Rocky-Road Crooks??

So I just bought an OME suspension kit from Rocky-Road.com a couple months ago and it turns out that was one of the worst things I've done since I bought the truck. The kit I bought was advertised as providing 2.5" of lift which is exactly what I was looking for. I checked numerous forums and OME sounded like it had a good reputation so I pulled the trigger and ordered the kit.

The parts FINALLY came in a month and a half after I bought it. OME 880s for the front and Dakar leaf pack for the rear. I got all the parts installed without any trouble and noticed that the back of my truck was sticking up in the air like a stinkbug getting ready to spray. I refered to the measurements I took before I installed the kit and sure enough the front was raised less than an inch over the well worn stock shocks that I took off.

I called Rocky-Road and explained to them the situation and they immediately started offering possible explanations. They had me call ARB who suggested that the shocks could have possibly been assembled incorrectly - not the case. ARB offered all the help they could and suggested that I call Rocky-Road again. This time they offered to send me a 1/4" spacer that I could jam in the shock mount which would give me about 1/2" of lift up front. I did this hoping that it would level my truck out to where I could live with it. It did not.

Of course this whole process took some time and with my Tacoma being a DD I had racked up nearly 1000 miles while we were trying to resolve the issue. Rocky-Road ran out of things to try and eventually admitted that that kit almost never actually sees 2.5" in the front.

Since Rocky-Road didn't seem to have any more tricks up their sleeve to get my front end up where it needs to be, I decided that it was time to return the shocks since they were not delivering as advertised. When asked them for an RMA number, they replied by saying "our insurance provider does not permit us to accept used suspension parts." In a subsequent email to Glen, the owner of the company, he said that 1000 miles is a lot of use to return perfectly functioning parts. And he followed by suggesting that "if they were malfunctioning that would be a different issue." So... I sent another email asking to return my malfunctioning parts to which his response was 'tell me what's wrong with them so I can explain the problem to the company for engineering review.' I told him that the suspension was sagging. I haven't heard anything back from him for over a week now.

WTF!!!

I don't know what to do now. It's not like it would be worth it to take this to small claims court or anything. But I paid good, hard-earned money for these parts that gave me about 30-40% of what they were advertised to provide!

What would you guys do???

In the mean time I have taken the OME coils and shocks off of the front and replaced them with a CL special Fabtech coilover. Nothing fancy, but at least it gives me the lift I was after and the ride quality isn't too far from the OME coil...
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

 

880 coils are only good for 1.25-1.5'' of lift. The dakar pack is good for 2.25+ so that is why your rear end is so high. It has nothing to do with the shocks, they do not provide the lift, the coils do.

881 coils coupled with the OME lift enhancer will probaly level you. (881 coils are good for 1.5-2'' and the lift enhancer gives another 1/2'' or so)

The blame could be placed on two parties...you and rocky road. Rocky road falsely advertised the kit as 2.5'' lift kit, and it could be placed on you for not doing any more research about the lift you wanted to put on the truck, put frankly.

You keep on saying you want to return the shocks, but the shocks are not the problem. See if they will swap coils with you. Or you get your money back for the coils and get them from a reputable retailer like Wheelers Offroad or DownSouth Motorsports.

 

Yep. you got the wrong coils for that amount of lift. You want the 881s not the 880s.

 

^ this... I have some 881's for sale, they were on my truck for like 2 months.

 

You keep on saying you want to return the shocks, but the shocks are not the problem. See if they will swap coils with you. Or you get your money back for the coils and get them from a reputable retailer like Wheelers Offroad or DownSouth Motorsports.
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Sorry I use shocks and coils interchangably sometimes. I know its wrong, thats just the way it comes out...

I admit I should have researched the purchase a little better before I pulled the trigger. On the other hand though, I called RR and talked to them about which coil I should buy. They offer a HD setup which they say is for trucks with aftermarket bumpers and winch, and a medium coil which would be for stock bumper and no winch. I told them that I was concerned with the medium coils because I wanted to make sure that it my truck wasn't going to sag. The guy I talked to assured me that the medium coils were the way to go because "the HD coils won't offer much more lift and will just make the ride uncomfortable" IIRC. Thats why I went with the mediums.

Thanks for the quick replies guys. I appreciate it. I'm planning to call ARB next, but don't expect them to do much for me...

 

Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm going to stick with the Fabtech for now. Seems to be working pretty well so far. No complaints.

Why did you take your 881s off?

 

The 882's, which are the heavy duty, do give it a good bit of lift. I have the 882's with a 10mm spacer and I got at least 3" of lift. I also have 110lbs of skids and 100lbs of sliders on the truck. You probably would want to stick with the 881's

Edit: I ordered a winch bumper so I got the 882's to keep it from sagging.

 

OME>>>>>>>fagtech....

just sayin'

 

Yeah I know... We'll see how long these last. For now though I can't really tell the difference in how they ride. OME may have been slightly better, but it also sat 1.5" lower too...

 

qkblood, do you have a 4 or 6 cyl?

 

I have a 6 cyl.

 

Dude not even 881s would level you. I have 881s and just a 1.5" aal in the back and I'm not even level. For the Dakar leaf pack I'd think you need 882s or maybe 883s.

 

qkblood,

Sorry you are getting the run around. I disagree that this is your fault. I say total blame goes to the RR folks. They are the professionals that advertised what you wanted. None of us should have to be a full blown expert on suspension when we don't need or want to. If a company is selling stuff and says it's 1,2,5, 10 or whatever inch lift and that's their business then they better be right or I'd tell them I'll be contacting my lawyer if they don't swap out the correct parts. Strike a little fear into the bastids, they might just come around.

I'd say there looks like a misunderstanding (miss-representation is more like it) on RR end as to what these shocks or whatever are supposed to do. Lets do a win, win situation here. I've contacted you XX amount of times to return, I just want a replacement to what is RIGHT for what I ordered. If we can work something out great. If not then I'll be forced to take legal action, blah, blah, blah. I don't want to get into a letter writing campaign so you'll have to massage the words. You get my drift.

Best of luck,

 

Thanks man, I feel the same way. If I had done more thorough research beforehand I probably could have prevented the problem, but when I talked to the technician from RR on the phone I trusted that he had much more experience and could accurately get me hooked up with the correct parts for the job.
Thanks for the support!

 

This is not totally correct information. 883's are not taller than 882's. 883's are the same height as the 881s with a stiffer springrate. OME 881 are a good coil for reg/extra cabs that are looking for ~2.5" of lift and a springrate that will reduce sagging with a heavy bumper/winch. If you are adding extra weight with skidplates etc as well as a bumper and winch you'll lose a little height with the 881s. The taller 882's are a good option for this kind of weight. If you run 882's with a stock bumper, no winch, no skids on a regular cab, and sometimes even on a extra cab, you will run the risk of tearing CV boots frequently. The 882s are really designed for 2.5" of lift on a heavier doublecab with a bumper/winch and possibly an extracab with bumper/winch.

If the OP's lift has just recently been installed, and the rear Dakar springs do not have the optional AAL, then I'd just be patient, throw some weight in the back of the truck and go flex it out for a week or two. The rear springs will relax and settle a bit. I would still get rid of the 880 coils and go with the 881s too.

If you are using fabtech coils, I think you will be disappointed with those.

What shocks are you running? OME Nitrochargers? Bilsteins?

 

I'm on fabtech coils and shocks now. A 2.0 adjustable C/O. I was on OME Nitrochargers before. I know the general consensus is that fabtech sucks, but I'm not sure why. So far they ride nearly as good as the OME 880s did and they're adjustable so if I decide in the future that I want a new bumper I can just crank them up a little more to compensate for the additional weight right?

BTW, I called RR today rather than emailing the owner who had stopped replying. At first he was telling me that the only way that they could give me a refund was if they sent the coils back to ARB and ARB told them that they were defective. I told RR that they probably wouldn't find anything physically wrong with the coils so that probably wouldn't get me anywhere. Then RR basically told me that my only other option is to put them up on CL or ebay.

Some more talking... and he ended up calling ARB and called me back and said that they would be able to take the whole shock/coil setup back for a full refund. He claimed that he was only able to do this because he called in some favors that ARB owed him...

 

wow

 

I say BS on the "calling in a favor". I think you finally pushed him to do his dang job and do a little customer service and try to get things right. I don't know if you'll want to get the "right" shocks or springs or whatever from them to do what you wanted originally or go with another vendor but at least it sounds like they are finally trying to get it right.

Good luck my man!

 

x2 He's not calling in any favors.

I think you'll be happier in the end with the OME over the fabtech but it's up to you. If RR will replace the whole strut assembly get the 881s with nitro chargers. If you just want the refund....cool.

Sucks that these guys were a pain to work with, but it sounds like they're making it right in the end by giving you a refund. Poor customer service throughout the process, until the end for sure, but you might consider changing your thread title because they aren't "Crooks" if they're giving you a full refund on what are technically "used" parts now.