Who has had problems with their BP-51's?

30k on mine and they are working great. They've seen -15 to 114 degrees, fairly dry environment but some road salt bnb in winter. No complaints here.

 

Son of a...
Oh well, I'm sure ARB will take care of me, they always have in the past.
Really picked the perfect time to fail since I'm going to be swapping out the leaf springs from medium to heavy any day now.

 

For what it's worth I'm still totally happy with them and would buy them again.

 

I get what your saying but there are no signs of the hose mount making contact with the shock mount (I have seen where people have had contact and caused a leak).

Could have something to do with how cold it is in Denver right now or just a bad seal in my situation.

 

Side note:

I hate winter.

 

I really think the oil they use doesn’t agree with cold weather.

 

I just swapped out my front BP 51s because they advertise 2 inches of lift with the ARB bumper and a winch with 20mm of pre load only got just under 1 inch of lift.
ARB has gone down hill I had 885s and 886s all sagged to well under advertised lifts.
And when my rear BP 51s fail I'm switching to 12 inch king smoothies.

 

Maybe.
I haven't noticed any performance issues in the cold or noises like I've seen some others report. But I find it strange that the coldest day in Denver in a long time is when I noticed a leak. Either way, I'm still going to stick with ARB because they always make it right.
I'm not going to get worked up if it takes them a couple days to get back to me.

Plus, in my opinion the BP-51 is the most well-rounded suspension. Does fantastic on road and off-road.
Not to mention I feel like they're the classiest looking suspension with an excellent fit and finish. To each their own but bright blue kings are a turn off to me.
To me the BP-5's look like I would imagine they would if Toyota put on remote resi's at the factory. (Elka also checks that box imo)

 

Definitely! Thank you for the highlight. Definitely interested in how all of the options perform in cold and salty conditions.

 

If you want a reliable shock that doesn’t need much service then I would not run a rebuildable “ race shock”. Much misinformation and incorrect expectations when it comes to people buying these shocks (fox, king ,icon ,radflow ,saw , bilstein...) I see this all the time at how “disappointed” or crappy service is or how soon they started to leak . These shocks are intended to be rebuilt and serviced 20k if you only drive on the road , 1-10k depending on how much you off road.
The advantage is these shocks offer superior performance, are tunable and don’t need to be tossed in the trash when they need new oil or seals. Additionally a leak or service is quite literally a few bucks and a few hours of your time.


I don’t know if this is the internet’s fault or vendors which are not educating people on what a race shock is for. They are great but don’t be mad when they leak or fail to perform perfect out of the box. Tune them service them !

just like a 800hp LS race motor which needs to be rebuilt often ....yet is a race motor.

 

While your statement is true for most of those companies it doesn’t apply to BP’s. The expected service life was supposed well past the 36000 mile warranty. I had the first one fail with only a couple thousand miles and only one trip off road.

 

Absolutely, and I agree that there appear to be many misconceptions. It's interesting you note this, because I'm currently in search of what my next suspension will be. Part of that is whether I would even benefit from these rebuild-able race options, or if I would be better served by the old trusty systems that you run for 100k then replace. I still find these BP-51s to be very alluring -- they seem to ride the line between cost, value, and being the first level system that offers damp/rbnd adjustment for the price.

Oddly, I've found the Radflo staff to be insanely helpful. This fellow, Jon, at Radflo has been willing to talk me through system selection for my uses. Huge kudos to them. I'm half tempted to buy into their system just for the rebuildability and the fact that there appear to be humans on the other end of the line over there. I'm no stranger to insane amounts of time lost to asinine rebuild projects -- After all, I just replaced a clutch on my '95 Nissan PU, which is untold amounts of time, blood, and money I will never get back. Hence how I ended up with a Tacoma as its successor.

 

I installed rear BP-51's in November 2018. Got 50K kms on em without any problems including over 10K speeding on dirt roads and some off-roading. I installed them to counteract the rebound effect of my airbags an HD Dakars when loaded up with my sled or ATV. Roads are heavily salted about 4 months a year here. I'm very happy with the BP's.

 

If you do go down the dark side with “race shocks ” I would really recommend any shock that comes with the clicker adjustments knobs (on the remote resi) . Being able to easily set the ride you want is incredibly nice especially when you add or remove weight, or go from trails to road , or even if you live in cold place where the cold would make that shock oil viscosity thicker and ride harsher . It can escalate quickly with shock upgrades but if you are not going to stick with simple 5100s or so I would just make the leap to a shock which will for sure leave you satisfied. I’ve rebuilt and revalved my icons 3 times thus far to get my ride just right and it’s still not there. If only I had them clickers I would just turn that knob to my content .

 

Almost 1/2 of the people who own these have had issues according to the poll, that answers my question on wether I buy a set of these or try something else.

 

I had one leak but their customer service is excellent and so is their warranty (I believe 3 years) and the on/off road performance is excellent. They also look amazing. I believe there is a huge percentage that doesn't participate in the poll. Most people who come across this did so because they had an issue. I have yet to see anyone who didn't have the issue resolved (including myself). I think you should buy based off what fits your needs.
Reliability and honoring warranty is going to be good with any of the big names.

 

You're right as long as ARB covers any issues without making it too much of a pain than it already will be when/if an issue arises. I have been debating suspension to replace my OME Nitro-chargers and the BP 51 package is tempting enough I think I'll give them a chance.

 

So I’m late to this thread…. I had 60k on mine with absolutely no problems before I totaled my truck the other day. I plan on buying them again for the replacement.

 

I've been happy with ARB/OME/BP51 up until now... Noticed a leak, decided to take them up on the "ship out across the country to rebuild" service, sent an email inquiring, sent requisite pics/serial numbers and was shocked by the response "End of servicable lifespan" "buy new suspension".

I guess it's time for King or another brand. Someone that has a more open repair/tune/rebuild arrangment with individuals and vendors.

Original install date: 5/26/16 169k miles
Warranty replacement of leaking rear: 7/9/16 172k miles
Leaking & Beyond "end of service lifespan": 1/17/24 325k miles

 

So you put 150k on them with zero maintenance?