Advice on suspension upgrade and lift

If you're concerned about ride when unladen then adding a leaf is definitely not the way to go. I did this to my Rodeo and it gave the harshest ride. Fully laden it felt great. I would go with firestone air bags with the std suspension to begin with and then go from there. After you put your steel bar and 2nd batt. decide then if you need to do the front springs. If you've got heaps of cash go the medium ome with the firestone airbags.

Leroy

Ni Norm C, I have early mod 90 d/cab sr5 had old man emu fitted when vehilce was about 5 moths old has been around oz couple of times broken nothing (luck). Front springs(leaf) have only just started to sag shockies as well am about to replace but will fit ome again. Rear springs bushes etc still ok with 270,000 on the clock. Doing front in a couple of weeks time (doing myself).No doubt every one has there own opinion on all types of suspension (brands) but I will be sticking with ome Can't fault. I thought I would need a kidney belt with mine being fitted specially leaf front end but I was surprised not that bad. Your's shouldn't be too bad with ifs as you said maybe a bit bouncy in the rear end with out a load. I'll stick to the known brands.How will you go with warranty being a new vehicle, mine had a problem with center bearing on tail shaft they tried saying that is was due to the suspension lift. After much arguing and phone calls they agreed to fix it under warranty (in the first few months)Just a thought. Have fun in your new one Take Care Vitara

G'day Norm.
My Dec 03 Hilux SR5 petrol engine was fitted with an OME kit and I have a few comments.
1) Rear increased height is 50mm; front increase is 25 mm. This is within 'specs' as ARB put it. It is also acceptable to NRMA insurance as, they almost interrogated me regarding the heights. So, my car is in fact insurable. Make sure yours is "within specs" for insurance purposes. Don't know what the other 4by insurers have in the way of concerns.

2) Having had ARB 'alter' the vehicle (from Toyota's POV), the work now becomes subject to a LOSS of warranty on anything that is affected by the altered angle of the drive line. THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT. If you alter the drive line angles near the centre links, the engine or the vehicle may seem to vibrate - like mine does.

Now, Toyota investigated the problem yesterday and stated that ARB's modifications are entirely responsible for the vibration. To find out whether it was the new suspension, they simply removed the back drive shaft and drove the car using the front (in other words, the put it into 4WD and still drove the vehicle). They claim that the vibration disappeared.

I have had the ARB technician speak to the senior Toyota service manager to discuss the problem in 'technical terms'. ARB have agreed to look at it on Monday. I was really annoyed with the service of the vehicle by Toyota as, from a service they conducted in early June (one month before ARB had touched my truck) to remove a metalic 'clunking' type noise apparent when moving off from a standing start as the clutch is released, they returned the vehicle to me with the vibration clearly apparent to me...not to them so it seemed.

I then returned the vehicle to them a couple of weeks later (still no ARB work yet) and had a technician test drive with me. He stated the vibration was the beginning of the end for the clutch...they replaced last week as a consequence.

Then, on the 4-7th July, ARB added their suspension and, I still noticed the vibration. Not realising the significance of ARB inteferring with the truck before Toyota assessed the clutch issue, I continued to drive the car before having the clutch replaced last week.

The truck was returned to me last friday with shudder - not a vibration - that was MANIFESTLY worse than that which they would have noticed prior to replacing the clutch. The senior manager, the original drive test technician and other assorted folks then tested the car yesterday and declared that the vibration the original test drive technician noticed was NOT evident and, that it was a DIFFERENT vibration - attributable to ARB's work.

I am now stuck with the nuisance of the vibration - which in my untrained mechanical opinion, is the physical evidence of poor engine performance and therefore I would urge you to do the following IMMEDIATELY if you have already had your truck modified: have the OME fitters check the 'spacer' to see if they have altered the angle to a point where there is ... even a very slight ... vibration - not noticeable on any of your model Hilux not modified with the suspension.

It is very important you do this as, the tussle between owner, ARB and Toyota is not a position enviable to anyone.

ARB and Toyota were very polite but adamant that - either the problem has never been reported before or, it's not their problem. I have a very keen sense of how my truck should sound and feel and, they really struggled to notice. The only trouble is that fuel consumption declined and I lost a great deal of power - especially going up hills.

" BUGGER !!! "

Please contact me via email on owenia@bigpond.net.au to discuss if you like...we could speak on the blower.

regards

dave

Owenia - a native rainforest cabinet timber with a grain better than red cedar.