eeleung1

Hey guys im abit new so help me if you can. What is the real difference between the saws and ome shock combo and the others? like ranchos or blisten. iv talked to many people who like both but whick one is the nice medium. smooth on road a monster off road . and is it easy for a rookie like myself to put on . any help :cry: would be appreciated. by the way any one here from around boston, ma???

GV27

Well, the best all-rounders are adjustable shocks like the Rancho RS9000s. Leave them soft for a plush on-road ride, stiffen them up a bit for better handling. Then off-road crank them down to full-stiff to "magically" smooth out rough trails.

I've had them (the Ranchos) before and they'll be the first major upgrade I do to the new (old) 4Runner I bought yesterday. Well worth the extra bucks - though they are twice the price of RS5000s. Still, they're only like $80 a corner which is quite cheap compared to the STi struts I bought for my Subaru WRX at $300 per corner!! I'm sure others make good adjustables as well, but my only experience has been w/ the Ranchos.

Chris

TDiddy

Welcome to the forums. Do a search on this one, there's tons of info here!

SAW's will be the easiest install by far. No spring compressor needed.

Good Times

If you eventually add a front steel (tjm,arb) bumper (which can weight ALOT), having coilovers (SAW or KING) would be ideal as when your front starts to sag, you can always crank em up! w/ the OME combo, once the coils starts sagging, you'll just have to replace 'em!

02Runner

SAW without question. I have had them for about six months or more and love 'em. I bought mine from Mike at Xtreme. He was great. They were a piece of cake to install, even a Rook can do it. I did!
If you're gonna spend the cash, I would recommend SAW from Mike over the Kings. But thats just my OP. Good luck, If you do go SAW, feel free to PM me and I'll try to help you out as best I can. Just trying to reciprocate some help to fellow Yota fans.

eeleung1

hey thanks guys for the info so far.

joshik

they dont make the RS9000s anymore. they now sell the RS9000x which are 9 position adjustable opposed to 5 position in the RS9000.

GV27

details setails

Yeah, I am a bit behind the times. I used to know a whole lot about truck suspensions - it's been a while though! Last time I "built" a rig I don't think coilovers were even available. Or perhaps it was just that I was too poor to even look at them. And there really wasn't a WWW to research it on (well, there was a WWW, just no huge discussion groups like this one!) So my comment above (especially on price!) was kinda lame, I admit! Thanks all for not bashing me!

That does raise a question, though. What do y'all think about the value of coilovers for trucks. I'm very active in a Subaru WRX community. Coilovers are a fairly popular upgrade, and a lot of people will say "oh definitely get them, don't waste your money on conventional strut/spring combos (just go out and pick the money off your money tree )". But the reality for the car is that the gains are very marginal.

Looking at it from a value per dollar perspective, coilovers don't get you much more for the extra money on the car. For example, if you spend $200 per corner on a strut/spring combo, you'll see a huge improvement over stock. Then just a little improvement if you increase that figure to $500 per corner. If you scale the initial improvement to $200, spending the extra $300 per corner will only get you maybe $25 or $50 worth of improvement. So I end of telling people that unless they plan on serious competition, not to spend all the extra money on coilovers.

How does that equation work out for a truck?

Chris

Corey

iTrader: (1)

The beauty of having a coilover on the front like the SAW or Kings is they can be rebuilt, and a lot of folk's on here go for an aftermarket bumper and also a winch down the road.

The aftermarket coils will sag with the added weight.
With the coilovers you simply slip on your spanner wrench and crank 'em up a bit to level out your rig.

Many 3rd gens have them up front as well as Tacomas here.
If I had that type of suspension setup, my rig would be sportin' a set of them for sure.

eeleung1

so the saw coil overs never sag ?

GV27

Ahha! Finally a practical use for the height adjustment. With the car people site that as a big advantage and end up adjusting it either once or twice: they either set it sensibly once, or they set it for a 3" drop, then figure out that was stupid and set it back to a sensible height. With possible future heavy upgrades, it actually makes sense for a truck.

What about rebuilding? People also site that as a big advantage for the car, but the car units (Tein and DMS being the primary brands) MUST be rebuilt every year or two, can only be rebuilt by the manufacturer (mail them in!) and at a cost of more than $100 per corner. On the other hand a conventional strut will last many years, and some of them can be rebuilt if you send them back to the manufacturer as well. That doesn't end up being such a great deal.

Chris

keisur

it's not that they don't sag. any spring is going to sag with age and use. it's just that the SAWs can be adjusted if they do sag or if you add a heavy bumper or winch like corey said. plus when and if the spring does sag, you can just replace it and rebuild the shock within and be good to go for another 5 million or so miles. Plus you can revalve them if they aren't stiff enough for you.

keisur

Sway-A-way provides instructions on rebuilding as wells as revalving their coilovers. so with the right tools the regular home self mechanic guy can do the job. but if you don't feel comfortable tackling it yourself I think you can ship it to them for the work to be done, for a charge of course.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

We have a wonderful Tech section here at YotaTech chock full of artilces submitted by members.

There just happens to be an SAW rebuild article in it that you can do at home.
Corey

keisur

HotDammmm!!!! when did that happen. I guess I better head over there and warm the printer up for more tech stuff to add to the notebook. thanks!

edit: never mind, I just remembered I printed that out a while ago but forgot about it. still thanks though.

eeleung1

so the saw coil overs never sag ?

keisur

eeleung1

thanks guys. i know i ask alot but hmm then lets say the saws are my best option anything else likt the control arms or cv joints that also need attending to. that is probably one of the most confusing parts also. just afraid i might change the suspension and find out later that something else need to take a bite out of my wallet

keisur

look at it this way:

SAWs are the best (or Kings), if you have the cash then do them, but if you don't then spacers will get you by. The control arms are a luxury item, not mandatory, again if you can spare the cash they are nice to have but you aren't really going to ˟˟˟˟˟ anything up as long as you don't adjust to much lift with the coilovers. bottom line is, just get the SAWs or Kings for the front, remember to get an alignment soon after the install though. and don't worry about axin' too many questions here, this is a great group of people and they like to answer Q's, unlike another board we all know about. god knows I say some dumb stuff and ask dumb q's here, nobody has really flamed me yet though.

Gadget

I have the SAWs on my truck. I like them fine.

One tip for you if you get them, remove the set screw that is used to lock the spring seat after adjustment, and coat that thing heavily with anti-seize compound. I cranked in a little more lift last week to compensate for my winch and that set screw was a real bear to break loose. I had to break out the blue tip wrench to get it loose.

There is another line of coil overs on the market now and you may want to check them out. They are DR coil overs. They look a lot like the Kings.

www.DonahoeRacing.com

Gadget

www.GadgetOnline.com