[Built4thrashing]

Finally got around to swapping out the Dobinson front struts in the GV for some Ironman struts.


The old struts had developed some lateral movement at where the shaft goes into the strut body. even from new there was some movement but they have gotten bad enough to effect the alignment when cornering.

The iron man struts are better than the dobs but even they have a little play. Its maybe .5 mm but you can feel it when you manipulate it.

Has anyone else noticed this with their struts? Are there any brands that dont have play. Its a worry that there is play when this is the only thing holding the front end together.

[christover1]

My very old ome struts have no play, though they have lost a bit of dampening.
All my Dobinson struts developed lateral slop in less than a year.
Have refitted my original ome struts and is now much better.
I won't be using Dobbies anymore.
OME maybe, but a bit dear and no idea if quality is still good.

I am considering the struts sold by lowrange, though heard no good or bad yet.
http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/suzuki/s ... strut.html

[got_bar_work]

Its the tiny rod guide and thin shaft.
Mcpefson struts were never designed for this much load. The amount of lateral load on the shaft when your driving ob its side in a rut at full droop would be huge.
We need some inverted monotube struts. That way your got a 50mm shaft to load up instead of a 20mm one.
Im leaning towards make some like the old ultimate suspension ones
They were a bush pressed in a sleeve that a off the shelf smooth body mono tube shock sliped into. Im leaning more to a complete plastic sleeve pressed in the outer case that way there is heaps of support not just a little 50mm bush

[N.T.]

Australian Ultimate suspension mentioned to me that once you lift the GV 40mm or more it will cause wheel allignment issues amongst other things. The OME lift is very small so no real issue there. The Aussie Ultimate kit comes with a screw to help with this issue they reckon its solved the issue

[henno]

I assume you mean camber - in which case I agree - and most kits beyond 40mm come with camber bolts (which is probably the 'screw' you are talking about?). They are a cheap part. It is not some mystery only solved by Aussie Ultimate Awesome Aussie Excellent Aussie Suspension.

[got_bar_work]

Camber bolts are a joke. I dont know how they are legal. Ive had 2 snap on me . U would be better off slotting the top bolt hole of the struts . All the force is pushing the knuckle against the strut body anyway so the bolt is only holding in tension not sheer. Or u could run caster bushes in the arms to push the arms out to make up for the angle

[fordem]

got_bar_work wrote:

Camber bolts are a joke. I dont know how they are legal. Ive had 2 snap on me . U would be better off slotting the top bolt hole of the struts . All the force is pushing the knuckle against the strut body anyway so the bolt is only holding in tension not sheer. Or u could run caster bushes in the arms to push the arms out to make up for the angle

A very interesting statement...

Two observations ...

First - if the force is pushing the knuckle against the strut body, then it is perpendicular to the bolt so it IS in shear.
Second - if the bolt is only holding in tension and it snaps, the only way that could have happened is if it was over tensioned.

[got_bar_work]

Your right Its in sheer stock as its about 3mm gap between the knuckle and body but when u slot the hole it sits hard against the body. The bottom bolt has most of the load on it as it the knuckle tries to pivot around it . The top bolt isnt doing much after slotting it besides holding tension on the plates against the knuckel.
The camber bolts a very easy to over tension. U cant do them up to spec because they r only like 8mm not 12mm like the stock bolts. This is for a stock strut. I dont know if aftermarket strut bodys are different . U could weld a washer onto the strut to keep the bolt in the right position after a wheel alignment.

[fordem]

Again, an interesting statement ...

got_bar_work wrote:

The top bolt isnt doing much after slotting it besides holding tension on the plates against the knuckel.

With slotted holes you need to apply a greater degree of tension because you're depending on the friction between the "plates" and the knuckle to prevent movement, with camber bolts, that degree of tension is reduced, because the cam is what locates the knuckle and all you really need to do is apply sufficient tension to prevent the camber bolt from rotating.

Quote:

The camber bolts a very easy to over tension. U cant do them up to spec because they r only like 8mm not 12mm like the stock bolts.[/b] This is for a stock strut. I dont know if aftermarket strut bodys are different . U could weld a washer onto the strut to keep the bolt in the right position after a wheel alignment.

The camber bolts I've used come with instructions, which include appropriate tension settings...

As regards the aftermarket struts, they are generally identical or at least very similar on the critical dimensions, if they weren't they would not interchange with the OE parts, where I have found differences are in the mounting fixtures for brake lines and ABS cables, some of the aftermarket manufacturers "double up" on these, so that a single part number can be used on both left & right sides.

I've had vehicles with both slotted struts & camber bolts, I was not the person who slotted the struts, but I did experience constant problems with the camber changing because of movement as a result of the slotted struts - in contrast, the only problem I had with the camber bolts was when it came time to remove them - when the cam is visible it's easy to maneuver it through the hole, when it's in the knuckle and not visible you have to rotate and wiggle and pray.

[Mullett86]

Just to throw another ball in the court, I bought 'commando' shocks for my GV

http://www.aadiaustralia.com.au/products/commando

They are sold by Veales over here (who we have a decent account with), and were less than half the price of Ironman etc. They're similar to the dimensions I could find for other long travel struts, confirmed with the manufacturer:

Quote:

"I don’t have the OEM dimensions so I’m unsure, but ours are following.

The fronts are a mini strut, 310mm compressed 505 extended.

The rears are different depending on SWB or LWB but around 320mm compressed 510 extended."

They came in at around $100ea, and have done the last 6000km or so with good performance.