Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hey All,

Got another Question???

My Vitara is lifted, at the front with 40mm lifted king springs (which did nothing) and 30mm coil spacers! But now it tops out when off road!!

My question is will OLD MAN EMU front struts fix this??

Is this what people mean by OME??

As ARB couldnt inform me if they have more travel or not!

Also what shocks do you guys recommend in the rear, as thes 2 are topping out, with only the lifted king springs fitted, (no spacers) or am i just better to fork out for the Calmini 3 inch lift??

Dont really want to go this option due to cost

Any help would really be appreicated!!

OME are 40mm longer than std ones. You can also do a strut flip you give you more drop but you are then starting to max out the cv's.

Calmini struts are no longer than stock. The exta travel is achieved by spacing the top strut mount down.

OME struts have 46% more travel than the stock sierra strut. Yes that's what people mean by OME.

Tough dog struts are even longer, but will bottom out causing damage if the car is landed hard without bumpstop spacers.

Why did your 40mm lift springs "do nothing?"
30mm spacers will provide about 60mm of lift to the car in the front, or 2.5"

I think I would start with OME struts, OME rear shocks and camber bolts ( your camber will be miles out) These should help heaps.

Even with a calmini kit (not without their problems) OME struts are still the best choice, the calmini struts are junk.

Steve.

check out the "Bible" under Strut mount flip


http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=13687.0

hey,

the springs only lifted it about an inch!
thats why i bought spacers.
the two to one ratio didnt really work out. as even now its pretty even front to rear.
iv already fitted the camber bolts as it was well out.
u obviously ment vitara not sierra in ur reply right?

So u think the OME ones would fix the toppping out and u dont recommend the Calmini kit?

I'm not keen on the strut mount flip myself and have just received a set of strut mount spacers from low range offroad in the US (postage was USD $40). They will add 38mm to the strut mount (not the 2" they mention) See here:

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/kicksuspension.htm

Have not had time to get it all together yet as i have a couple of bits to come, but planning to add some bump stop spacers as well using the OME FK28 kit for the XL7 which will add 20mm to the bump spacers. Might not be quite enough so wait and see. I was planning on doing a thread with some pics of all the bits

I have the OME Vitara suspension and only got 30mm or so out of it, but as it is much stiffer, I have much less probelm getting over things.

hi rod

you could have had mine for $80 aus ( 40mm )

tim

Blair P Kerr wrote:hey,

the springs only lifted it about an inch!
thats why i bought spacers.
the two to one ratio didnt really work out. as even now its pretty even front to rear.

It's just a little under 2:1 but the front of a Vit sits lower than the rear so if it is now sitting level then you have lifted the front more than the rear. Also you need to consider the condition of the springs you replaced and how worn they were as most springs are designed to give you 'x' amount of lift over a standard fresh set of springs.

The only longer travel struts made are those by OME and Dobinsons, all the other brands are the same length as the Factory ones. The OME ones are a proven item and worth it IMHO but I don't know how well the Dobinsons struts work.

i use all OME in my vit. i have OME struts, shocks and coils. i gained just under 3" of lift from suspension alone.

i also did the strut mount flip properly, and i have no problems at all with bottoming, or topping out when driven hard.

OME vit struts are 40mm longer than stock in the stroke, and the dedicated OME vit shocks are 50mm longer than stock. anything longer and you will find the rear coils coming loose or even falling out. this is a pain IMHO.

i didn't use camber bolts, as they did not offer the needed amount for the camber correction. i used a die grinder on the strut. (not the knuckle)

anymore lift than about 2.5"-3" in the rear, and you will need to address the upper ball joint mount on the rear diff.

Different people bandy about 1.5:1 and 2:1 ratios for the front, but I've found the several Vitaras I've lifted to be about 1.7 ratio in the front.

Each time I've found myself disappointed with the amount of lift I got in the front, assuming 2:1, but have since started using custom springs to my specs (basically 60mm lift at standard loadings, slightly adjusted for the lift (approx 15%)) and I'm really happy with it.

The stock struts are used, and I've just flipped the top mount.

That's as far as I'm going to go, as the CV's will start to suffer if I go higher.

Blair P Kerr wrote:Hey All,


My question is will OLD MAN EMU front struts fix this??

Is this what people mean by OME??

i also wondered this for a while, but...
OME = old man emu
OEM = original Equipment Manafaturerer (suzuki / Genuine)