Lifting stock weight (1 Viewer)

[trevdawg]

Well, its almost getting close for me to put in a lift on my 80, and i've been looking into the 80 faq and such.

One question that I have is that if I were to put 2.5" heavies all around, would the 80 have a stinkbug look to it, with no armor on it because the engine bay weights more than the empty back?

Im just thinking if i got the same lift for each tires it seems to me the front would be lower than the back with everything stock because of that engine bay's wieght.

Can anyone clarify what would happen if I did this?

Thanks for anytime and answers put into this.

 

[Bluetribal]

From what I have read, I don't think you want to go heavies all around without any armor. Unless you plan on adding that armor very soon you will be dealing with a rough ride.

 

[corsair23]

Yes, IMO you could expect the stinkbug look with that setup. Are you planning to add a lot of weight? If not, I would not suggest going the OME heavy route. You will net more than the 2.5" lifted height quoted (above what your OEM springs have lost over the years height wise) and the ride will not be the best (read rough). In addition the CC bushings won't be enough to bring the rig back into spec on caster which will lead to less than desireable handling quirks.

The OME lifts are designed to work with a certain range of weight added in and ignoring that will mean abnomalies they didn't intend on and you probably don't want to test for them ...A call to Slee with exactly what you are planning to do will get you the honest answer of what they would suggest with that setup.

If you plan to add the weight before or soon after lift (like I did) then go with right for the end goal. If it is going to be months down the road, IMO you'd be better off to swap out the springs when the times comes to add the weight.

 

[Capocaccia]

I run heavies all around with just a TJM T17 and Warn X8000i on the front and that rides great the back is still a little stiff since theres really no added weight but Id rather have the stiff ride than swap the springs and all.

 

[Tools R Us]

The OME recommended kits are setup for additional constant weight in the rear cargo compartment. IIRC the heavy kit is for ~500lb of rear biased weight. If you don’t plan on having that much rear weight onboard all/most of the time your better off ordering a “hybrid” kit, like med rear & heavy front, heavy rear & J front, etc. Kurt at www.cruiseroutfitters.com has also done a bunch of “hybrids” give him a call and see what he recommends for your planed setup.

 

[Tools R Us]

I run heavies all around with just a TJM T17 and Warn X8000i on the front and that rides great the back is still a little stiff since theres really no added weight but Id rather have the stiff ride than swap the springs and all.

Agreed, I have basically the same setup, except with J’s. Mostly like the ride, but would prefer slightly softer springs that gave the same lift, for better trail ride, but no one makes them.

 

[trevdawg]

Well I plan on doing armor, but ordering hybrid suspension sounds like what im going to do.

Thanks for the link to cruiser outfitters, I'll definitely call up Kurt and see what should go down.

Thanks!

 

[Grench]

I have the heavy/heavy lift. I installed it before I added all of the weight. It had the stink bug rake during that time.

Since adding an ARB w/ winch, a Slee rear bumper with a 285/75 MTR hanging out on it and a 24 gallon aux tank it sits pretty level and about an inch lower in front and about 2" lower in the back than it did with the lift alone. Fully loaded with gear for a week and it squats another 1/2" or so.

Give some consideration to what your end state will be and what tires you plan to run.

 

[smug01]

I have a hybrid setup (heavy 850 front, medium 860 rear) with no additional weight over stock. My truck sits pretty even but I am suffering on the ride quality. Even with the OME CC bushings, I have low caster (0.4*) and my LX tries to wander all over the road. I was going to add some weight up front but now won't for some time so I just ordered some medium 851 front springs. Cristo at Slee recomended this for my situation. Once you put the springs on once, I bet onecan swap an axle in less than 2 hours so the easiest (and cheapest short term) solution for me was to go back to the medium front springs until such a time as I have a budjet for Bull Bar / Winch / Batteries / Sliders. The down side is that my front should drop about 0.8" (but I will add about 1.4* of caster) so I will have a bit of a tall rear end with respect to the front.

Just my $0.02 from my experience. I like the look I have now but the ride/steering control is going to be more important to me.

-Craig

 

[Tapage]

I have a hybrid setup (heavy 850 front, medium 860 rear) with no additional weight over stock. My truck sits pretty even but I am suffering on the ride quality. Even with the OME CC bushings, I have low caster (0.4*)

And if you go with 3º castor bushing from Slee .?

 

[Nay]

You can do a search to get into the bickering about this recommendation, but I'm going to make it anyway and suggest you call Frankie's Offroad if you are interested.

The F.O.R. kit will give you a perfectly level suspension "at stock weight", and handles moderately heavy weight loads well (by this I mean typical winch/bumper/large family/gear, not 1,000 lbs of expedition gear in the cargo area). It rides exceptionally well in both cases (loaded/unloaded), much better than OME. To be clear, that means zero harsh ride whether you load or not. It is also designed for 35" tires without rubbing, whereas you OME medium/heavy are designed for 33's (although you can run 35's on either by limited up travel).

Here are three pics:

1) Completely unloaded including no tools/gear in the back.
2) Towing 3,500 trailer plus tools/hi-lift/150 lbs of kids in the 3rd row
3) Wheeling

There are options on the market that address the theme of this thread, which is dealing with loaded vs. unloaded ride comfort and desired front to rear ride height. When those are your concerns, getting away from OME completely may be your best answer and is worth exploring.

 

[Atticus]

abnomalies

Awesome.

 

[Atticus]

I need to look into Frankie's lift. But I see on their website that they're in Alabama. I'm not going to travel to Alabama for a lift. What a dump.

 

[smug01]

And if you go with 3º castor bushing from Slee .?

That was another option I discussed with Christo Slee. It would give me at most 1* more with the blue bushings for a total of 1.4*. The springs should give me another 0.4* more than the bushings to get me to 1.8* total caster, assuming the difference in height is 0.8" as specified in other posts for spring length difference. Neither gets me back to stock, but I figured I'd go with what Cristo recomended as the best option for my application (not to mention that I can still sell my heavy springs likely quite easily to recoup some of the cost).

 

[threatminor]

OME heavy lift with no armor

I also will be getting front and rear bumpers in the near future, but as of last Saturday have installed the OME heavy 863/850 lift on with no extra weight.

After everything I've read up to that point, I have been pleasantly suprised but how not bad of a ride at all it is giving me on and off road. I haven't even put on the ome steering dampener or CC bushings yet, and it still rides pretty nice whether at freeway speeds or off road, and with new 33" BFG muds.

I wouldn't stress too much about the ride and everything. If you plan anytime in the somewhat near future to get some armor, like me, the heavy lift isn't a bad without the weight until then. It's only moderatly raked at all on mine, and actually looks really good. Lookwise, my rig been turning heads everywhere I go all of a sudden I've noticed.

 

[corsair23]

After everything I've read up to that point, I have been pleasantly suprised but how not bad of a ride at all it is giving me on and off road. I haven't even put on the ome steering dampener or CC bushings yet, and it still rides pretty nice whether at freeway speeds or off road, and with new 33" BFG muds.

OMG I hope kwikrnu doesn't read this

Curious though on your experience...You are saying that you have no "dartyness" or "squirrlyness" with the setup? My LX with OME heavy, no weight up front, Slee rear bumper, with OME CC bushings was downright scary to drive until I got the weight up front...

I wonder if no weight up front but weight in the rear made my experience worse...Interesting indeed

 

[threatminor]

hmm

I think having just weight in the rear should definately add to having more squirreliness my friend.

As for mine, I only experienced very mild squirreliness when I would hit just the right angle at the right speed, but it still wasn't bad. I just installed the steering dampener, and now it seriously drives just as good as when it was stock as far as lack of dartyness.

 

[Cruisin'Carolina]

Slight hi-jack....good info everyone....I've got a similiar thread going...looking for anyone who has a fully armored 80 on the mediums front and rear

 

[dcFJ]

I have the heavy lift all around, and Slee 1" spacers up front and really the stink bug is still there, but not nearly as noticeable as having no spacer. I'm too picky, so I see it all the time on mine I'm considering switching to Js in the front when I put on the ARB bullbar and winch next month. I think I'll be totally happy with it at that point. Also adding 35s and 4.88s. With no weight, it does give one hell of a lift. I'm putting on my sliders tomorrow now that I have time to get it done...hopefully that weight will settle it just a little in addition to the ARB and winch. I'll be adding a rear tire carrier, probably from IPOR in the next 6 months. So, I had planned to add the weight, but really don't mind how it drives now....rides like a "truck" But it's not too rough for my tastes. I've ridden in much worse.

 

[Cruisin'Carolina]

I've read almost every OME thread in the last 24 hours....I guess it just comes down to opinion except for some of the extreme cases (weight in the back, but not on the front yet)...

I DD'd a 60....so I'm leaning on an ARB weighted (no winch) heavy front and medium rear.....in comparison, how bad can it be? (Some love the ride even with no weight).