Thread: my thoughts on Old Man Emu Suspension

I personal have never had any problems with OME shocks when i was driving around AUS or winch challenging in the Uk with them.


BUT you moentioned Fox Shocks yeah they are good but alot more expensive than OME shocks so can'r really compair them . But fox shocks are crap compaired to Olins and to Olins are crap compaired to Reiger There is always somthing better

My brother rans fox on his TMC Land Rover racer (untill he replaces them with Reigers, olins on his TD5 freelander racer and Reiger on his 1.8 Freelander racer.

But Reigers will cost you about $4000 a corner (or each shock )

Originally Posted by isuzurover

I thought dobinsons and others made them as well - but it seems not...

Maybe they fall into the 'Australian owned' bracket, e.g. Pedders, whose shocks are made in Canada and Mexico.

Thanks for the technical additions Bush 65 and LowRanger, I have actualy being looking at the fox shocks and can be bought at a resonable price of the net.

My comments on OME shocks I believe they are very poorly thought out as thay have very little down travel,(not sure of other off the shelf products). The common way around this has been to fit 2 inch lowered shock mounts, so my comments are to do with why hasn't OME built there shock to better suit the standard mounts.

A mate of mine had the new OME LTR shocky and that cracked around the eye, was replaced under warranty. I too have heard that Rancho's have had failures but thankfully I haven't had any yet, I do drive some good tracks at times but not at competition speed.

The problem isn't that the OME shocks have no down travel,as the travel in the shock is governed by its opened and closed lengths.The problem is the length of the shocks supplied as a "kit".I know what you mean when you talk about shock limiting down travel,as when I bought my Defender,it had Nitrochargers fitted,and whilst giving a comfortable ride on the road,they do limit travel.But since then I now have raised front top shock mounts and OME shocks that have an extended length of 26.5" and this allows more down travel,where the travel is now limited by bushes in the front end.Also fitting the same shocks to the rear,on modified top mounts,allows the shock angle to be altered,allowing more flex and taking the stress from the shock mount,alleviating broken shocks.This can be accomplished with other brands of shocks of similar lengths,but as you have already found out,quite a few are not valved correctly for a Landrover and others become price prohibitive.Another wel priced shock that is getting good write ups is the Terrafirma shocks.I have looked at the +5" and they have similar specs to the OME's and reports from OS have been positive,with most saying they give a softer ride than the OME equivalent.Guess in the end it comes down to what you like and can justify costwise.

Wayne

yes I agree, I surpose I should have made it clearer about the travel.

I have done similar to you made my own shock towers to suit my shock needs.

can you post photo's of your rear upper mounts

To add to lowrangers post I find the performance of my LTR's to be excellent. I also suffer limited down travel, but that isnt the fault of the dampers engineering as such, more a poor choice of damper for max wheel travel.

LowRanger
Is that the OME N73L (Toyota 80 series front shock) you are running both front and back?
Did you make up your own rear pin mount or did you get one from Devon 4x4 of Terrafirma?

Frank

These may be useful to somone here. compares OME LTR's with the N73/74 and various Bilstein shocks. first image is rear. second is front.

ETA to give some actual tech to the below images my springs are an exact 2" lift and the measurements were done based on that. Compression limit is spot on as it rubs the top layer of paint of the wheel arch lip when on the big tyres (35x13.5) with the arches off.