OME BP51 servicing in Canada.

I was wondering what BP51 owners in Canada are doing when you have to get your BP 51s serviced? Where are you sending them to or are there shops local that can do it? Also how are they holding up to salt and our winters? any issues?

 

Try West coastboffroaders in North van. Mine seems good so far in the winter

 

Thanks, I haven't bought a set yet but just for down the road if and when I do need to service them I was wondering.

 

They install and sell alot of ome products I bought my rear BP 51s from them very easy to deal with unlike 4wps where I got my fronts from.

 

We can sell BP-51s, Overland Outfitters, located in Cloverdale. We specialize in off-road Toyotas.

However, I used to run bp-51s and didn't have very good experience with them honestly, though you may be luckier. This is just my personal experience from one tw member to another, not as a shop owner.

I blew 3 of the bp-51 shocks, and ARB rathered I send them back than rebuild them in our shop, so I've never tried. We do rebuild King though, no problems there.

The lack of travel with the bp-51 was a major let down for me, and I think the rears limit the travel of the dakars by around 2-3" which is probably why they both failed so quickly. Also, the adapter for the shock mounts on the axle I had a lot of problems with, and broke the driver side bolt around 4 times. Would be better to just weld it on.

While they are working, they do ride really nice, but I found they blew too fast, I couldn't get parts to service them, and the limited travel didn't make up for the nice ride. I swapped to king and ive never had an issue yet, I can rebuild them, and they have a lot more travel so I find that they perform better than the bp-51s ever did.

Ome ride best with a tonne of weight, so if you are carrying a lot, then ome will ride decently. Wouldn't recommend the Dakar leafs though. We have had a tonne of customers complain about squeaking leafs (like really bad) and had them sag after a year or so. I never had mine squeak too badly, but they did sag so I added an extra leaf but then they were way too stiff for my weight. We mostly sell icon rxt leaf packs now which have been awesome, and we are working on getting Deaver as well.

Anyway, that's just my experience after running bp-51 for around 2.5 years.

Editted for spelling

 

Thanks for that feedback, Kings and Fox as well as Elka are mainly what I am looking at.
Low speed adjustability is what I’m looking for as well as a good amount of time between rebuilds, and can handle our interior winters.
I don’t have a lot of weight, a winch mount and winch on the front for around 110lbs and a leer Canopy for 200lbs approx.

 

Time between rebuilds mostly depends on how much offroad use you put them through. On road won't break down the oil or wear out the components nearly as fast.

King and Fox I would say have similar service intervals and similar performance. Some say one is stronger than the other in this way or that, but both are well proven in that regard from racing and everything else, so I wouldn't worry either way. There is one main reason why I decided to go king on my truck, and why we sell way more king than fox.

I have found that fox has a really poor protective coating on their suspension, and they start rusting and corroding very quickly, depending on the chemicals and salt on the roads in your area. I have a few friend with fox and after 1 winter they were starting to show signs. Two winters and they were orangey brown. Whether those friends take good care of their shocks I don't know. I have found that the kings have a better coating that doesn't corrode as quickly. I haven't seen many crusty kings yet. Mine still looked mint after one winter, but I do give them a quick hose down every once in a while in the winter or after an offroad trip.

I don't personally have any real experience with elka, but they look exactly like toytec to my eye, whether that's a coincidence or not I don't know. I have heard that the 2.0s have bushing issues from a couple customers who had them (one switched to King), but that is the limit of my contact with their product and maybe the issue is fixed now. We dont sell elka in our shop and probably never will, but I would like to get my hands on a set to try out and get a real opinion on one day.

For adjustability, kings adjusters are more of a mid speed adjuster. The first few clicks are mostly low speed, and then after that it adds mid speed compression. They work well and are simple to use which I like. The Fox have a couple different options for adjusters, including a dual zone low and high speed adjuster but I haven't used them on my truck. My friends who have fox don't have the adjusters so I'm not sure how well they work from personal experience, but I would assume they work well just based on online feedback and the fact that they supply suspension to a lot of racing teams.

This is one area where the bp-51s were good. They were a pain in the ass to adjust, but having the rebound adjustment was great. I liked being able to tune rebound much more than compression which I mostly just left alone. With the kings I have to open them up to tune rebound, which isn't the end of the world, but definitely not as easy! This makes me consider bypasses which have high/low speed compression and rebound tuning. I am currently running internal bypass rear kings on my truck, which essentially adds a bump zone to the last part of the stroke. It works well and doesn't click like bypasses do. I like them.

I am really into mountain biking and suspension tuning for bikes and trucks, so I have a pretty good clue on dialing in suspension, and I find that I basically never touch compression unless I'm adding a tonne of weight, but even then I kinda just don't bother despite it being super easy to do with the kings. So take that how you will!

 

Thanks for all the info! Its a tough choice choosing, committing but I'll get it figured out, I do like King and with my low weight probably go with a 600lb spring. Part of the fun of building up my truck!

 

No problem! Happy to give my experiences with all of the different options! If you have any other questions feel free to PM me or email my store email braeden@overlandoutfitters.ca. We carry, sell, and install a lot of different tacoma parts!

 

Man reading everything @WormSquirts is saying makes me want to change out my BP 51s. I'll give them till after my summer week long wheeling trip to see if I'll keep them.

 

Hey man, if you like em, run em! I just found that I was using my truck outside of their limits way too often. The lack of flex caused me to 3 wheel a lot.

For cruising back roads they performed well, but going fast, or doing flexy trails, they weren't working for me.

 

Skip the BP51’s. I broke all 4. They do ride nice when they are working but they stop working to often. I had seals fail on all 4, adjuster rings seize on 2 the spherical bearings in bottom mounts seize and or break 3 times. ARB’s customer service is great because their products aren’t.(personal opinion)

 

Interesting! Thanks for that! Glad to see it wasn't just me. Wish you were in the comments on a recent ig post I made. there were some very angry people after I said the same thing on our business account . Guess as soon as you own a business all your experience doesn't count any more.

 

People are dumb. A good business will sell products that they have tried and tested. Not the other way around. But you know that so I’m just talking to the air.

 

FYI only ARB will rebuild BP-51's. There are a few seals that are proprietary that you can't get, I tried to match seals up and it didn't work out.