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ORI-Struts Experience

Discussion in 'Bay Area Metal Fabrication' started by benbacher, Aug 21, 2013.

  1. Oct 16, 2014 at 9:53 AM
    #101
    BradyT88

    BradyT88 Well-Known Member

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  2. Dec 24, 2014 at 7:21 AM
    #102
    Dick4x4

    Dick4x4 Well-Known Member

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    Hey guys, I have just heard about that product this morning. Then did some searched and end here.

    I'm building a new project truck that is mostly a daily driver on 285/75R16.

    I'm wondering how good theses shocks could be a good choice for me for a daily driver compared to bilstein ajustable coil over?

    Thanks
     
  3. Jan 22, 2015 at 7:30 PM
    #103
    Boogyman

    Boogyman Well-Known Member

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    subbing to this for future reference
     
  4. Jan 23, 2015 at 7:18 AM
    #104
    benbacher

    benbacher [OP] Purveyor of Fun Vendor

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    Too many to list now.
    I daily drove mine and its an absolute blast!
     
  5. Jan 23, 2015 at 7:21 AM
    #105
    Boogyman

    Boogyman Well-Known Member

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    That's what I want to here! I know a couple people worry about them failing and not having a coil to hold up the front if that happens. How often do you have to adjust pressure?
     
  6. Mar 11, 2015 at 12:03 PM
    #106
    Nate87

    Nate87 Well-Known Member

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    Quick update on the ORI's: For a while I was doing a bunch of adjustments trying to find the right setting. I was at 120PSI in the lowers and whatever pressure got me to a level ride height in the upper chambers. That handled great on the roads with very little body roll(sway bar removed). When off road I'd have to purge out a little air to lower the front and allow more down travel and prevent the constant clunking from the strut hitting full droop.

    I recently adjusted the shocks some more with the hopes of minimizing the full droop clunking. Bumped up the lower chamber pressure to 140 and uppers to level ride height. That also helped with the variations in ride height that I have experienced.

    Got back from TDS and had a good time out there. I was impressed with the ORI's. There are so many different types of trails out there. Go fast stuff as well as crawling and easy trail. With the lowers at 140 and tires aired down it rode amazing. Like a Cadillac. Handled the high speed stuff as well as the lower speed articulation obstacles. The truck has Lots of extra weight with the steel plate front bumper, 10k winch, front and mid skids, sliders and extra battery. There is very little of that full droop clunking that was annoying me. The shocks and reservoirs did get pretty hot but didn't notice any fade. They ride great on and off road at that setting but I may bump up the lower camber pressure a little bit to see if it'll completely eliminate the clunking.


    I will say that is a concern of mine. I was adjusting the pressure on a regular basis trying to find the right setting and offsetting the pressure for ride height when adding the armor and extra weight. It does take some time to find the perfect setting but many just get it good enough and deal with it.

    One bad thing is that lack of coil spring to keep it up if they failed. I wasn't worried about the strut failing since they are pretty stout. Because I was constantly adjusting the struts which required screwing the fill valves on and off, it ended up stripping the threads on the Schrader valve to fill the upper chamber. I think one of the no loss air chucks may have had a burr in the threads so over time it stripped away at the soft valve threads. While adjusting one day they stripped to the point where they couldn't be filled. That left me stuck riding on my bumps. Luckily I was at down the street and was able to limp home.

    The Schrader valves on these things are rated much higher than your common tire valve. I tried those and the pressure just blew them out. I keep extra valves and thread compound on hand now just in case.

    Nate
     
  7. Mar 11, 2015 at 12:57 PM
    #107
    BradyT88

    BradyT88 Well-Known Member

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    When you set the lowers to 140 psi were they on or off the vehicle? The pressure recommendations in the book are for filling the lowers with them fully compressed but with Jerry's kit you don't get them fully compressed while mounted. So there will be a difference between filling the lowers on vs off the vehicle.

    Filling mine to 140 psi while mounted, I could not get the ride height I wanted before my regulator bottomed out. I had some serious rake and I only have about 2" of lift in the rear. My regulator will go up to 900 psi. So I was curious what psi you are running in your uppers with 120 psi in the lowers.

    With 120 in the lowers I can get my ride height with about 850 psi in the uppers.

    You get used to the clunk after a while (that or it gets better). The clunk is the internal bump stop protecting the shock from over extending. You can do like JW and install limit straps to prevent the clunk.
     
  8. Mar 11, 2015 at 1:27 PM
    #108
    Nate87

    Nate87 Well-Known Member

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    I filled the lowers with struts mounted. So not fully compressed.

    I'll get back to you on the upper pressures. Need to look at my regulator and see what they were at. I do remember a few times being in the mid 700's up to 900+. I think with 120 the uppers were between 740-840 depending on how much armor/weight I had on there. With the 140 it was 840+ so that may be reaching the limit of a 900 psi regulator. I've been told you don't want to take the regulator to it's limit as it may cause damage. I was lucky and found a 1500 psi reg on craigslist for $80!

    I'll verify pressures later. But at 140 now, the clunking has almost gone away.

    Nate
     
  9. Mar 11, 2015 at 1:28 PM
    #109
    Nate87

    Nate87 Well-Known Member

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    Brady, in that whoops video, what are your settings at? I think I remember reading you opened them up and did some internal adjustments right? I haven't gotten that far yet.
     
  10. Mar 11, 2015 at 2:23 PM
    #110
    BradyT88

    BradyT88 Well-Known Member

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    Realistically on the ORI's, adjusting the pressures don't do too much as far as high speed valving goes.

    I cracked mine open and there is a "compression
    damping valve" basically what the oil passes through on compression. It has holes in it to let the oil through. You add holes if they are too stiff or plug the holes if they are too soft. I have plugged 4 of the holes now and will be plugging the 5th one of these days. (The valve can move up slightly letting oil pass underneath it so oil can still pass through with all of the holes plugged; IIRC the space underneath is equivalent to 1.5 holes).

    Rebound is adjusted by turning the dial on the bottom of the shaft. There is a hole down there for oil to pass through on rebound. Turning that dial will increase/decrease the size of the hole so you get a faster or slower rebound. It only has 7 settings though, so if you max it out one way and need more, you crack open the lower and change the gap size on the dial to change where the 7 positions sit overall. (Hope that makes sense)
     
  11. Mar 11, 2015 at 2:38 PM
    #111
    Nate87

    Nate87 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, That makes sense. Thanks. I was hoping to get it dialed in with just the lower and upper pressures, but if not, then I'll crack them open and start tinkering.
     
  12. Mar 11, 2015 at 2:50 PM
    #112
    BradyT88

    BradyT88 Well-Known Member

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    I forgot to mention, I was talking with the owner of ORI and he said they started out making them with 7 holes, then 5 and now they make them with 3. I got a set with 5 about a year and a half ago and they were way too soft for me. There's a chance that yours may have 3 holes already so it may fit your rig better. My rig is stupid heavy so I have to valve things stiff.
     
  13. Mar 11, 2015 at 9:47 PM
    #113
    Nate87

    Nate87 Well-Known Member

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    Just checked the regulator and with 120 in the lowers I has anywhere between 660-760 in the uppers. I was off by around 100 earlier. With 140 it's above that for sure MAYBE 760 on the lower end but around mid 800's if I remember correctly. That may be reaching the limits of the 900 psi regulator.
     
  14. Mar 12, 2015 at 6:27 AM
    #114
    BradyT88

    BradyT88 Well-Known Member

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    I've ran my regulator right up to 900 psi. Oddly enough it's rated as an 800 psi regulator but bottoms out at 900 psi.
     
  15. Jul 22, 2015 at 1:37 PM
    #115
    Milowilli

    Milowilli Milowilli

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    After reading all this..I will stick to coil springs..leave these struts for rock crawling buggies. Never seen these on desert race trucks.
     
  16. Jul 22, 2015 at 2:01 PM
    #116
    JLee

    JLee The Man! Vendor

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    I lost track thousands of dollars ago.
    No one ever said these are for desert racing trucks.
     
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  17. Jul 22, 2015 at 2:04 PM
    #117
    AK Taco

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    So you came to a thread about someones experience with these struts that you have no experience in just to say you aren't going to use them....?

    how helpful :rolleyes:
     
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  18. Jul 22, 2015 at 2:52 PM
    #118
    Milowilli

    Milowilli Milowilli

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    Yes, looks like too much stress dealing with them. Reading the good and bad is always a good thing for decision making. The truck is now suspended by gas which would change the ride height and characteristics with temperature changes. I see this more suited for buggies than a Truck daily driver IFS platform. I would also hate to be stranded somewhere with a loss of gas pressure.. Even if it's a parking lot prank on the valves.
    We use these type struts on Aircraft as springs are heavy.
    When I saw them for the first time I was very interested but it will take a lot to convince me that they are great for the Taco.
    So Fox,King or Icon Coilovers it is for me for now.
     
  19. Aug 20, 2015 at 11:18 AM
    #119
    benbacher

    benbacher [OP] Purveyor of Fun Vendor

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    Ok, so after flipping the top hats to the downward position, which seems to be the way they were intended to be mounted in the first place after seeing a few pics in this thread, and installing my reservoirs in the engine bay I now can give an accurate quality breakdown. The facts:

    Driver side Upper PSI: 825
    Driver side Lower PSI: 200
    Passenger side Upper PSI: 725
    Passenger side Lower PSI: 200

    Amount of chrome showing on each side is right at about 5" giving me 3" of down travel and 5 up. Ride quality is highly desirable, single bounce when doing 45-50 and getting all 4 tires off the ground, shocks cycle and truck goes down, and then right back up to ride height with a very smooth transition at that speed. Seems to soak up a lot of the small stuff as well, almost responding like a flutter valve would in a custom shimmed King, very little road feel is translated into the cab. Body roll is very controlled even with all the weight I have over the cab, custom roof basket and 250 pound Mt. Mckinley tent on a DOM bed rack. Corners really flat even at high speeds (+45mph)
    Overall I'm totally stoked about these bad boys now. Before I had the resi's I had upward of 1000 PSI in each upper and 6.5-7 inches of chrome shaft showing, so no down travel at all. This is a huge improvement.

    The new O-rings and seals I got in my rebuild kit are rated from -60F to 285F if I remember correctly, so I should only see loss on really really cold days up here. -60 is a rarity, but more likely than Jerry's going to see it in Frisco. Overall I'm not worried at all about leaching nitrogen out. Plus if you're clearanced correctly it shouldn't be an issue at full bump anyhow.
     
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  20. Dec 3, 2015 at 7:43 PM
    #120
    weldo

    weldo Well-Known Member

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    Any new updates from you guys running these things? After reading this entire thread I'm almost completely sold on the ORI struts. I love the adjustability, but it can also be a bit scary... To be clear, when you guys are changing combinations of pressures in the upper and lower chambers what you're doing is effectively changing the spring rate, right? Like when a guy with coilovers changes from a 600lb spring to a 700lb spring? So does the upper chamber set ride height and lower chamber set "spring rate"?

    Also I'm curious what kinds of rear setups you guys are running. What kind of rear suspension compliments the capabilities of these struts? I know it's different depending on the end use of the vehicle, so how about a daily driver that sees some slower paced trails and fire roads, and not much if any high speed stuff.
     

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