OME BP-51 Review on 3rd Gen

Hi Folks, I've had my OME BP-51's, Icon tubular UCA's & OME Dakar Leafs on my 2017 TRD Off Road for 2 months now. I've been meaning to write up a quick review on the setup because there is limited information on the suspensions actual real world use even on the forums, but have been short on time (aren't we all).

I don't plan on touching on the build quality as it is simply phenominal. Nothing else to say there, but happy to answer questions on the same.

Some background first... I've owned the truck since November. I came from a 2014 Ford Raptor Super Crew with 3.0" body icons. I wanted a smaller truck and have always loved Taco's. This is my first Toyota of any kind. I wanted to call out my previous truck so folks know I have a bit of basis for comparison, though it's certainly not apples to apples (icons are regressive, these OME's are progressive, truck sizes/power/weight etc).

My trucks suspension and armor setup currently is as follows.
OME BP-51's Front & Rear
OME Dakar Leafpacks
OME Carrier bearing drop
16" SCS SR8's in light bronze (yes they are lighter than the standard bronze sr8's)
BFG Kbro2's 285/75r16
Fender liners heavily trimmed
Mobtown full steel skids & rock sliders (so the truck has an additional ~250 pounds in armor, plus the added weight of tires)

Install Notes: The biggest pain in the ass in the install was the rear shocks believe it or not. I had no problem getting the UCA's installed with some good old channel locks (traditionally the biggest PITA with more simple suspension work like this). The problem was the instructions on installing the lower rear shock carrier extentions. The steps are wrong. Tighten the shock in the top first finger tight, then mock up the lower extention to the stock mount and muscle the shocks lower mount in and finger tighten. Then tighten everything up. I really expected everything else to be a problem, not the rear shocks so friendly heads up!

On Road Performance: Honestly, after I installed the suspension components I was disappointed. I installed the suspension and ran it on stock wheels & tires initially with no skids or sliders so the truck was stock weight. Additionally I did not adjust the compression or rebound of the shocks front or rear. That combined with the much larger leaf packs equaled a stiffer ride than I expected. I did expect a stiffer ride, but not as stiff as was produced with the stock tires. It should also be noted that I went straight to firestone for an alignment before really analyzing the ride.

I pulled back in after the test ride on road and dialed rebound down 1 in front and 2 in back as the truck felt like it wanted to almost jump. That made MUCH more of an impact than I anticipated. I saw that because when fiddling with things like suspension on these trucks it's sometimes hard to know if you're actually making a positive or negative impact in real world conditions. The fact that making a simple adjustment made such a noticable impact to how the truck drove was actually really surprising to me, and immediately made me a fan. That was not the case with previous suspension systems i have used. It took substantially more adjustments to attain the desired result (a good and a bad thing depending on your use of the vehicle)

Following the adjustment the truck rode almost stock like on the road around town, albeit slightly stiffer, which i expected. On the highway the truck rode better than stock. The highways around me are in horrible shape. The trucks ability to soak up holes and bumps at speed was greatly improved (the slow rebound setting helped as well). On the stock wheels and tires it looked silly. Like it skipped leg day for 10 years.

I put the SR8's and the big BFG's on about 2 weeks after having the suspension on. After the install I want to say I noticed the stiffer sidewalls of the tires in the ride, but I honestly didn't. Suffice it to say I'm now very happy with the on road performance even with the addition of the big bro tires.

On Road Highlights: Out of the box, stiffer than expected for progressive shocks. Small adjustments make large differences. Tunability is simple if you understand high level suspension principles and how they translate to performance.

Off Road Performance: Here's what we all care about right? I've had the truck out on 2 real trips with the new suspension. When I say real trips I mean North East later winter/early spring OHV trails. Was in terrain from mud mid way up the doors to climbing over downed trees and large rocks to running through some rock gardens at speed and small jumps. Really everything you can get within a few hours of me (Pittsburgh PA). I'm not running long stretches desert at speed. Also need to mention that both trips were with the truck fully outfitted as above so included the armor + full size spare, hi lift & recovery gear.

The OME's performance was fantastic. Here is a high level of how it took certain scenarios vs my previous setup ('14 Raptor on Icons)

Deep Mud: Really MUCH less of a suspension thing than a tire thing, but the performance was on par with what I expected. The smaller size and tighter wheelbase of my Taco vs my previous truck made a hell of a difference in my maneuverability in mud. I never got stuck

Rock & large obstacle crawling: Crawling over large obstacles slowly performance was fantastic. The suspension flexed through the full range without ever binding repeatedly even completely full of thick mud. The suspension returned to neutral smoothly as well. There was no hard rebound return (the icons did this a bit on the raptor, but they were much larger as well). The suspension was also silent. If you've ever setup a truck for actually driving it off road and not just to the mall this is a pretty big win.

Woops & rock gardens at speed: The Taco with the BP-51's and OME leafs felt more stable than my previous truck with the icons. This however could be related to factors outside of the suspension. Meaning my previous truck was larger and more powerful. The trails I run are relatively tight through heavy forests. The margin for error at speed is very low. The Raptor would scare me at times, the Taco made me want to go faster. The OME's smoothed out rock gardens really well. I didn't feel the same level of bed shake I would got in my previous truck. Where the shocks really shined were the woops. The truck would come down out of the large woops and full compress once and rebound almost completely back to neutral in 1 stroke. That was amazing to me. The suspension did not bounce. This translated into stability and control. Since the truck didn't bounce I was able to apply steering, throttle & brake input flawlessly that would translate back to the terrain and provide a HUGE amount of confidence in control of the truck. This was f'n awesome... best way I can put it.

I'm happy to answer any questions folks have. I would certainly recommend the BP-51's to anyone looking into replacing their shocks/coilovers.

Here are a few pics of the truck & suspension post install and in the field.

 

And a mandatory shout out to @HeadStrong Off-Road for supplying my suspension products!!

 

Wow what a write up. The pictures are AWESOME, I personally love playing in the mud. However clean up isn't as fun. Thank you so much for sharing the pictures!!!!

 

This truck looks sick! Nice job

 

Great write up! We need more posts like this.

 

Hmm, might have to give OME some more serious thought! I was leaning towards Fox but these sound great! What weight springs did you end up going with and how much lift did you end up seeing?
Thanks for the write-up!

 

Great review! I've had my bp51s for a month now and am still tinkering with the adjustments. They came from the factory set at 6 reb / 4 comp in the front and 3 reb / 3 comp in the rear. They were pretty harsh this past weekend on the rocky trails. I will try your adjustments next time.

 

Did you adjust the pre-load in the front springs at all before you installed the shocks?

 

Pics of alignment sheet and fender trimming please!

 

Let us know where you have your Compression and Rebound dampening set, front and rear. My guess is your are running the stock 20 mm of preload on the front.

 

I am at 1 compression and 2 rebound all around and i LOVE it

 

What kind of camera/drone setup? Looks sweet!

 

Negative on the preload adjustment. I considered it since when I installed I had no additional weight on the truck. Since then I have full steel skids and sliders installed and have the hidden winch mount from sdhq on the way. I left them factory set which i believe (off the top of my head) was for a bumper+winch or ~150 pounds on the front of the truck.

Since OME states the preload must be adjusted with the coilovers off the truck I said f that... I left it set for the future state of the truck

 

I'll get these uploaded later today! Firestone was super cool about me buying the lifetime alignment with this setup by the way. Absolutely no worries as long as I don't want to go far out of spec

 

I also forgot to mention that for whatever reason, installing the rear shock rock gaurds was also a PITA. A fast way to get around it is to get a c clamp and press the stupid retention rings onto the body. By hand did not work for me on the drivers side...

 

Did yours come with the metal rings or the yellow plastic ones? I got one of each and contacted arb for another set of the plastic ones because they go on a lot easier.

 

Word, good to know! I imagine you will be changing the compression rebound numbers when you get the winch on? Just installed my BP-51 kit on my 16 TRD OR DCLB on friday. Left at stock 20mm as I will have alum front bumper, zeon winch and all skids alum, and sliders on the way. Need to get my alignment done ASAP so I can try the system out!

 

Metal and sweet jesus were they a pain in the ass! If mine ever fail I'll certainly have ARB send me the plastic ones. Damn real shocks took me forever lol

 

Yep that is definitely the plan. Changing comp and rebound is easy on the truck with the supplied spanner.

I also plan to adjust them for different conditions on the trail to really experiment. So far, like I said, these things are fantastic... I think you will really dig them.