ended up using some OEM hilux 2wd shocks in the rear. My car does have 1" longer shackles and it doesnt flex to the bump stops



EDIT- Someone mentioned efs is longer, barely noticable with side by side comparison with bluepac, Was hoping they would be more longer to get a better shackle angle on my car.

[Ambitious]

Hey Guys,
After installing a 40mm suspension lift (ebay job) the rear of my coily bottoms out really easy. Even going pretty slow over speed bumps. The kit I used is linked below, are the rear springs just too soft? or have I stuffed something up with the install?
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 1487101724

[Ambitious]

So I thought I would answer my above question and hopefully help someone else out in the future. I tried replacing the ebay springs with King Springs (40mm lift for SJ80) but this did not really help. But then I tried the 40mm King Springs for the Jimny as the Jimny has the same rear setup, and they work a treat. The Jimny spring is stiffer and they are asymmetrical so the drivers side gets a slightly longer spring to help with the classic Sierra lean.

So if you have the problem of your SJ80 bottoming out or leaning with lifted springs replace them with 40mm lifted King Springs for the Jimny and you should be all good.

[buzbox]

Here's my experience:

Blu Pac "Comfort" rated springs
Removed the load leafs from all springs - I would suggest to leave it in for the drivers side to combat Sierra Sag.

Yes they are stiff, but do settle after a few km's, just adjust your tyre pressure's to suit.

I would also suggest to order 4 rears, They say that it will void warranty, but when I whinged about the sierra sag they said they won't cover it under warranty anyways, So there's no point trying to make a warranty claim with them in the first place.

You could also use extended shackles if you really wanted to and If I didn't have the bodylift in mine I would've.

To mod the bump stops to suit the lift, here's what I did -> viewtopic.php?f=14&t=35409&hilit=bumpstop

In saying all that, In my ute I have bought Dank's EFS super flexy setup. Awesome bloke to deal with, I haven't used them yet but I'm sure they will be much better than I expect.

[prickle]

buzbox wrote:

In saying all that, In my ute I have bought Dank's EFS super flexy sAwesome bloke to deal with, I haven't used them yet but I'm sure they will be much better than I expect.

Hi Buzzbox
Can you tell me a little more about the Danks ... I've done a search and couldn't find anything

Stuart

[buzbox]

Have look in the business directory of this forum. KPD4x4

[dank]

We supply the EFS lifted rear leaf springs x4 in a kit to fit to your sierra. It's the longest manufactured spring for a sierra on the market. You need to do a RUF conversion in the front to run this leaf spring and a few other mods like redrilling the ubolt plates to get the front diff in the right spot, adjust bumpstop lengths to run a longer shock etc.

What we normally do it supply the springs, customer installs them, works out how much travel they are getting, supplies me with shock measurements and we supply a shock to suit. The standard EFS 50mm sierra shock is way too short for this setup.

I would never recommend anyone remove the flat load leaf from your spring packs, you will end up with S shaped springs if you wheel it at all offroad. You do need to take a few springs out of the front pack to get the ride height right and also the back dependant on your weights, but it's always the third or fourth leaf in the pack you remove, never the bottom flat spring.

You'd be looking at around $600 for leaf springs ,bushes and ubolts, then whatever shocks you want to run after that so budget on around $1k minimum for the suspension parts, plus doing your RUF fabrication, sorting bumpstops, doing shock mounts etc.

It will be an awesome setup, probably cost double of an eBay no name to do it properly, but it will be a quality setup. I ran this setup in my sierra for ages and it was a good setup. The RUF is seriously worth doing if you want as comfortable ride as you can get out of leaf springs!

[prickle]

dank wrote:

................... The RUF is seriously worth doing if you want as comfortable ride as you can get out of leaf springs!

Hi Dank .. thanks for the response .. I got the impression from another post that ROF may be illegal / needs engineering certificate .. can you clarify please

Stuart

[dank]

Hey Stuart, if its done neatly....no one would know any different

There is another option, the standard 50mm lift EFS rear can be run in the front without a chassis extension, but you will need extended shackles....again not completely legal...if you have any concerns about engineering I can put you in contact with an engineer I've had some experience with if you wanted to go down that road.

Basically everything I wrote in the last post is alot of small things that all together make a vehicle ride much better. if you only do one of two of those mods you won't get the full benefit, it really needs to be done properly, but anyway, my experience is like Gwagens, always go the lighter spring option, lift isn't everything, a body lift will achieve alot more than any spring lift over 50mm.

Cheers Dan