BEWARE!! dealing with CalOffroad

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

I thought there would be others out there with similar story :-) feel both bad and good at the same time about it... You do start to feel after a while like it is you that is just being difficult.

[MDS69 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close MDS69]

what if I just take the angle grinder to the coils and tak off 10 or 15mm off the end till I get the height I want??? Or is that a big no no for some reason??

Don't cut springs

[BlakMoth Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close BlakMoth]

My brother did that years ago to his Fairmont Ghia. Couldn't even go over a speed bump 😂


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

Just a qiuck point...

The extra 20mm Length strut gave me an additional 30mm of droop.

So I guess tht would indicate a ratio of 1:1,5 when trying to calculate how much travel\sag etc you can get with varying strut open lengths.

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

Rim to guard 810mm wheel on the ground
Rim to guard 915mm wheel off the ground

I have a 17" wheel and open strut of 575mm - my messurement from bottom of rim to gaurd is 890mm
Very interested in your 910mm messurement...

I guess iether you have their 595mm Length Strut or simply different rims can vary the results??

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

Just a qiuck point...

The extra 20mm Length strut gave me an additional 30mm of droop.

So I guess tht would indicate a ratio of 1:1,5 when trying to calculate how much travel\sag etc you can get with varying strut open lengths.

Hey zero,

I believe you said in the Amada vs Bilstein thread that your original droop measurement of 20mm was an approximate one.

I would be very surprised if the leverage ratio on the 150 IFS is not the same/close to the 120.

On the 120 series, it is 1:2.2 for strut travel vs wheel travel.

Anything lower than 2 is usually bumpstop closure gap, around 1:1.5.

You can of course just measure your strut travel vs wheel travel, just get your front end up on jack stands, and from full droop, get a trolley jack and jack under the lower control arm in steps until you lift the car off the jack stands, measure bottom rim to guard and measure your strut length (bottom of washer to center ring eye).

I'd be happy to make a plot if you get the data, it would be valuable info for 150 series drivers!

Best

Mark

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

Forgetting droop measurement for a minute, with the 555 struts the measurement from rim up was 860 and now with 575 strut it is 890.

[christofurry Member Find all posts View Profile Close christofurry]

I have a 17" wheel and open strut of 575mm - my messurement from bottom of rim to gaurd is 890mm
Very interested in your 910mm messurement...

I guess iether you have their 595mm Length Strut or simply different rims can vary the results??

I would say the rims have some differences, but something I have been holding back slightly is my CVs start binding on full droop. Just enough that when you rotate the wheels by hand you can feel the suspension compress slightly and ride up over the balls in the joints... It's not great but I could probably fix it by adjusting the top of the strut rubbers.

I had cal assemble my struts too.

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

Hmmm So it sounds to me like you have the 595mm open length struts from them... Unless you specifically asked for that, I'd be betting them rebuilt to 575mm - I can confirm that I have no binding at all.

Starting to sound to me like CalOffraod's R&D is infact done on unwitting customers vehicles... :-)

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

I have a 17" wheel and open strut of 575mm - my messurement from bottom of rim to gaurd is 890mm
Very interested in your 910mm messurement...

I guess iether you have their 595mm Length Strut or simply different rims can vary the results??

Hey zero and chris,

Different diameter rims will not change your droop result, as it's just subtracting one figure from another, but if chris is running something higher than 17's, then just take his 910mm measurement and subtract 1/2 of the difference in rim diameter to get it standardised back to 17" rims. eg, for 18" rims, 910-(0.5*25.4) = 897.3mm for a 17" rim.

If chris has a 595mm open length strut, then applying the difference in leverage ratio means (595-575)*2.2 = 44mm extra in wheel travel as measured on the outside of the rim.

So compared to your 890mm measurement, chris would be at 890+44 = 934mm for his droop measurement. Even if the leverage ratio were 1.5 (which I still doubt), then he would have 920mm at full droop.

The easiest way to tell is for chris to jack his Prado up and get the wheels at full droop and measure the open length on his strut.

At the moment, I doubt chris has 595mm struts.

Best

Mark

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

Hey again zero and chris,

I've added a bit more scale to my original lift vs droop plot for 120 series, and added your data to try and get an idea of what open length chris might have;



For zero's case (i) and case (ii), you can see that the lift of over 3.5" is the real culprit behind the limited droop. zero, if you can lose 30mm of ride height on the front, your droop will improve to around 80mm.

Bearing in mind this plot uses the 120 series leverage ratio (1:2.2), and that the 150 series may be slightly different, it suggests chris has something like a 582mm open length strut.

...but hold the phone, I've just looked at the photos in post #91, and chris is running FJ Cruiser rims, which have a different offset to 150 series rims, so chris has a longer leverage ratio due to the bigger offset of the 150 rim (ET15 for FJ, ET25 for 150, meaning FJ wheel sits 10mm further out giving longer leverage ratio).

I now believe chris has a 575mm open length strut, and his excellent droop of 105mm comes simply from his much lower ride height of 810mm, and a slightly longer leverage ratio.

Hopefully chris can confirm this soon.

Best

Mark

[Bushki Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bushki]

Mmmm.....Thought I should go and check mine.

I have TJM Alloy Bar, second battery and Brown Brothers under body protection. Dobinson c59-296 springs supplied by Caloffroad.

Ride height with spring circlip third groove from the bottom of the strut 800mm.Ideally slightly longer length spring would be good giving a better scope of ride height either way. (Beggars cant be choosers)

Droop measurement the same as yours Zero 890mm.

I am also only running the stock upper control arms and I have positioned the coils on the strut in such a way at full droop the upper control arm doesn't hit the spring and fits nicely between the coils. Probably doesn't give me much more but I like the idea it will not hit the coil.

Rear springs Dobinsons c59-325 ride height 820mm.
Fuel gauge showing three quarters full and ARB Drawers fitted.

Hope this info helps somebody.
I thought I should put back where I could, as I have learnt a lot and are still learning from other members posts.

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

Hey again,

If this is true and chris has a 575mm strut, then it begs the question why has CalOffroad sent chris a 575mm open length strut in the first place, and then sent zero a 555mm strut??

Chris, did you specifically ask for a 575mm strut?

Best

Mark

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

Hey Bushki,

So you have 90mm of droop at 2" lift, which suggests you have the 575mm open length strut.

Any chance you can measure your strut open length at full droop, bottom of washer to center ring eye.

Best

Mark

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

Hey again,

Plot updated to include the measurements from Bushki;



Another thing to keep in mind is the thickness of the shroud spacer, which will add to the open length. On the older 712's, the shroud spacer was around 8mm thick, meaning open length = 553+8 = 561mm. I haven't had a chance to measure the new spacer that goes with the new convoluted boot on the newer Bilsteins.

So it's possible Bushki has another variant of the strut with a slightly shorter open length, say 565mm, which with the shroud spacer will give over 570mm.

Hard to say without exact strut measurements, but it seems CalOffroad are sending out different open lengths to everyone.

Best

Mark