LX470 Lift Opinions

[texascrane]

I'm finally ready to pull the trigger on a lift for my 06 LX470. I'm looking at a couple of different options. On one end is Slee's heavy kit with OME shocks and 2866 springs. On the other end of the spectrum is Just Differential's Icon stage 1 extended length kit with 2866 springs + UCA's. I'm running 275/70r18 tires and have a slee dual-swingout rear bumper. I'll be adding a front bumper/winch and sliders when I do the suspension upgrade.

I'm looking for feedback from people that have had experience with these kits. Is there an improvement in ride on and off-road with the Icon stage 1's vs the OME shocks? At what point do new UCA's become a requirement? I'm considering doing the AHC delete and installing everything myself, but I've also talked to a few shops in the area. This seems like it's right on the borderline of what I'm comfortable doing in my driveway. One shop mentioned to me that he didn't think the new UCA's were necessary and that swapping them would add a lot of time ($) to the install. That didn't sound quite right to me, but maybe swapping the UCA's is a bigger job than I thought?

Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated

 

[redthies]

(2)866 are OME coils, and since both kits you mention use them, why not just run an entire OME kit? That's what I would suggest. Coils, torsion bars, shocks. Done. I don't think there is any need for UCAs either. The Slee dif drop is however a good idea.

 

[99superduty]

I have the OME coils/shocks up front and rear. Left the airbags for now as there isn't anything wrong with them. Arnott makes replacement airbags so I may go this route down the road to keep that feature. I did "trick" the airbags to get a little more lift in the back.

Like the ride and its done great on the trails so far.

 

[expeditionist]

I just had my LX lifted at Slee a few weeks ago. Added the UCA's last minute and it didn't add much to labor cost.

 

[r3run33]

how do you like the drive so far? did you go heavy or medium?

 

[texascrane]

Thanks for the input everybody. After talking with a bunch of shops in the area, and talking with Slee on the phone, I decided I'm going to head up to Colorado in a few weeks a have Slee do the OME 1.5" heavy lift, front bumper and sliders. Their install price was as good or better than everybody I talked to locally and I know it will get done correctly. I work remotely to begin with so I'm just going to treat it as a working vacation for a few days before I go my "real" vacation at Overland Expo West.

 

[texascrane]

Also, FWIW, I going to do the UCA's as well. Slee told me that while they could get usually get the alignment back within specs on a 1.5" lift with the stock UCA's, they can't usually get it back to exactly where they'd like it to be. The UCA's give me a bit more flexibility if I decide to change things up in the future and it wasn't going to add much to the install cost to throw them on while doing the rest of the lift.

 

[Jwestpro]

Also, FWIW, I going to do the UCA's as well. Slee told me that while they could get usually get the alignment back within specs on a 1.5" lift with the stock UCA's, they can't usually get it back to exactly where they'd like it to be. The UCA's give me a bit more flexibility if I decide to change things up in the future and it wasn't going to add much to the install cost to throw them on while doing the rest of the lift.

Exactly why are there no photos for a follow up ?????? Sounds cool. I'm interested because I had an 06 LC and would have done basically what you just did so I'd like to see what I missed out on What did you decide with the AHC? Was it retained somehow in the OME lift? Would be a nice feature if somehow you could travel highway speeds lower and higher on trails all while lifted 1.5" from the base reference.

 

[texascrane]

Exactly why are there no photos for a follow up ?????? Sounds cool. I'm interested because I had an 06 LC and would have done basically what you just did so I'd like to see what I missed out on What did you decide with the AHC? Was it retained somehow in the OME lift? Would be a nice feature if somehow you could travel highway speeds lower and higher on trails all while lifted 1.5" from the base reference.

I dropped it off with Slee this morning. Should be done tomorrow. The AHC is being completely removed. I agree it would be a nice feature to have at highway speeds (part of the reason why I went with 1.5" instead of 2.5"), but there's no way to keep it with the OME lift.

 

[texascrane]

Just got back from Slee. They did a great job and I'm really happy with everything. I was concerned ahead of time that the OME suspension would be too stiff. It's certainly stiffer than the stock suspension, but it's really pretty good. I would say that it's pretty similar to the AHC set on sport.

 

[Mako1114]

Just got back from Slee. They did a great job and I'm really happy with everything. I was concerned ahead of time that the OME suspension would be too stiff. It's certainly stiffer than the stock suspension, but it's really pretty good. I would say that it's pretty similar to the AHC set on sport.

Nicely done!! All-white paint with black bumpers looks classic.

Cheers

 

[TexasTundra]

Hey Texascrane, that's a great looking LX.

Just curious, what's the advantage of a 1.5" lift like OME if you loose the adjustability compared to just using the AHC on the trail when you need the clearance, or a 1" body lift?

 

[texascrane]

Thanks. There are a few advantages to the OME lift. The first is that you're moving from a fairly complicated (although incredibly robust system compared to equivalent LR offering) hydraulic suspension system to a very simple and therefore more reliable traditional setup. Moreover, if something breaks on the OME setup, you can probably come up with some kind of field repair in a small town. Good luck with that if your AHC globes go.

But the better reason from my perspective is that the AHC system just isn't designed to take the weight of a fully loaded vehicle that's also a bunch of extra weight added to it (bumpers, sliders, roof rack, etc). There's been some discussion about getting upgraded coils and torsion bars from Australia, but there doesn't seem to be much experience with this. And even with upgraded hardware, you're still probably under-damped with the AHC system. Going with the tried and true OME setup was the path of least resistance after looking at all my options.

Personally, I never used the low setting on the AHC and so all I really lost was the ability to go from N to H. Now it's just like I'm in H mode all the time. And while the suspension is definitely stiffer than the AHC was, I don't find it too stiff and I really enjoy the reduced body roll when turning.

 

[doubleroses]

Looks great. My LX470 is identical to yours without all of the added bumpers and whatnot. Just curious, could you guys who have lifted your LX470's shoot me a message with how much it cost you to have it done? Thanks in advance!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[TxTortoise]

Looks great. My LX470 is identical to yours without all of the added bumpers and whatnot. Just curious, could you guys who have lifted your LX470's shoot me a message with how much it cost you to have it done? Thanks in advance!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Just drop Slee Offroad a note and they'll send you a full quote sheet. Will give you a baseline for the most complete, clean conversion with everything being pulled, as if switches and all never existed.