OME 850 or Spacers for ARB prep (1 Viewer)

[robertaleon]

So in February I put on a 2.5" medium kit and happy with the performance but never loved the bit o' stink bug you're left with. I talked to the CFO and she green-lighted an ARB purchase for FY 2011. Knowing that - I would have put in the 850 front springs at the time but things change a bit since then. Question to the knowledgeable folks here is:

Do I replace 851s with 850s or just add spacers?

Certain money savings and a bit less effort with 1" spacers but is the performance going to be there or any other noticeable difference? Opinions and technical knowledge welcome!

 

[Trapper50cal]

My situation varies a bit but...

I had a 2.5 Medium lift on my truck when I bought it and it had 30mm spacers up front to compensate for a non-winch ARB up front.

I then added a lot of weight to the back: Bumper with spare tire swing arm, Hanna interior cargo carrier, airtank, wagongear tailgate storage...

So I put J's in the back to compensate.

This act gave it a ton of stinkbug, which I first attempted to compensate for with Metal Tech 1.5" metal spacers. Still had too much stink bug. So I looked into it and saw that 850 heavies are the same in every way to 851's except that they are .8 inches taller than the 851 mediums. So I got a set of 850's and some 5mm poly spacers (to counteract any metal on metal spring slap against the MT spacers) and all is well. Just a 1/4 inch of Stink bug if that.

To a certain degree, it depends on what shocks you have. If you already have the 73L's and 74L's from OME then I say you are good to go however you want to make up the difference from the ARB. Otherwise, put the bumper on and see how much you can gain back with spacers, then check to make sure your shocks can handle the extra extension.

 

[arndog123]

My wife's LX has the mediums all around w/ an ARB but had to add MT 1.5" spacers to compensate for the added weight of an XD9000 winch w/ synthetic rope. My wife didn't want the stinkbug look so I added the spacers even before the winch and it sat perfectly level.

 

[Trapper50cal]

The MT 1.5" Spacers are roughly 38mm (as opposed to the 30mm poly spacers) The nice thing about the MT spacers are that they go in between the entire bump stop assembly and the top of the spring perch. (As opposed to being mounted between the top of the spring and the bumpstop assembly. So the MT's have those 2 advantages...a little more height and the bumpstop situation. Arn's use of synth line is of specific note as well...MUCH lighter than a conventional cable.

 

[B Legit]

I will confuse you even more: I have a aftermarket front bumper, and sliders and had OME mediums all around. My stinkbug was awful so I put J's in the front with caster correction bushings and my truck sits exactly the way that I like it to now. It has about 1/2" rise to the rear which is enough for about 200 lbs of loading to sit exactly level. I think results tend to vary unfortunately. FWIW, I would much rather have the longer springs then have any kind of spacer in the mix.