Amada vs Cal off-road/Bilsten

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

I have seen the figure of minimum 60mm droop thrown around a lot. I've managed to top out 712's constantly with 70mm of droop at around 1" lift. The more droop you have the better. Running a 3" lift sounds like a great idea in principle, but then you'll quickly discover how much articulation you sacrifice.

Yes the 60mm figure is often quoted and that seems pretty low to me, I would look at that as absolute bare minimum if you really had to and couldn't possibly get any more. As you say lift is great but not at the expense of articulation. I recall one guy on here that had a 4" lift, but based on the picture of his setup I would suspect he had next to no droop at all, I suspect it would have been a pig to drive and have also heard it performed poorly off road.

Cheers Andrew

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

OK, I'll try give them a call first thing in the morning and see if i can send the struts back to get them made into 575 or exchanged or whatever they do and see how we go. Perhaps if I just go in straight up and say what I want rather than listening to him convincing me otherwise I will have a better outcome.

The main reason tbh that i am avoiding this is that it took them over 3 weeks to get these to me and simply cannot afford to be without the car for another three weeks.

[AussieAndy Find all posts View Profile Close AussieAndy]

Ask them how are they long travel if they are the same length as the factory struts? They are clearly advertised as "long travel".

I will be checking mine too, as I paid for long travel shocks, and that's what I want. I would have saved myself some coin and just got off the shelf billies from someone else if they are the same. Paid premium for a product that isn't what it's marketed to be.

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

Spot on Mate - Please let me know once you have messured your up. If you've got the 575mm one's (and I do hope you do) then atleast that gives me some more leverage.

Infact if you use the forums suspension DB then the Standard Strut has 1mm more travel than this so called\sold Long Travel Shock

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

What a saga zerosecta. If it was me, I'd put the original suspension back in, take pictures with measurements of the gear Cal sold you and then pack the whole lot up and send it back to them. What has been sold is not 'fit for purpose' and not 'as advertised' therefore not of 'merchantable quality'. By the law they should refund you, probably minus shipping but at least you'll get some $ back. Failing that, get a cheap flight and go and have a chat with them, face to face.

[AussieAndy Find all posts View Profile Close AussieAndy]

Just had a climb under mine, unfortunately I have the same part number, being the one he advertises on his website as "long travel", 24-218528. I think this is the part number you have too, from what I can see of your pic. I know mine tops out off the back of speed humps, etc.

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

Yip sending it all back has crossed my mind but the hassle involved on my side and then the inevitable fight to actually get them to refund the money doesnt appeal to me and lets face it, its not a happy outcome for iether party...

I will call them this morning and see if they will exchange the strut for the longer one and then take it from there....

Only down side of that is that I may have a bit of a wait until the new struts arrive BUT,BUT,BUT....
I am now thinking that since my stock strut are "in fact" the same length as the ones they sent me then once the shorter springs they sent me come - I would be able to just put those on my stock struts - that way at leaset I am driving again.
Thoughts on this???

AusieAndy - If you are topping out on speedbumps - same as me although probably not as bad since I only had 20mm of sag\droop then I would say you are in the same boat mate and would be just as well off having simply put taller springs on your stock strut. Sorry to say mate but bear in mind I think they have the same part number for the same three length struts so you would really have to take them out, take apart and messure to know for sure.

[AussieAndy Find all posts View Profile Close AussieAndy]

Yeah, that's the plan this weekend. Going to pull the front end apart and have a big measure up so I have all the info! My front end is 30mm higher than I want it, so I will take that into account when I do my measurements. So I need at least 60mm droop when at ride height? So I need at least 30mm where it is now? I thought I was paying this money to get something to fit and forget, not so unfortunately. Going to spend Saturday measuring my suspension all around and putting my second spare on, cause they are apparently really heavy and will help drop it down more than I expect.......

Have you had a wheel alignment done? Don't forget this is a wasted expense on your side through no fault of yours, I wouldn't be paying a cent for freight.

[Guest Close Guest]

Yeah, that's the plan this weekend. Going to pull the front end apart and have a big measure up so I have all the info! My front end is 30mm higher than I want it, so I will take that into account when I do my measurements. So I need at least 60mm droop when at ride height? So I need at least 30mm where it is now?

Measure the suspension height on level ground, then jack up at the chassis until the tyre leaves the ground and repeat the same measurement.

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

UPDATE: Had a relatively short\sharp friendly discussion with the guy who slammed the phone on me yesterday...

I asked if he would exchange the shocks he sent me for longer ones to which he agreed - asked me to send them back with an email on how long I want them and they will re-build accordingly and send back. I am going to ask for 575mm.

So all up making good progress this morning.

He did go on to inform me the OME struts are only 543mm to which I responded quite quickly with - the part # he was referring to and educated him with the fact that they also do one that is 570mm and gave him the part# of that to. :-) He didnt have much to say after that :-)

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

Mate - not sure if I am doing this right but I disconnected the upper control arm from the hub last night and pushed down on the hub and lower control arm as far as I could with my weight on it bit by bit while turning the Rotor. Even with the CV at what I would say is an extreme angle, I didn't feel like it got anyway harder to turn or feel like there was any clunking etc.

If there are any experts around Point Cook, Vic area who want to come and take a look and do this properly and take measurements etc. the the car is in the garage on jack stands now and probably until the end of next week. Just PM me

Cheers

[wholesalesuspension Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close wholesalesuspension]

Good to hear this one is heading in the right direction for you.

Regards, Jason.

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

Jason - quick question if you dont mind. Would I be ok putting the new shorter springs they send me on my original struts in order to atleast get moving while I wait for the rebuilt struts to come back ? I realise they are shorter but figure if this is what Cal is sending out and there are other people out there riding struts this length it should be safe enough to get me by for a week or so ??

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

There is some confusion about how the OME struts are measured, you can get either measurement depending on how you measure them, the true measurement that compares apples with apples against other brands is 570mm.

I might try and grab some pictures later to explain.

Cheers Andrew

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

I asked if he would exchange the shocks he sent me for longer ones to which he agreed - asked me to send them back with an email on how long I want them and they will re-build accordingly and send back. I am going to ask for 575mm.

By "re-build", this suggests to me you will get exactly the same struts back, and to get from 555mm to 575mm, they will prolly reduce the top-out bump stop thickness. That's what I did with the Hilux struts I'm currently running.

Best

Mark