Old Man Emu front springs

group3j · Feb 8, 2012

Howdy,

Had an OME "2 inch" suspension lift fitted a month or so ago (springs and shocks). Truck now handles much better and is faaaar more comfortable off road. However....

It would seem that the lift in the back went nicely - 48mm higher, which is spot on. The front, however, is a different story. Immediately after fitting the kit it had only 15mm of lift. This is apparently within the expected range (of 15-20mm) if you're running a bar and winch. That is instantly annoying as when I spoke to them I was told I'd get between 30-40mm. Worst still is that the measurement taken a month later (a follow up check is required as part of the warranty) was back to stock - i.e. 0mm of lift.....which is even more irritating. I've spoken to ARB and they've got another set of springs on the way. As I see it, there's only two likley causes - they either inadvertently refitted the stock springs, or the springs have sagged in a month. In either case, it needs fixing.

Anyway, after that little tirade, has anyone else had seen/heard of this sort of issue with OME front springs before? I'm keen to know if this is something that has happened before or if its just a one off.

If this fails I think the way forward will be to check the travel of the front shocks and order up some springs off someone else....probably Superior, as they seem to have a good rep.

bigger al · Feb 8, 2012

group3j said:
Howdy,

Had an OME "2 inch" suspension lift fitted a month or so ago (springs and shocks). Truck now handles much better and is faaaar more comfortable off road. However....

It would seem that the lift in the back went nicely - 48mm higher, which is spot on. The front, however, is a different story. Immediately after fitting the kit it had only 15mm of lift. This is apparently within the expected range (of 15-20mm) if you're running a bar and winch. That is instantly annoying as when I spoke to them I was told I'd get between 30-40mm. Worst still is that the measurement taken a month later (a follow up check is required as part of the warranty) was back to stock - i.e. 0mm of lift.....which is even more irritating. I've spoken to ARB and they've got another set of springs on the way. As I see it, there's only two likley causes - they either inadvertently refitted the stock springs, or the springs have sagged in a month. In either case, it needs fixing.

Anyway, after that little tirade, has anyone else had seen/heard of this sort of issue with OME front springs before? I'm keen to know if this is something that has happened before or if its just a one off.

If this fails I think the way forward will be to check the travel of the front shocks and order up some springs off someone else....probably Superior, as they seem to have a good rep.

That sucks having 0 lift after a month I;ve got the king springs in the front of mine but I do have a different lift to but no sag as yet.

RustyNav09 · Feb 8, 2012

Mate I have efs gear. Half the price of the ome gear and I'm still retaining the lift a had when I got the kit installed. I would recommend this kit. As for your ome kit I have also heard from other members they have received the same outcome. There quality is not good anymore and they import a lot of gear now. Hope the next lot go better, but I doubt it.

Rusty

TurboGQ · Feb 10, 2012

mate i have just had my girl fitted with ome kit,,, i am more than impressed with the steel bar and all that at the front it lifted the front immensley, i think it may be near 3in awaiting sag, i also went with the new shocks as well,,, i have had ome before on my patrol and after the flogging they copped on corrugations i like ome for standard lifts, what you should check is the part numbers, did they allow for your bar work or they fit springs not suited to heavy front.....

group3j · Feb 12, 2012

TurboGQ said:
mate i have just had my girl fitted with ome kit,,, i am more than impressed with the steel bar and all that at the front it lifted the front immensley, i think it may be near 3in awaiting sag, i also went with the new shocks as well,,, i have had ome before on my patrol and after the flogging they copped on corrugations i like ome for standard lifts, what you should check is the part numbers, did they allow for your bar work or they fit springs not suited to heavy front.....

Thanks mate. I'm otherwise very impressed with the performance of the OME kit too......just need to sort out this height drama.

Yeah, I had them check the part numbers to ensure they'd ordered the correct parts. According to the cross reference between the invoice and the catalog, the front coils are the heaviest they make for the Nav. They apparently suite with both bar and winch (both of which I have). They then started looking for coils with the same diameter, yet heavier again (can't fault the desire to help) at which time I told them I'd rather understand the root cause than just band-aid the problem.

More I think of it, the more I suspect they fitted the stock springs back in. Either way, we'll see after tomorrow.

D40KC · Feb 13, 2012

I've got the same problem.. OME kit with leafs, coils and shocks and the front sits lower than id like.

Also got car, winch, lights and when parked next to a stock d40 it looks no different. Currently looking into it myself - can ya let me know how ya go and what part number your front coils are?

Thanks

CDY90 · Feb 13, 2012

My rigs going in on thursday for an OME kit, hoping i won't have same problems as you guys, although i don't have bullbar,winch or anything so hopefully not. Will let you know the outcome

group3j · Feb 13, 2012

D40KC said:
I've got the same problem.. OME kit with leafs, coils and shocks and the front sits lower than id like.

Also got car, winch, lights and when parked next to a stock d40 it looks no different. Currently looking into it myself - can ya let me know how ya go and what part number your front coils are?

Thanks

Yup, no worries. Its in at ARB today, though I guess there won't be an impirical result until its had some time to settle and be remeasured. I'm hoping that should only take a week.

If these coils don't fix the problem (they are the same part number, so there's every possibility), I will begin investigating the Dobinson 40mm coils that suit the bar/winch combination:

http://www.superiorengineering.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=31_52_350&products_id=7618

I've got two oconcerns. First is whether the OME shocks will have the travel to cope with the Dobinson coils. Second concern is how the additional height is gained - longer spring or greater poundage. I'd rather not the latter as I don't want any more understeer than it already has in the wet. Anyway, will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Will keep this post updated.

group3j · Feb 13, 2012

CDY90 said:
My rigs going in on thursday for an OME kit, hoping i won't have same problems as you guys, although i don't have bullbar,winch or anything so hopefully not. Will let you know the outcome

Please do; I'd be interested to know.

From my discussions with the guys at ARB, it would seem that they tend to expect between 15-20mm lift from the OME coils. This is in contrast to the 30-40mm I was initially told - not sure what story you were given?

Anyway, my winch (XDC) is apparently around 40kg's with cable and a bar is another...was it 50? (can't quite recall). In either case, without that additional weight, hopefully you'll get more out of yours.

Keep us posted.

CDY90 · Feb 13, 2012

35-40m they told me. the father in law has it both of his d40s an they both have bullbars and he got 40mm lift so i don't know what they've done with yours

D40KC · Feb 13, 2012

Yea that was my next thought - putting dobinsons in with the OME struts... but not sure about travel and stuff.

They tell me they have 2 types of front coils for D40 - medium 2607 and heavy 2608... and apparently mine has the 08's but not happy. Ride is great but I had to take the constant load springs out of the rear to level the car out

group3j · Feb 14, 2012

CDY90 said:
35-40m they told me. the father in law has it both of his d40s an they both have bullbars and he got 40mm lift so i don't know what they've done with yours

Hmmm...interesting - was that the quoted 40mm or the results of their measurements?

group3j · Feb 14, 2012

D40KC said:
Yea that was my next thought - putting dobinsons in with the OME struts... but not sure about travel and stuff.

They tell me they have 2 types of front coils for D40 - medium 2607 and heavy 2608... and apparently mine has the 08's but not happy. Ride is great but I had to take the constant load springs out of the rear to level the car out

Yeah, mine are the 08's - checked it yesterday.

They fitted a new set of coils and, after a 10 minute drive, apparently got the same measurements as last time. Their view is that its not the springs (which is fair; odds of two sets of new coils sinking are next to zero) and have thus concluded that whichever person did the baseline measurements got it wrong. That seems like a fair assumption....however it doesn't help me a lot. I now have no idea how high it was to start with, nor how much lift I've gained relative to standard. It just has 'some lift'.

I'm going to take my own measurements on the weekend and start a new thread to see if there are any folks with standard Nav's willing to take some measurements that I can compare to. At least that way I've got a starting point. :/ I'd really rather not spend money on new coils without knowing how much lift it has over standard now. I'll also measure the rake in the chassis, as they did say its 50mm taller in the rear (assuming that was measure correctly of course). Hopefully that will arm me with enough info to decide whether its worth replacing the coils or not.

I'm now _kicking_ myself for not measuring it before it went in. I was going to, but I decided it would be all good (after all, well known brand and a common mod) and subsequently forgot about it. :/
Lesson learned....

CDY90 · Feb 14, 2012

Thats wat the results were. I've measured mine and measured both of his and its a good 40mm lift and hes had it in for about 2 years in one and about 8 months in the other.

ZORDO · Feb 14, 2012

So what is the measurement centre of hub to guard
Cheers

group3j · Feb 14, 2012

CDY90 said:
Thats wat the results were. I've measured mine and measured both of his and its a good 40mm lift and hes had it in for about 2 years in one and about 8 months in the other.

Ah, so you guys did the measurements yourselves...nice. Clearly wiser than I was.... :/

I'll have to try and figure out how much I actually have......

group3j · Feb 14, 2012

ZORDO said:
So what is the measurement centre of hub to guard
Cheers

Righto, measured it up. Drivers side is 545mm and the passengers side 550mm.

Nice method BTW; wasn't going to do it that way. Using the guard to hub measurement removes tyre size, which is superb.

CDY90 · Feb 15, 2012

mine from centre of hub to guard is 520mm on driver side and im not near my father in laws d40s but wen i measured them up couple months ago when i was deciding what suspension to go, his were both 40mm higher give a take a couple mm as i was in a bit of a rush when measured. My nav goes in tomorrow for old man emu so i'll remeasure when i get it home.

group3j · Feb 15, 2012

CDY90 said:
mine from centre of hub to guard is 520mm on driver side and im not near my father in laws d40s but wen i measured them up couple months ago when i was deciding what suspension to go, his were both 40mm higher give a take a couple mm as i was in a bit of a rush when measured. My nav goes in tomorrow for old man emu so i'll remeasure when i get it home.

Cool, thanks. So it would appear that I've gained around 25mm over stock. Be interested to see what your measurements are after the kit has been fitted and the truck driven around a bit. All things being equal, I'd expect you should see around 550-560mm from what ARB is saying. Hope that's the number that you get.

Hmm....need to ponder this result. Not sure I'm keen to pay another $200 for what should amount to another 15mm or so......

Tappet · Feb 15, 2012

Hmmm Think I might go spacers.

Old Man Emu front springs

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