SeaTac off-road shops

If you're considering dakars for the rear you might as well go with uni-ball UCAs. That way your front squeaks will match your rear squeaks.

 

Matching?!? I guess my shit needs a conductor!
Not to mention the spherical bearings in the shock mounts...

 

Good to know. I was looking at an OME setup but might have to do some more research.

 

I've got OME (not BP51s) and honestly wouldn't recommend them either. Spend more, get more. My Dakar's just started squeaking too, ugh

 

Is it the ride quality that makes you not recommend them? I really like the stock suspension and didn't want to get too much stiffer than that.

 

I noticed no change in ride quality at all. I went with the "softer" 90021 shocks, and its still what I'd call rough. Overall I'm just not impressed

 

Got me second guessing what I was gonna do now

 

Take that $1,700~ for the OME, go to the local casino, put it on red or black. If you win, Kings, if you lose, well, stock is probably good enough anyways.

 

A couple of factors.
Ride quality is OK, but not great. It rides pretty stiff most of the time, but I'm also running 285's Load Range E tires. So it's a bit of double-whammy. My truck comes in about 500 lbs under max GVWR in "every day" trim. The ride is very much improved if I throw a few hundred pounds of payload in the bed (like 500 lbs of river rock). It makes it damn near like a Cadillac. So if you are planning lots of armor and exceeding the GVWR, the OME will probably ride pretty well. But even with a decent load, washboard FS roads above 20 MPH suck. It's like it can't handle faster rough stuff, which is where I seem to spend more time. Maybe it does better on more technical, rock crawling stuff?

Initially I had hoped to avoid doing UCAs, but alignment numbers were hard to come by. So I went with LR UCAs because I wanted "low maintenance OE-like" ball joints. Well, those crapped out after 18k-20k miles, and I got replacements that now need maintenance. Would have gone with uniballs if I have to bother maintaining the things.....

The dust covers on the front shocks have completely worn the paint off the shock body in a lot of places. Looks like hell, and I'm now more concerned with corrosion. The Dakars squeak, even more so now that I've gone full synthetic on the bushings. I've also got a clunk from the rear at times that I can never seem to isolate and get rid of. Might be related to the lift, might not be, who knows.

I had to eventually add 1/4" spacer to the driver's side to fix taco lean, which would have been easier with a real coilover.

Driveline vibration issues aren't necessarily related to the OME lift, but have been a source of irritation ever since I installed the lift. Coupled with the above issues, and it just boils down to "if I were to do it over again, I'd do it differently".

 

Everyone keeps saying dekars which is fine...

But another option is Allpro standard and expedition leaf packs. I’ve been running them for a few years now with Fox shocks and TC UCAs and haven’t had issues. And you could say I do a little wheeling from time to time and put it through the paces. Looking back though I would go with the expo pack just bc my spare 35” tire on the carrier and steel rear bumper...that was my only mistake