Dobinsons MRR/MRA 2-1/2" Lift w/Dobinsons Leaf Pack and DK UCA's

Super huge shout out to Jason at Ozark Overland Outfitters https://ozarkoverlandoutfitters.com/ for hooking me up with a sweet deal on a complete lift/suspension solution for my 2018 TRDOR DCSB 4x4. Jason answered every phone call, dealt with my questions, had great advice and a fantastic price on the entire set up.

I originally wanted to stay 100% Dobinsons and go with their UCA's primarily because they use OEM bushings, but those were on back order and no telling when the next shipment will arrive in the age of plandemic hysteria, so I went with what Jason suggested, which were the DirtKing tubular UCA's. In the end, I am sure they will be just fine, since I took both Jason and DirtKing's advice and bought a tube of Prothane grease and will follow the (maintenance) greasing instructions to a tee. I typically do NOT like Poly bushings because they ALL make noise eventually, but we shall see how these fair over time.

At the end of the day, I had a few specific requirements for the suspension on my truck:

(1) I wanted a 2-1/2" lift max. (if it settles out at 2" I am fine with that).
(2) I wanted compliant suspension and NOT a covered wagon or a buck board from an NVH perspective.
(3) I wanted rebound adjustability on all 4 corners.
(4) I did not want shiny stainless steel or aluminum components.
(5) I wanted components that were (relatively) easy to adjust (height) on the vehicle.

What I ended up with:

Front and Rear MRR/MRA (for up to 3" lift)
C59-314 Front Springs
110R Rear Leaf Pack
Greasable Bolts for leaf bushings
Dobinsons Diff Drop kit
DirtKing Tubular UCA

I decided to go with the 110R rear leaf pack instead of the 111R because item #2 should really be item #1, but item #2 is why I went with the 110R. Also, I have no plans for metal bumpers, RTT's or anything other than a topper (which will be here next Wednesday). This is the item that I bugged Jason at Ozark Overland Outfitters the most about, because I had serious decision constipation regarding the rear leaf packs. Jason tried to steer me towards the 111R's, but after a few minutes discussing this with him, the suspension compliance and articulation concerns won out over the settling concern. We both agreed that worst case scenario, if the rear leafs settle and the rear end squats lower than the front at rest, then I will adjust the fronts lower to level it all back out. I also read on another Dobinsons MRR thread that at least one member who purchased the 111R's removed the overload spring because for his weight, it was just a little too harsh. That pretty much sealed the deal for me, and because this upgrade was never about how much lift I could get, and always about having comfortable/compliant suspension for the nearly 90% of the driving I will do, which is on the highways and freeways around southern and northern California.

I did the install over 2 days with the help of my son in law who did most of the heavy lifting since I have a couple injuries that prevent me from lifting heavy things right now. We tackled the front install on Saturday and the rear on Sunday.

Today (Monday) I had it aligned and ended up with the following numbers:

Caster: 3*
Camber: -.25*
Toe: 0*

My tire choice is the tall'ish/skinny'ish thing and I am really happy with this set up so far. They are 255/75/17 DuraTrac's

I personally think it "looks' fine, but I also know opinions are like assholes, and everyone (including me) has one, so I am sure someone will chime in with "your truck looks anemic with those tires on a 2-1/2" lift" .... I'll let you know how much I care about your opinion later on...

So, after a couple of hours of driving around anything I could find in my neighborhood that would give me an idea if the settings I have chosen so far are any good, including speed bumps, dips, the little "jump" on one of the back streets here where you can get up to about 50mph and reach full droop front and back if you hit the thing just right, I have settled in on the following settings:


(FRONT AND REAR FOR NOW)
H/S Compression : 3 clicks in (from full open)
L/S Compression : 3 clicks in (from full open)
Rebound : ONE full turn in (from full open)

The clickers on the rebound adjusters are not anywhere near as "clicky" as the compression adjusters. There really is no definable "CLICK" into place feeling, so you have to turn them slowly and try and feel the detent, but it's really vague, so I just marked the adjuster, went fully open with it, then went one full turn in and I love how controlled the truck feels over dips and depressions in the road at speeds. All in all, it's a great starting point and as the suspension breaks in and settles a bit, I will play with it more. Also, when I get the topper on next week, I will revisit settings and report back.

I did have to "settle" for black (front) springs during one of the phone calls between Jason and myself because the teal colored springs were OOS, and I did not want to wait, but as it sits now, I am ECSTATIC that I ended up with black springs. The teal are nice looking, but in the end, I think they would have bothered me just as much as having stainless or chrome shock bodies gleaming out from the wheel wells... I got lucky that the Teal springs were OOS in my book because I am an older guy now, and not super in to the bling..

So, from a "are you happy with the money you spent ?" point of view, right now I am overjoyed. The install was a breeze and there were no surprises that caused me to have to run out and buy something etc. There was absolutely nothing missing from any of the myriad boxes I received from Jason at Ozark Overland Outfitters. It was all packaged perfectly and Jason did an outstanding job assembling the fronts for me, and packaging them very well. Nothing was scratched, broken, or damaged during shipping from Missouri to Los Angeles. A HUGE win when spending this kind of money.

The Dobinsons suspension absolutely transformed this truck from a comfort, ride and "feel" perspective. The nearly endless adjustability is what sold me on these things. It was definitely a good buy from where I sit right now.

So, here are some pics. I will keep the thread updated with how this thing settles in, and post more pics when I get the topper installed next week, but all in all I am super pumped with my purchase and the experience I had going with Jason at Ozark Overland Outfitters.

 

Thanks for doing such a detailed post.

 

Great post I’ve been looking at Dobinson kit because you can get a complete kit with adjusters for about $2000 or more cheaper than any of the big name icon, fox, king. I’m pretty much looking at the same setup as yours don’t really want to go much over 2” but I will opt for the 111r’s for the rear because I’ll have some weight back there.

 

Great write up and review. The suspension really does transform the truck so much!!!

 

How do those 110r ride unloaded. I’m thinking about a pair for my second gen. Which is empty more than it’s loaded.

 

Thanks Mike, I am about 120 miles into the install now and it feels like it just keeps getting better!

So far they are amazing. Like i mentioned above, I am about 120 miles in and they seem to ride beautifully. I will have my cap installed on Wednesday if all goes to plan so add another +/- 200 lbs and we shall see.... So far tho, no noticeable sagging or settling at all.
I think I made the right call going with the 110R's

 

Status on how things are settling in?

 

So far so good. I have had the topper on for about a week now and there is no appreciable settling that I can notice or see. It might have actually settled a little because it was ever so slightly stink buggin when I did not have the topper on, but now it appears to be a little less to the eye, but since I never measured anything before or after the suspension install, I have no idea what the actual numbers are.

Here is a pic with the topper a couple days after I got it installed, and YES, I have removed the gawdy Leer emblems from the rear glass....

 

Great Post. I ordered a similar setup, for my Gen2, in November (still waiting on some parts so I have not done the install yet.) Hopefully this isn't too much of a Hi-jack of your original post, but I am super excited to get my set-up installed and moving forward too... with that said, I did the same thing in November:

I looked at Icon (since I have a stage 3 and liked them), OME BP-51 setup, The Dobinson's, and a few mixed combos Fox Rear + Icon Front, etc.
But bang for the buck Dobinson's seemed to check all my boxes. I also had 3 people highly recommend a local shop (Armorology) and like supporting local folks so I purchased through them and decided to have them do a BMC for me. Jed has been awesome so far and it sounds like Mike from Exit Off-road helped get him set up as Dobinson's reseller so far quality folks all around which excites me more about the products from Dobinson's. In general I asked many people a bunch of questions, watched as many YouTube videos about the products as I could find, pulled everything out of my rig and weighed everything to get an accurate assessment of all my gear and how I run empty and full. (I am pretty confident I made a good decision)

So What more did I want that I didn't have...
1. Full adjustability on all 4 corners, and I wanted it to be simple)
2. More OEM style bushings and joints.
3. Longevity in the rebuild lifespan.
4. More load capacity.


What did I order?

• Black Coil Springs (just could not do the turquoise)
• Shooting for 2 - 2.5" Lift Selected the following:
  • 110-240LBS Front Coils (C59-352) (considered the MRA59-A220 but didn't want to end up pushing 3")
  • MRA59-A221 Front adjustable Struts
  • 213MM SEAT HEIGHT (Stock Seat Hight)
  • SC59-001 DOBINSONS STRUT TOP PLATES
  • BS59-560 DOBINSONS ADJUSTABLE FRONT BUMP-STOP KIT
  • MRA59-A940 Rear Shocks
  • L59-111-R DOBINSONS 2.1" LIFT 600LB CONSTANT LOAD HD
  • PB59-110K Bushing kit bundle
  • Greaseable Bolts for leaf bushings
• SPC UPPER CONTROL ARMS (Considered the JBAs and almost went with Red Coils but the deal on SPC was too good)
  
• Timbren Flipkit with new U-bolts and bumpstops
• I'm also going to do a BMC along with the install (no more rubbing!)

I also run 255/80/17 Cooper ST Maxx, (skinny is the new sexy) ;P


*Last, a quick Note about my Icons... The Icons are great, but with the weight I am carrying now and traveling I am starting to do (last year even with covid and travel restrictions, I put 8k miles on in backroads) I figured I'd pull the Icons and see about getting them in the hands of someone who will appreciate/use them more effectively. Between that, rear springs not cutting it, and November pricing it was time to make the change.
(Fyi - Icon Kit will be for sale soon 23K miles on it, working from home so I'm putting almost no miles on them currently)

Things I didn't like about the Icons:
1. I didn't like the idea of having to rebuild every 30k ish miles
2. Ihe Icon UCAs were noisy and I was meticulious about trying to keep them clean and I even tried the caps on them. This is not Icon's fault, I should have chosen better.( I will never use uniballs again, I should have went with Deltas, but they were not super common at the time )
3. I did not plan for the weight I am carrying now when I purchased them and I was doing some trips about one weekend a month to wheel and some camping on the off weekends. That is far different than where
I am now. (up to 2 weeks at a time on the back roads and exploring, I am going to shoot for 40 nights this summer and now that I can work remote I may be able to try some remote work from the road.) I don't use the truck for much daily driving.
​

In short all this just means I did not plan well when I was struck with the TW upgrade sickness and I had to do a fairly spendy re-purchase. (hopefully I will make up a little in the resale of my low mileage Icon Stage 3 setup) [which will need new Uniballs or Deltas].

 

Some photos of the finished work. I have just started reading up on adjustments so I’ll be figuring out what I like soon. It already rides better. I would expect nothing less from brand new UCA + LCA + Full suspension and springs. I decided to not use the greasable bolts and instead just used anti seize on a new set of bolts.







while I was at it I had a flip kit and cab mount chop done as well. The chop turned out super clean.

 

Cab / body mount chop...

 

Right on! @000doodie000 Looks good! I stsrted with the 252 front coils, but maxed out on the thread adjustment to get the highest lift. Going back, I wish I had gone with the 354s with my winch up front. I ended up adding the 1/4" top spacer to get that extra 1/2" up front.

It looks like you have a slight rake in the rear, even with the shell, so you might consider the easy 1/4" spacer route like I did (as recommend by @Crikeymike )

 

Love my dobinsons

 

It’s just the angle I do have a rake, but I still have about 300 lbs to add.

 

Love my Dobinsons rears. Getting ready to do the front with '21 TRD OR coils and either IMS or MRA strut.

 

Sorry to bring up an older thread. Between the two of you guys who got the 110r and 111r, I am very much on the fence between the two and would value your long term opinions. Currently empty I'll have about 300lbs on the back (mid-rise leer topper, bed mat, a/t spare, bed stiffeners, building a platform bed). I'm somewhere between worried I'll sag too much with the truck packed for trips with the 110r's after a year or so and being too stiff with the 111r's. Would either of you be willing to expand on how the ride and articulation is with the 110r/111r when it was just your cap / rack loaded vs unloaded?

Thanks in advance

 

No complaints on my 111-Rs I have had almost zero issues with my setup (and no squeaks yet!) I carry between 300 - 400lbs nearly all the time and when I take longer trips I am over 600lbs. It does ride better with more weight. I did pull everything out and weighed it to get a sense of what I would need before I made the purchase. No sag and she sits pretty close to level I think I’m normally about a 1/4 to half inch higher in the rear and level when it’s loaded. So I am pretty happy with the setup. I will definitely also call out the adjustment on the shocks are amazing and make a huge difference in comfort across different terrains and speeds. I even adjusted a few times rather than airing down on really washboard roads and it smoothed it out nice (not completely but make the ride much more comfortable)

as to the one minor issue, one of the front clickers for adjustment is really tight and does not click well. Other than that the setup is amazing.

 

Here is a shot of it loaded just under 600lbs. I have a few roof boxes that go on and then food and it sits full at just over 600 lbs. As you can see she is pretty level when loaded up.



Here is a shot of it "articulating" last year on one of our day outings.

 

Awesome! Thanks so much for the share! This is the exact information I needed to solidify my decision! The 111r's it is for me! I'll just be going lighter on the front with the 314 coils since I won't have a steel bumper and a winch in the foreseeable future

 

Does anyone know if these are progressive or digressive valved and what diameter shock bodies are these 2.0 or 2.5? thanks