Dobinson 2 and 3 inch flexy coils? How good are they?

[cjm1983]

Hey guys just wondering if anyone has a 2 or 3 inch lift with dobinson flexy coils. What do you think of them? Also what shocks do you recomend. cheers

[SuperiorEngineering]

We sell them but i am not a great fan of the " flexy coil range " i prefer the normal range of dobinson coils , with those we have had very limited problems or warranties.
Shane from suspension stuff has his own range/specs of flexy coils you would be better doing a search as their is a long post on here that is still current.
shanes are made from dobinsons for him and him only as far as i am aware.

[B.D.R]

I've got them in 3.5"

They work well for me, but it is still runing stock arms at the minute, they will be getting changed soon though

I'd buy them agian no problems, i got mine from Suspension stuff

[Auto-Craft]

The units Dobinsons have that are same thickness coils right through had issues with sagging over time, and when we developed ours we went to tapered wire and variable rate, to cure this issue and stop any "coil chatter" that the dead coils gave on the early designs.

Our current design, made just for us, which we also export, is as good as they get really, giving over 100mm of extra free height for the lift, allowing much longer shocks to be used, and the spring to stay captive, so there is no unsprung movement, when articulating.

Wehave tested these coils on everything from the Canning, to everywhere in the Simpson, and everything in between since 2005, and it took 18 months and 9 coils designs before we got what we were looking for, but they work, and work well, especially if you dont want a tall truck.

From Jan 4wd action





For the shoot my 80 had heavier trial rear coils [370 lb rate] as well as the 270 lb front coils, and heavier sway bars, and was pretty much unloaded, but it gives an idea of how a 3"lift on 37's can run a 12"stroke shock, keep the coils captive, and drive like a vehicle should, on road.

Like this first pic, with a heavy 4"lift coil, and our 12"stroke shock, you can see the coil comes out of the seat by over 50mm, yet the slinky 3"coil could run a 14"stoke shock, and stay captive.





We also do 100 IFS slinky long travel kits



We also developed our Patrol units at the same time, using the same technology and design software, to mkae them work.

[Suspension Stuff]

It has been said before but that last picture is cheating. You can't have both wheels up the ramp.

"News Flash", we (Suspension Stuff) are now doing tapered wire coils similar to the dude above and by coincidence also have a 4" longer free height then a regular coil. If purchased in a kit, we haven't increased our prices however if you purchase just the coils the price has had to go up because they cost more to make. If you already have a set of coils purchased through Suspension Stuff we will upgrade you with a $100 discount if you wish.
For a Patrol we have the coils available from a 2" lift to a 7" lift and every half inch in between. We have them in normal duty and extra heavy duty for load carrying duties.

From Mid December 2010 we will have a Suspension Stuff 6" shock that we will be matching with the 3" lift. (In testing on the travel ramp, the coils actually stay trapped with a 820mm 8" shock but if you jump the vehicle the coil could fall out) We are also using Tough Dog Shocks and SRC remote reservoir shocks. The Procomp shocks are still available for the die hard fans but the Suspension Stuff shocks have been created to replace the Procomps which are too soft for most.

In 2011 we will be making these coils available to other 4WD workshops around the country.

To clarify and correct what was in the previous post:-
The flexy coils that Dobinsons have available to all their customers are actually a tapered wire coil but they are too soft for most applications in my opinion. I wish they would stop selling them. They only have them in a 4" lift.
The flexy coils that we at Suspension Stuff "use to do" were the same thickness all the way through. We have never experienced sag. We originally did a softer 3" flexy coil which we stopped making because it would drop too far under load.
No customers to my knowledge have ever received a coil that experienced "coil chatter". We were very quickly able to solve that problem in testing. There were no dead turns technically but they were closer together.

Cheers
Shane

[zookimal]

From Mid December 2010 we will have a Suspension Stuff 6" shock that we will be matching with the 3" lift. (In testing on the travel ramp, the coils actually stay trapped with a 820mm 8" shock but if you jump the vehicle the coil could fall out)

What's stopping all these long shocks from bottoming out? Coil bind?

Not just a question for you Shane, but anyone selling kits (specifically shocks) with a compressed length more than a couple of inches longer than standard.

[Suspension Stuff]

From Mid December 2010 we will have a Suspension Stuff 6" shock that we will be matching with the 3" lift. (In testing on the travel ramp, the coils actually stay trapped with a 820mm 8" shock but if you jump the vehicle the coil could fall out)

What's stopping all these long shocks from bottoming out? Coil bind?

Not just a question for you Shane, but anyone selling kits (specifically shocks) with a compressed length more than a couple of inches longer than standard.

1stly, you have to modify your bump stops with a regular 3" kit, you just have to do it a bit further if you run longer shocks.

On the rear. Coil bind was never an issue. The shock would always be the point you need to set your bump stops up for. The reason we have chosen a 6" shock instead of a 7" shock on the rear is partly because we don't want to have to increase the bump stops too much because when jumping the vehicle you don't want to bottom out the suspension causing a rough ride.

On the front, coil bind was a problem with our old type flexy coils and this is the reason we changed to the tapered wire coils. That leaves the problem being the shocks. Upgrading to bigger bump stops is an easy $100 solution (80 Series rear bump stops) if you want to run 5-6" shocks. Another solution is to get shock tower spacers. You can't space them out much if you don't have a body lift though.

The coils themselves won't fall out with bigger shocks so for those who are happy to raise their shock towers by 2 inches, we will be supplying 720mm extended shocks for no extra charge, you will still need the bump stop spacers also. All this is won't increase flex a great deal though unless you are fitting Superflex arms or an X-Link, 5-Link, have very soft radius arm bushes or flogged out radius arm bushes.

[zookimal]

Good reply, and yes, agreed, bumpstops should be fitted.

I guess what I should say is that for the thousands of kits sold over the years, I don't think I've ever seen one that includes extended or replacement bumpstops as part of the kit.

This isn't a criticism of anyone in the industry (I run your product in my truck Shane), just an observation.

[Suspension Stuff]

Good reply, and yes, agreed, bumpstops should be fitted.

I guess what I should say is that for the thousands of kits sold over the years, I don't think I've ever seen one that includes extended or replacement bumpstops as part of the kit.

This isn't a criticism of anyone in the industry (I run your product in my truck Shane), just an observation.

We have developed bolt on kits over the years with varying degrees of success. Where the bump stops is bolted to the chassis at the top it is curved which makes it hard to start with and then it is only bolted on with 2 bolts and the more you space it out the weaker it becomes.
The best way that we have found was to use 40mm box steel side by side welded on the the base plate. Problem with including these in the kits is that each vehicle is different, each shock is different and where the panhard rods are adjusted changes the measurement and then people have bigger tyres and different offset rims. If we supplied the bump stops then we who sell this stuff take responsibility for all these things.
Having said that, we are in the process of developing bolt on bump stops at the bottom. Problem is finding someone to do them at the right price so it doesn't make the kit way more expensive.

Shane