NorCalSam
Adventurer
Just a little update on the FOR set up we put on:
So far the ride is like night and day to the 2.5” OME setup we had. We love, it its great on road and off.
However, we finally got a chance to load it up and really test it with some weight.
Well like I said before FOR at the time had two springs to choose from for the rear a 3” and a 3.5” spring, I chose the 3.5” spring because of the weigh I carry. For the front he had the 3, 3.5, and the 4” spring, again do to the weigh factor I decided to try the 4” spring and use ½ packers in the rear at the time I did not realize that the OME packers would not work with the spring design. The spring is not flat at the end and therefore the packer is smashed in one spot down to maybe 3/16 or so. They are also tearing and will not last. With the normal FOR setup you should be between a ¼ to ½” taller in the rear I am flat or level front and rear. This puts me at a disadvantage right away and is not going to work. I think most people don’t carry this much stuff and kids.
For the Moab trip we had about 750+ lbs of gear and kids on or in the truck, if you counted Tree and I that would be about 1080lbs!!! Way too much s#%t!
For the test I loaded the truck with an estimated 550lbs of gear + the kids thats about 660lbs. not counting us up front to simulate a week + overland trip. No…I did not weigh anything, I don’t have a scale, but I would say that about haft of the items I am 100% accurate on because ether the weight was listed on it or I with a little research could find out. The other ½ of the stuff I would call an educated guess. And I’d say that any of you that have weighed there stuff or figured the gear like this that the little stuff adds up quickly. So if you don’t need it, don’t bring it.
Ok. Back to how the truck did. I took accurate measurements of all for corners in the same place on level ground before and after in was loaded. The front only lost about a 1/4” but the back had a sag of an 1 1/8” to 1 ¼ “ on one side for the truck when unloaded seems to set about ¼ lower on the drivers side where the fuel tank and spare tire are, even though when looking at it, it appears to be level. The on road behavior was very good to say the least. Having the right castor and a good set of springs and shocks makes a huge difference. We drove some very windy stuff and same highway stuff too all felt really good as we thought it would based off of what we have seen so far from the kit. It was truly a night and day difference from the OME 2.5” HD kit we had.
Off-Road we took the cruiser thru mostly easily to moderate stuff I’d say most of the trails were a 2 to 3+ difficultly. There was two or three very rocky 3+ spots, the type of stuff or trail that if you had a stock or nearly stock tuck it could be very challenging with the possibility of body damage if you didn’t get the tire placement just right. With our setup however running 35s and available lockers was pretty much point and shoot. The 35s are cool, they make big rocks look small and it does change your whole plan of attack. It seemed to make easy carefree work for some otherwise nasty sections of the trail. Even with the weigh handy cap the truck and Teresa did very well, having lockers in the pocket did hurt ether. The rear suspension did bottom out a few times. But I felt that just a ½” and a little more resistance would have prevented most of if not all of it.
This test clearly shows that the front springs did great but the rears like the OME HDs were forced out of the operating range maybe not as much and they retained there good driving manners but they were not holding up. Now with other springs that are heat rolled not cold rolled this would be very bad for the springs but with the cold rolled spring there going to have much more memory and resilience over time but the question is how much more? I don’t what to find out with my money.
I talked to Frankie today and gave him the numbers and feedback and he is looking into getting me a rear spring that will be longer and set the rear end about 1/2” taller then the front. He is going to run the numbers and talk to the spring company on this. Also he now has front springs in ¼” increments from 3” to 4” so one thing I could do is go down a ¼” in the front too, if I want to. He is really working hard to figure all this stuff out and be able to provide tailor made kits to people with the highest quality springs and that people are happy with.
There was also some future stuff that I can’t talk about right now.
Oh 35s and a lot of s#*t with 4:10 gears sucks!
Truck is getting 4:88 right now.
So far the ride is like night and day to the 2.5” OME setup we had. We love, it its great on road and off.
However, we finally got a chance to load it up and really test it with some weight.
Well like I said before FOR at the time had two springs to choose from for the rear a 3” and a 3.5” spring, I chose the 3.5” spring because of the weigh I carry. For the front he had the 3, 3.5, and the 4” spring, again do to the weigh factor I decided to try the 4” spring and use ½ packers in the rear at the time I did not realize that the OME packers would not work with the spring design. The spring is not flat at the end and therefore the packer is smashed in one spot down to maybe 3/16 or so. They are also tearing and will not last. With the normal FOR setup you should be between a ¼ to ½” taller in the rear I am flat or level front and rear. This puts me at a disadvantage right away and is not going to work. I think most people don’t carry this much stuff and kids.
For the Moab trip we had about 750+ lbs of gear and kids on or in the truck, if you counted Tree and I that would be about 1080lbs!!! Way too much s#%t!
For the test I loaded the truck with an estimated 550lbs of gear + the kids thats about 660lbs. not counting us up front to simulate a week + overland trip. No…I did not weigh anything, I don’t have a scale, but I would say that about haft of the items I am 100% accurate on because ether the weight was listed on it or I with a little research could find out. The other ½ of the stuff I would call an educated guess. And I’d say that any of you that have weighed there stuff or figured the gear like this that the little stuff adds up quickly. So if you don’t need it, don’t bring it.
Ok. Back to how the truck did. I took accurate measurements of all for corners in the same place on level ground before and after in was loaded. The front only lost about a 1/4” but the back had a sag of an 1 1/8” to 1 ¼ “ on one side for the truck when unloaded seems to set about ¼ lower on the drivers side where the fuel tank and spare tire are, even though when looking at it, it appears to be level. The on road behavior was very good to say the least. Having the right castor and a good set of springs and shocks makes a huge difference. We drove some very windy stuff and same highway stuff too all felt really good as we thought it would based off of what we have seen so far from the kit. It was truly a night and day difference from the OME 2.5” HD kit we had.
Off-Road we took the cruiser thru mostly easily to moderate stuff I’d say most of the trails were a 2 to 3+ difficultly. There was two or three very rocky 3+ spots, the type of stuff or trail that if you had a stock or nearly stock tuck it could be very challenging with the possibility of body damage if you didn’t get the tire placement just right. With our setup however running 35s and available lockers was pretty much point and shoot. The 35s are cool, they make big rocks look small and it does change your whole plan of attack. It seemed to make easy carefree work for some otherwise nasty sections of the trail. Even with the weigh handy cap the truck and Teresa did very well, having lockers in the pocket did hurt ether. The rear suspension did bottom out a few times. But I felt that just a ½” and a little more resistance would have prevented most of if not all of it.
This test clearly shows that the front springs did great but the rears like the OME HDs were forced out of the operating range maybe not as much and they retained there good driving manners but they were not holding up. Now with other springs that are heat rolled not cold rolled this would be very bad for the springs but with the cold rolled spring there going to have much more memory and resilience over time but the question is how much more? I don’t what to find out with my money.
I talked to Frankie today and gave him the numbers and feedback and he is looking into getting me a rear spring that will be longer and set the rear end about 1/2” taller then the front. He is going to run the numbers and talk to the spring company on this. Also he now has front springs in ¼” increments from 3” to 4” so one thing I could do is go down a ¼” in the front too, if I want to. He is really working hard to figure all this stuff out and be able to provide tailor made kits to people with the highest quality springs and that people are happy with.
There was also some future stuff that I can’t talk about right now.
Oh 35s and a lot of s#*t with 4:10 gears sucks!
Truck is getting 4:88 right now.
