[Bazuka]

I owned a couple of zuks about 5 years ago now, the first came with some OME springs and I liked them so much that I swapped them on to the second one. Ride was great, flexed good and the zuk looked good for the 4 years I had them.

I am currently rebuilding a LWB (has some oldish Ironman springs at the moment) and thought suspension would be easy, just get OME! But after only a small amount of research I find out that OME is rubbish these days. Imported springs, springs that sag fast, bend or snap, springs that make the zuk sit lope sided and generally just a whole bunch of people not to happy with them.

I don't want heavy duty springs as I don't carry much weight. I want the best ride I can get on road with good flex off road. I am not to keen to take leaves out of spring packs because I am not confidant I can get it right and not stuff them. I want the springs to last but ride well.

What do you guys think? What springs are you running to get good ride, good flex and not changing them out every year? Is OME really that bad now?

I want to do this properly and do it once.

[Marko_SJ]

OME

Bloopac and EFS are stiffer from what I hear, although my blupacs ride fine, they have sagged.

I wouldn't worry about the sag myself, just swap 'em over one day and sag the other side too

[Gwagensteve]

No, OME aren't that bad. There's plenty of people on here who overload, de rate, ruf, overcompress, their springs and then whinge about them.

I'm yet to see a better riding spring than OME.

Steve.

[pezz]

whateva springs you can get that are free and low with good shackle angle

[Bazuka]

What is a good shackle angle? Could I not mod the shackles so that they cant be inverted solving shackle angle problems? Are extended shackles not good for spring durability because the angle of the longer shackle increases the amount of pressure on the spring when flexing?

Are OME branded shocks any good? What shocks would people recommend for a relatively lite LWB with 1.5" lift? Again ride quality and flex are priorities. With the list of mods I have I will probably have an extra 25kg over the front axle from factory and maybe 60kg over the rear on a daily basis.

[Marko_SJ]

Shackle angle: So that the shackles sit at about 45 degrees forwards and back respective to their location on the car, ie: not vertical, and not too far forwards, will give best ride and articulation AFAIK.

Shocks: may not necessarily be technically ideal, but see the shocks thread, page five gabriels part numbers are given by "rob45x" and confirmed by "two stroker".

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=34303&hilit=longer+shocks

Cheers

PS, my blupacs in my SWB had better angle and ride than full pack OME's in my LWB, so you may have to play with it!

[Bazuka]

Surely the angle of the shackle has everything to do with the length of the spring and weight on board So how would playing with the spring pack help that? You cant change the top leaf and riding around with extra weight just so the shackle angle looks good seems a little redundant. Are you recommending Blupacs over OME?

I only got about 3 pages through the thread you linked to about shocks and all it seemed to be was people arguing the merits of commodore/hiace shocks.

Is there not a soft, long travel shock designed for the Sierra?

I don't want longer bump stops and don't want the shocks to bottom out or limit the spring flex... Is this an impossibility or are the commodore/hiace shocks really the only solution?

Sorry for all of the questions, I just want to get the best setup from the start.

[Marko_SJ]

In red is my response, highlighted it so its easier to read.

Bazuka wrote:

Surely the angle of the shackle has everything to do with the length of the spring and weight on board So how would playing with the spring pack help that? You cant change the top leaf and riding around with extra weight just so the shackle angle looks good seems a little redundant.

Yes, you tune the number of leafs to the weight of the car, as you get closer to optimum you will get closer to an ideal shackle angle. This is as I understand it, providing springs and shackle mounts are stock lengths apart.

Are you recommending Blupacs over OME?

No, just sayin that my Blupacs that had 3 leaf packs and an alloy bar on the front plus a car full of tools out-rode my full pack OME's with no bar and weight in the back. OME's were in a lwb as well, the monroe shocks I felt did not work as well as the CJ shocks that are in mine (or whatever the **** they are)

Blupacs are regarded as totally inferior to OME, I was just describing the difference in being willing to 'fiddle' with the leaf pack

I only got about 3 pages through the thread you linked to about shocks and all it seemed to be was people arguing the merits of commodore/hiace shocks.

On page five, the member "two stroker" states that the shocks Rob found would be fine. TS has been playing with Suzukis for a long time.

Is there not a soft, long travel shock designed for the Sierra?

Probably but due to having shocks that work fine I've not researched it

I don't want longer bump stops and don't want the shocks to bottom out or limit the spring flex... Is this an impossibility or are the commodore/hiace shocks really the only solution?

If you run larger tyres you may need bump-stops anyway, the trick was to find shocks that aren't too long compressed, whilst still giving maximum down-travel.
Sorry for all of the questions, I just want to get the best setup from the start.

Thats fine about questions aye, better to do your homework IMO.

Somebody might chime in about a better shock setup.

Edit: dont touch extended shackles if you don't wanna play around with shackle mounts or longer springs. Let alone fitting a shock that can handle the extra travel.

[Bazuka]

Great! That all makes senses and I understand how it all works together a little more now.

Thanks The_Amateur for the responses.

I am planning to run stock shackles, OME springs, unknown shocks and 30" tires. 70lt tank, a bar and fiber glass top in the back and 10kg of tools plus a bar and maybe a small winch (4500lbs) in the front... I do have some idea's about making super lite bars so I am hoping they will only be around 15kg front and 10kg rear.

[Marko_SJ]

Sounds great, have fun with it I know I would