ORI-Struts Experience

Got mine on about a month ago and I've been toying with them a couple times a week. Got my bottoms adjusted around 80 psi and the compression damping feels OK. I do feel like my rebound is a little quick and needs to be adjusted but I have yet to mess with the settings on the struts. Gonna take to Mexico a couple times in the next month or two so I will have more info about how they handle. Really want to dial them in for some high speed runs and whoops but I'm also waiting for Jerry to send me the reservoirs which I think will help a lot. I have a Demello front bumper with a winch and I think putting reservoirs on and changing to a synthetic line will also help a lot with the reduced weight. That being said I just got an alignment today and current setup feels rock solid. Little stiffer than stock, but feels more like an off-road truck should. Thinking with some tinkering with the rebound damping and the addition of the reservoirs I can find that Cadillac ride that can handle some serious shit. Overall I can say they are pretty bitchin and by the way they are sexy as hell and quite the attention getter.

 

Try bumping your lower pressure up to 120 and see what you think. JW and I bumped ours up to 140 and it helped damp that rebound better. I have yet to play with the rebound adjustment on the sides yet as well. I imagine that will be where I go to after I get the compression how stiff enough.

 

I tried them at 120 for a bit and it seemed worse for me plus I had to put so much nitrogen in the top that I ruined my pressure gauge. Now reads 200 PSI with nothing attached. I'm still trying to figure out the relationship between the top and bottom chamber. Seems the more you put in the bottom, the top increases exponentially in order to achieve the lift you want. When I had the bottoms at 120 I had well over 1200 PSI in the top to get the required lift. When I dropped it down to 80 PSI I only needed 750 or so in the tops. I would love to know if there is a formula to figure how the top and bottom pressures affect each other because ideally I would leave the tops the same all the time for a consistent ride height, but be able to adjust the bottoms for daily driving/off-road driving. Sucks cause once you fill the uppers, the PSI in the lower chamber changes so I don't know a way to configure it without just playing with it. Which obviously I will do

 

1200? how much ride height are you trying to get? JW and I had our lowers set at 140 at one point we were still only putting in about 700 to 800 up top. When I had 840 up top it maxed out the shock. I'm surprised you made it to 1200. JW and I are both pretty heavy too. Full skids, bumpers sliders winch. In fact I worry that my front corner weights might be stepping on the toes of the max rating for the ORI's...

 

I didn't take any initial measurements so I was just trying to match the front up with the rear. Turns out my Dakar leaf pack gave me close to 4.5" lift so that's probably why I bumped up the pressure so high in the struts. CV angles were a bit steep Anyways I now have it at 3.25" of lift which may still be a bit high but doesn't look ridiculous with the 1.25" rake. Need to pull the dakars and remove a leaf or an overload to drop the rear a bit and then I'll drop the front a tad more.

 

You're using the BAMF kit right? You should measure the amount of shaft showing at ride height. You probably have very little down travel left and that is probably why it is riding rough.

 

So just got back from my 2nd trip to Mexico and I'm trying to make sense of all the results. I'm currently showing 7" which I'm guessing doesn't leave much down travel...but what I don't know is if you want more or less down travel for certain applications. I'm desert running and I can tell you that we were handling whoops and anything else in the way with ease. At one point we were 75+ in a wash and it was almost surreal how smooth it was. I also have some reservoirs on order which will almost certainly improve the ride. Broke some other minor shit though so I'm wondering if the ORI front is that much better than the rest and I have to upgrade even more???

 

That's been my experience as well kendo, as i have about 6.25" showing. Thats been the sweet spot for me. Still enough down travel and the ride height I need. Very smooth over obstacles and really fun on the road as well. Love makin her sway

 

Yeah, high speed stuff tends to favor having more up travel. 7" seems high but if it's working for you no big. I wouldn't go any higher though or you will be riding on the oil instead of the nitrogen (if you aren't already) and that will give you a rough ride. Kind of like riding on the bumps basically.

 

Forgot to mention. I have about 6-1/8" of shaft showing right now. I may lower it down to about 5-1/2" or 5-3/4" shaft showing to sit more in the middle of my travel when I get my new resi hose in.

 

So I noticed in the other ORI thread you got some resi's. Just curious if you've mounted them and if you have, how so? I initially ordered resi's with mine and I couldn't wait for the custom fit so I had Jerry send me out the struts first so I could get some trips in with just the struts. Love the shit out of these things!!! Well Jerry just shipped my set of sliders as well as my resi's and I'm curious where you have yours mounted. I don't have any welding experience so I'm gonna have everything done at the same time. Sliders, front resi's, rear resi's,, cab mount chop, etc...... Also how much of a difference did you feel the resi's make? I already think that my front end with ORI's way outmatches my rear with Dakar leafs and Icon shocks. Thanks ahead of time for any info or pics you got.

 

Don't laugh... haha They are just ziptied on for now until I get the mounts

This spot cleared from full droop to full stuff.


I haven't got to test them out too much, but they ride amazingly smooth on road. They soak up huge speed bumps like they aren't even there, while my LT rear gets fucked by said speed bumps... Offroad, the front can't keep up with the rear LT. As for some good testing, I'd have to get back out to the dunes and see how they feel. I've only had them on for about a week or so.

I think I am going to crack my ORI's open and plug one of the compression valve openings to increase my compression dampening and see how I like that. They are a bit too soft in the dunes for my LT rear.

 

Thanks for the pic. Zip ties are no joke. Last trip I wheeled hard and actually broke all the hose clamps to my rear resis. Zip tied them back up and they were good to go. Hehe. Do you feel like the resis make a big difference in the ride compared to before? I pretty much only do high speed desert stuff so soft is good to me. I'd be interested to hear how it works if you crack them open. Think I read that you can soften them a bit by taking some of the oil out. Don't think I'll need to but curious how easy it is to get in there nonetheless.

 

I'm not for sure, but yeah I think it is smoother with the resis.

 

So I just installed a set of 8" ORI struts with remote resi's a few days ago and took them out for a test drive on some mildly rough forest service roads and a few sections of rougher trail, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I bought a nitrogen tank, high pressure regulator, and the dual-fill kit from ORI so I could get them set up correctly.

I also replaced the ORI fill kit pressure gauge with a quick-disconnect and two different gauges, one that goes up to 400 psi so I can get a more accurate reading on the lower chamber, and another gauge that reads up to 1500 psi for filling the top chamber. I followed the user guide instructions carefully and put 130 psi in the lower chamber and 750 in the top chamber, which leaves about 6.5" of the strut showing.

The ride was the worst when going up hill on a rough section. There is a clunk sound that seems like they are hitting the limit of down travel with too much force, but with 130 psi in the lower chamber I would not expect that. Of course I checked all the bolts and nothing is loose, so that's not the problem.

I think I will eventually get them dialed in but I'm wondering if some of you guys running ORI's have had a similar experience and what you did to solve it.

 

completely off topic but this video just helped me out a lot with a totally different issue being a noise in my wheel well I couldn't pinpoint. Turns out the bushing on my body mount is rubbing my CMC filler plate

 

Think you just need to play around with some different numbers. Seems everyone is running different pressures for different applications. Myself I have 75 PSI in the lowers as I'm looking for that softer ride. Also the rebound does seem a bit harsh at first but will ease with time. Don't know of anyone that has tried yet but there is a rebound compression dial on the side of the struts that is supposed to change the rate. Also some have opened them up and changed the amount of oil in them to change the stroke rate. Plenty of options and I don't think you'll be disappointed. Just gonna take some time to figure out what works for you.

 

Thanks for the reply Kendo. Based on what benbacher and BradyT88 said, I went with about 130 psi in the lower chamber, so I think I'll try lower psi and see what I get. I'm going to monkey around with them today and I think I'll adjust the rebound dial screw for more rebound damping.

 

Cool. Let us know how it works out. There's not a ton of info out on these and Tacomas so it's nice to hear any feedback. I'd be interested to see how much the rebound settings change the ride. Something I've been wanting to test but just been a bit busy lately.

 

Are you guys having to differenciate pressures left to right to compensate for the taco lean...? I've got my king CO's set a bit different on each side...