OME vs. Alcan springs, who has experience? (1 Viewer)

[Red Fox Ranch]

Who can tell me what they like?

What have you owned and what do you think?

 

[71-CRUISER]

Alcan makes very good springs. However they tend to make them a little short so if you order them make sure you let them know exactly how long you need them and where you want the center pin and how much weight they will be carying. If you give them the info they need you will end up w/ a very nice set of springs. They arent cheep though but they are a CUSTOM spring. The OMEs are also very good springs so I dont think you could go wrong w/ either set.

 

[CruisinGA]

Unless you have custom needs you don't need custom springs...

Hard to go wrong with OME.

 

[nuclearlemon]

i'm running alcans and love them...i don't see how they could make them too short when you have to measure them. mine ride great. i went with custom since they're almost half the price of the cheap ome's.

 

[Wayneraintree]

I had 4" ALcan springs on my 85' 60, great ride and great flex, I would recommend them but OME is reputable as well, itsa win/win and that is rare : )

 

[Beanie]

I run the OME's and they are sweet, got them from Kurt and Andre helped me install them. I've had them in for 2 1/2 years now, and the flex is nice, but still stiff enough for street use (corners like a champ, scares my wife on occasion).

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I thought that the Alcans were much more expensive than the OME's?

How much was your set of Alcan Springs, nuclearlemon?

 

[FJBen]

Have Alcans on my 55 for a few years now, no sagging pretty good flex. I actually don't even have the cruiser lean either. The ride is great on mine, even better when you load it down the 300lbs over stock it's rated for.

Thats the beauty of these custom springs...you specifiy how much extra weight over stock you want...and it will sit at the right lift height when loaded down. Order them longer on the shackle side if you are going with 3.5" to 4.5" lift...will help the angle.

They are around ~$200 per spring...put whatever shocks and whatever shackles/pins/ubotls you want...

 

[nuclearlemon]

I thought that the Alcans were much more expensive than the OME's?

How much was your set of Alcan Springs, nuclearlemon?

$195 for each front pack and $205 for each rear pack comes with bushings, $50 for ubolts.

 

[Red Fox Ranch]

Thanks to All!

Hey thanks to everyone who replied, I appreciate the feedback.

Who knows the cost of the new Dakars by OME?

 

[Cruisergreg]

Despite CrusinGA's comment, I believe any rig that starts getting non-OEM suspensions, etc. is being built for a specific purpose and is therefore "custom".

I have Alcans with about 40K miles (much of it off-pavement) and have not complaints.

That said, OME seems to remain the international standard. However I'll note that I've known several people who didn't get the HD OMEs and ended up needing to add a leaf after a year or so to fix some sag. 60s are heavy, and big bumpers, heavy loads, etc. make things worse.

 

[nuclearlemon]

the dakars are in the $1300 range.

 

[Corbet]

Dakars $1400 for the complete kit, including shocks, shackles, ubolts, etc...

http://www.cruiseroutfitters.com/sus_60series_dakar.html

I have OME on both Cruisers, no complaints.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

You're comparing apples to oranges here. Sure the alcans seem cheaper, but they are really close to 2x the price. The alcans are just for the springs and the bushings while the OME price here is for the WHOLE KIT. The OME's are $98 for the front pair and roughly $110 for the rear set. That is an accurate comparison.

If you buy the "cheaper" Alcans, you still have to buy U-bolts, shackles, shocks, steering damper etc, while with the OME's, you get it all in one pack. The Alcans are better, but by NO means cheaper.

Just thought that I'd let you know.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Dakars $1400 for the complete kit, including shocks, shackles, ubolts, etc...

http://www.cruiseroutfitters.com/sus_60series_dakar.html

I have OME on both Cruisers, no complaints.

That's a good deal-I paid close to $1700 for an OME kit 3 years ago. It did include everything including extended brake lines, extended sway bar links and the like. I wish they had the Dakars then, I would have bought them. I like the OME kit though. It took about a year, but the ride mellowed out (or I got used to it) but it seems perfect now and I drive it nearly every day.

I have Alcans on my FJ40 that I really like. If I were ordering again, I would specify and extra inch of lift height-I ordered 4 inch, and I should have asked for 5. They are weirdly "supple" They hold the load but have good flex.

 

[Moby]

I'll throw one thing in to be careful about. I've run Alcan's for 3 or 4 years and had the bottom two leaves in each rear pack break. These springs were not run hard, jumped.... What I believe happened is that the springs that they made had fewer leaves than the stock springs (5 vs 7 on my 12/88 '62). I think that the "collars" that fit around the springs bottomed out againt the plate that fits under the springs and holds the ubolts. So the ubolts were tight but the springs were slightly loose in the collar. They replaced the broken leaves but it was pretty scary realizing that I'd been running broken springs for who knows how long before I noticed it.

I figured it was a good excuse to get a set of Man-a-fre's 4+ ubolt flip kits and avoid having to run spacers at the bottom of the springs.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Wow. I hadn't realized that Alcans had problems like that.

Oh well. Lesson learned.

 

[nuclearlemon]

I think that the "collars" that fit around the springs bottomed out againt the plate that fits under the springs and holds the ubolts. .

what do you mean by "collars"? are you talking the military clamps? those aren't even close to the the ubolt plate, which has me confused.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Run/installed both on different rigs over the years...

If you are looking for somthing under 4", go with the OME Dakars

If you are looking for a taller SUA lift, Alcan can take care of you

 

[magFJ60]

Is there anything other than brakelines that you have to modify when going over 4" but still SUA? I'm talking about stuff that people do for SOA because of lifting the rig so much, but doing them to an SUA.



Michael