Best suspension for (mostly) daily driving (1 Viewer)

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Houston, TX
Hey guys, what suspension setup do y'all recommend for someone mostly daily driving their cruiser. I have an arb bull bar and winch in the front, and a drawer system in the back. In a year or so, I want a swing out tire carrier in the rear. My main goal is smoothest ride available for city and highway driving, but also capable for the 4 or 5 times during the year that I want to take it on trails and off roading (no rock crawling or anything serious like that). Suggestions?
 
OME 2.5 with heavy front and medium rear. Minimal stink bug setup without spacers and medium in rear helps with daily comfort.
 
Perhaps a thicker swaybar
 
Don't forget the steering shock.
 
What Climr said.
 
So many people think that a really good suspension is just for offroad purposes. A good suspension offroad is important, but on the road is where a really good suspension will be enjoyed most. After having OME suspension (with a variety of different OME coil setups) for almost 20 years I can tell you that the driving experience day to day on the road in my 80 completely changed for the better with the Slinky suspension. Night and day difference. OME will do the job, but if you're looking for the best ride and performance, the Slinky suspension is where it's at! Add the HD rear swaybar and some offset knuckle bearings for a bit of camber in the front end and your 80 will drive like a whole different vehicle. Will feel way more sporty (other than 80s are slow) and the ride and cornering will be awesome.

From me experience with OME's, the mediums will be far too soft and with your current setup of rear bumper, drawers etc it will sag in the rear and wallow in corners. A swaybar upgrade could help in the cornering but it will still sag. Just not up for the load capacity IMO. The Mediums are best suited for otherwise stock rigs without bumpers etc if you are determined to go with OME.

I also had OME 863s and OME J's at different points. Both are heavy rate coils but with different free height. Again, both sagged badly when loaded from my experience. I had them paired with OME shocks, Fox 2.0s for a short time and even had some Rancho rs9000 adjustable shocks for a while. The ride was pretty harsh unless the truck was loaded and then it would sag and bottom out off road. It wasn't all bad. They did the job well enough that I kept using them for almost 2 decades, but that was mainly because it was one of the better options available not because they were particularly excellent.

The load capacity with the Slinky springs is much better and there is little to no sag at all even when loaded and pulling my trailer. The ride and performance is something that needs to be experienced to understand just how big of an improvement it is on and offroad.
 
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No doubt the slinky is great if that is in the OP’s budget. It’s 2-4X the price of the full OME setup so it better be!
 
Adam

So which Slinky “entry level” set up would you recommend?

The Slinky Stage 1 75mm long travel ?

Doubt I’d ever mod as much as you have, but if there is that much improvement...

Thanks!

So many people think that a really good suspension is just for offroad purposes. A good suspension offroad is important, but on the road is where a really good suspension will be enjoyed most. After having OME suspension (with a variety of different OME coil setups) for almost 20 years I can tell you that the driving experience day to day on the road in my 80 completely changed for the better with the Slinky suspension. Night and day difference. OME will do the job, but if you're looking for the best ride and performance, the Slinky suspension is where it's at! Add the HD rear swaybar and some offset knuckle bearings for a bit of camber in the front end and your 80 will drive like a whole different vehicle. Will feel way more sporty (other than 80s are slow) and the ride and cornering will be awesome.

From me experience with OME's, the mediums will be far too soft and with your current setup of rear bumper, drawers etc it will sag in the rear and wallow in corners. A swaybar upgrade could help in the cornering but it will still sag. Just not up for the load capacity IMO. The Mediums are best suited for otherwise stock rigs without bumpers etc if you are determined to go with OME.

I also had OME 863s and OME J's at different points. Both are heavy rate coils but with different free height. Again, both sagged badly when loaded from my experience. I had them paired with OME shocks, Fox 2.0s for a short time and even had some Rancho rs9000 adjustable shocks for a while. The ride was pretty harsh unless the truck was loaded and then it would sag and bottom out off road. It wasn't all bad. They did the job well enough that I kept using them for almost 2 decades, but that was mainly because it was one of the better options available not because they were particularly excellent.

The load capacity with the Slinky springs is much better and there is little to no sag at all even when loaded and pulling my trailer. The ride and performance is something that needs to be experienced to understand just how big of an improvement it is on and offroad.
 
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Adam

So which Slinky “entry level” set up would you recommend?

The Slinky Stage 1 75mm long travel ?

Doubt I’d ever mod as much as you have, but if there is that much improvement...

Thanks!
Its no secret that Slinky kits are not the cheapest option out there. But it's been the single best mod I've made to my 80 without question.
For "entry level" which I assume also means least expensive, the Stage1 kit is great. The stage1 kit is essentially identical to the high end stage4 kit with the exception of the shocks. There are two lift heights available, 50mm and 75mm, as well as 3 spring rates, medium, heavy, and extra heavy. So some of that will come down to personal preference for lift height and spring rate. Personally, I feel the medium rate slinkys are best suited for lighter rigs. For example, Woody's 80 is running the mediums. He has a Slee front bumper and winch and a 4x4 labs rear bumper with no swingout. Has a roofrack and occasionally has a RTT on it, but more often does not ( at least from what I've seen.) This type of rig is a good candidate for medium slinkys.
Woody80 by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

I have the heavies on my 80. My truck is pretty heavy but not as bad as some. Front and rear bumpers, winch, sliders, rear swingout, RTT, often loaded heavy and often pull a trailer. I think the heavies are a great match for my truck.
IMG_6993 by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Then there's someone like @mryanangel who's 80 is one of the heavier ones with a 6BT swap, bumpers, winch, sliders, drawers, fridge, rack, tent etc. He runs the extra heavies now after starting with the heavies and finding he needed a bit more. The Extra heavies are actually the same spring rate as the heavies but with a taller free height so it will still have the correct lift height when loaded but not have a harsh ride when unloaded.
IMG_0561 by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

The Stage 1 will come with the 2.0 IFP shocks. I ran these for a year before upgrading to the Stage 4s. I still noticed a significant difference with these shocks over the OME Nitrochargers and OME J set they replaced. I was very happy with these coming from the OME setup. Everything smoothed out and I could push the truck MUCH faster offroad with much better control. As I got more comfortable with them I was amazed how much harder I could push the truck and I began to run out of dampening and was bottoming out more frequently. That's what drove me to upgrade to the stage4's. For a large portion of 80 owners the Stage1 will be excellent. But if you want to best of the best, the stage4 is the best I've found of any bolt on option out there.
Stage1vsOME by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

What you miss out on with the stage 1 is a larger 2.5 remote reservoir shock with compression adjustment. The stage4 shocks are BEEFY by comparison. The shaft on them is huge next to 2.0 monotube shocks. These have 10 settings from soft (1) to firm (10). The stage1 shocks are the equivalent of a setting of 4 of the stage 4 shocks. The stage4 shocks also have an internal hydrobump. There's a significant jump in cost with the stage4 but the adjustability, hydrobump and oil capacity give a significant jump in performance too. It's been awesome to be able to tweak the ride settings depending on the terrain and load I have on the truck.
Axle relocation by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

One final note, it's worth it to spend a bit more on the stage4's if you have a heavy truck. The larger shocks are better suited to control the weight of heavy trucks. Hope that gives you the information you want.
 
Adam,

Great explanation! Extremely helpful....Thanks!

Stage 4 hunh? Hhhhmmmmmmmmmm

Now you got me thinking!
 
Subscribed to this thread. I'm in the same boat as the OP. Will be primarily be driving my 80 to work and then taking it on 7-10 camping trips in the summer with only moderate wheeling.
 
When washboard roads stop rattling your truck apart and you hardly feel them anymore but just hear a strange kind of "buzzing" noise from the tires you know you've got a good suspension. And when you can get a fat 80 airborne and the landing doesn't feel like you broke the truck in half that's pretty good too.

If the suspension can do that just image how it will do on the road.
 
When washboard roads stop rattling your truck apart and you hardly feel them anymore but just hear a strange kind of "buzzing" noise from the tires you know you've got a good suspension. And when you can get a fat 80 airborne and the landing doesn't feel like you broke the truck in half that's pretty good too.

If the suspension can do that just image how it will do on the road.

Who did you purchase the suspension through?
 

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