Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I purchased the xtra heavy duty 6" spring/shock , Dobinson/tough dog combo nearly two years ago (the big bore adjustables have been faultless), after six months I removed the front springs because the buggers would not settle?, replaced them with 5"kings and 1" spacers and the truck sits level and rides/ flexes all good.........If ONLY everything was easy & simmple....

Peter K- its good to see some shop owners taking care of their customers anyone can make a sale, its the RETURN customer that makes you rich...... 35K so far and i havnt touched the eng.

its a shame you live in dubai bwana or you could have swapped my dobinsons for a house brick as i still need a door stop.

ONE coll... one comp one win its all down hill from here.

Bought a set of dobinson springs 6 years ago 5" still going strong blue in colour for family wagon. But in past 18 months have had to replace 2 sets of front ones in comp car due to saging also got no replies from the big shop in sydney and I tell every one about there poor sevice. Hammy how many comps you been guy???????? Laughing Laughing

Bro has a set of old dobinson springs blue still going strong seems like old ones were good but as for new ones .Was talking to some one at Lovells springs factory and asked about dobinson springs been made there he said they were but to dobinson specs and price not Lovells specs the two springs are not alike.

Zenith - The springs being 'made to dobinsons specs & price' by Lovells are not ordered by Dobinsons. Dobinsons make their own coils and do not sub-contract any-one to make their coils.

Time to pull the gloves off - Dobinsons set up a National 4WD Manager in Brisbane to promote and distribute the Dobinsons product. Resellers & Installers like myself were established. I was more into higher lifted suspensions than was available from XGS at the time. I was also into spring rates & rebound rates and the more technical aspects of setting up a suspension system, and this information I could get from the Dobinsons National 4WD Manager.

After experience with some of the higher lifted coils I was receiving, I started requesting certain specifications to suit my Customers requirements. However I was not in the position, at the time, to be able to order 10 of each coil specification. So the National 4WD Manager said that if I did not want to keep these specs as my own, he could have them made up and promote them through-out the rest of the resellers to enable ordering in 10 of each part number from Dobinsons. This was the only way that I could get the specs that I wanted so I agreed to it. It does not mean that the specs will suit other resellers' customers or applications - but that is for them to determine.

These springs were finished in a number of different powdercoating colours to suit some of the larger orders for resellers in NSW & Vic. We still didn't have a large number of high lifted vehicles in Qld due to DOT laws. The springs - unless otherwise requested - were powdercoated black for these 'specials' springs. (I mentioned the part numbering system used by Dobinsons in a previous post - but it might be best to ensure that they also have 'Dobinsons - North Rockhampton' written on the label as well)

A number of years after the National 4WD Manager was established, Dobinsons sold this part of the business to the National 4WD Manager, so that he could establish his own business and broaden his product range - he had a good network of resellers. This then meant that he was a free agent to stock & distribute what he wanted.

Lovells approached him and he started to distribute Lovells product. He then started getting Lovells to make these 'specials' which he said 'were not a Dobinsons specification anyway but his own specification'. He said 'it did not matter who made the coils because the same specification was being used by each manufacturers'. He was providing the specs to Lovells and negotiating a price with Lovells (as you do in business). However he was no longer called Dobinsons Brisbane but trading under his own business name - although most people still thought of his business as Dobinsons.

Now there is nothing wrong with all this as business goes - but I was finding that the 'same spec' springs that I was getting were not performing the same as the Dobinsons manufactured springs.

However it was affecting me and my business and my Customers. So in the end I approached Glen Dobinson directly and discussed at length the differences between the Dobinsons springs and the Lovells that were being made to the same specification. I will not divulge the differences (which is in the manufacturing process - not the specification), but I was satisfied that I would be able to continue installing a quality suspension system if I bought off Dobinsons directly.

I took some money to do it, as well as some new storage, but I bought 60 pairs of springs from Dobinsons - just to cover our 'specials' in some 3" and the 4-5" range for GQ/U Patrols. I do not know if others resellers are buying directly off Dobinsons or not. It might explain why Macquarie was not getting back to Hammey - if they too were caught out - just a thought.

It is a pitty to see the Dobinsons getting a bad wrap. There are so many people out there that only have good reports about them. There will always be a percentage that fails - otherwise there would be no need at all for warranties - but on the whole, most of the problems could well be put down to (a) not a Dobinson manufactured spring, or (b) incorrect selection/supply of spring [muddyperils 6" XHD for example]. And this applies to all coil spring manufacturers.

Peter K.

don't worry Peter K, people in dubai buy Dobinsons over OMEs, and that's without a warranty, so that says something. So far so good on my OMEs. Climbing the big dunes is a whole lot easier. If something happens to my OMEs, it'll be due to jumping....

then I'll give dobinsons a try.

Nice pic Bwana, we don't have the GU Shorty in Australia - I must try to smuggle one in one day !!

The OMEs should be OK if you ensure that your bump stops are long enough to prevent coil bind and shock damage.

Peter K.

It might explain why Macquarie was not getting back to Hammey - if they too were caught out - just a thought.

maybe they should have rang us back and explained it we are not stupid and we may have been understanding

For sure - couldn't agree more

The more information people have - the better. I F#$% up too sometimes, but I explain to Customers and mostly they are understanding.

Just to throw another angle to the argument,
I recently bought a 1990 GQ with supposed 2" lift on it. Was sagging and the OME shocks were leaking (over 400,000km on it).

I replaced the shocks with Ralph in-cab adjustables, and put polyair bags in the back, and now I have a truck which rides well on blacktop on low shock settings, and is great in the rough with extra air in the bags and shocks. After about 20,000 kms, no leaks in the Ralphs!

Cheers

Dodge

Thanks for the info Bowtie landie . Explains it well.

i ordered a set of dobinsons and was supplied efs coils sold as a dobbinson, which was latter put down to the wholsaler supplying what ever he had lying around. they lasted 6months before they had sagged about 3inches, since replaced them with genuine dobbinsons and they havent sagged at all

BushPig wrote:Just to throw another angle to the argument,
I recently bought a 1990 GQ with supposed 2" lift on it. Was sagging and the OME shocks were leaking (over 400,000km on it).

I replaced the shocks with Ralph in-cab adjustables, and put polyair bags in the back, and now I have a truck which rides well on blacktop on low shock settings, and is great in the rough with extra air in the bags and shocks. After about 20,000 kms, no leaks in the Ralphs!

Cheers

Dodge

so you are comparing some shocks with 400 000km on them to some with 20 000. How is that comparable. of course the new ones will perform better and not leak