Athertons 2010 Prado 150 GXL D4D Build

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

No idea on the springs. Give Dobbos a call in Brendale and ask what they recommend or better still give John Zordo a call. He wont mind.

That front is plus 60mm at the moment. 750 is stock.

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

Might just do that mate, would be good to get some more info. on this. I can understand the front being high as it's really not the weight it should be at the moment, but the rear shouldn't be that low (I've not even got half a tank of diesel in it at the moment, so it'll be down a lot lower when i fill it up).

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

What are the actual part numbers of the coils? Front I reckon will be ok when you get the load on it but the rears are too soft/short.

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

C59-325 apparently, which according to their catalogue are the right springs to use (assuming I'm reading it correctly).

https://www.dobinsonsprings.com/inde...ings-catalogue

I'm not really that knowledgeable on this sort of thing, but I'm guessing there's some form of recourse back to superior and say that they aren't giving me the required lift? It'll be interesting today when I put some diesel in it to see how much it drops, its only got a 1/4 of a tank at the minute.

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

I think those springs are only 220lb/in and if that is correct they are way too soft for you.

Mark, who knows more about Prado suspension than anyone I know, was talking 270/280 lb/in.

http://www.pradopoint.com.au/showthr...-Pro-Group-Buy

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

Hmm, interesting that in that catalogue there isn't any other springs to choose from in the reccomended tab. I wonder why they only offer the one spring for it, or am i missing something here? It'd be good to be able to ring up superior and be able to say what model springs I'm chasing- has anyone had experience with them taking back a set of springs if they aren't suitible?


EDIT: Found the file, I guess I'm probably after the middle ones- Although I don't really have that much stuff in the car normally- Just the Engle at the moment and when I go camping I normally take a bag of stuff. The middle ones probably would be more suitible, but I told the guy that I wanted comfort on road.

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

Iwould think so though I am out of my depth. Give John a call at Zordos.

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

Thanks for the tip mate, I just did. Really helpful guy who walked me through what I had. Turns out superior have given me a totally wrong setup for the back. They've given me the lightest coils they had (rated at 60-100kg) (after I told them I periodically tow a horse float) and the incorrect struts- Turns out the struts are suitible for a standard height prado 120- Not a raised 150, they've actually got worse travel than the factory units.

It's a lesson in knowing what you want before you buy- I confess to being a little ignorant in what I was talking about, and I've been taken for a ride by a salesman who obviously has no knowledge on what he's selling. I'm in the process of dealing with Superior now to see what they can do- I'm hoping for either a partial refund so I can get Zordo to fix up the rear, or at least a parts swap where they give me the correct springs and struts.

Zordo has been fantastic, spent 40 minutes on the phone with me (someone who hasn't even purchased stuff off him, wish I had) and gave me good old fashioned honest service.

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

Yep, John is a good bloke. See if they will take it all back and get a refund. Then drive down to see John!

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

Not sure they're going to want to come to the party on that, (really hoping they will).but I'm pretty cranky that I didn't just go to him in the first place- He sure knows his stuff.

[Roksy18 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Roksy18]

Hi Atherton. Not sure how they can’t come to the party and give you a full refund or at the very least replace the components with the right ones. You’ve advised what you want to achieve and they haven’t supplied the right advice or the right products. They can’t just ignore what you’ve said and supply whatever they want. I think it’s worth a call to fair trading Qld if you can’t get it resolved to your satisfaction. Have a look at his link

https://www.qld.gov.au/law/your-righ...s-for-products

Anyway hope it works out for you. Cheers

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

Update on Superior- They've agreed to take back both the shocks and coils on the rear. Old mate took a bit of convincing that the shocks simply weren't suitable for the 150 (as I've said previously, Zordo basically told me they're replacement shocks for stock height 120's- Totally unsuited for a car that's 200 KG heavier and higher off the ground as well). I literally had to convince the salesmen to open up Bilstein’s page and check the recommended shocks for my car as he told me that his supplier (company called Fulcrum?) had told him that they were correct- Once he did this he was a little more cooperative.

The issue of the springs needed to be resolved as they were sprung way too light- Even though during the consultation I informed him that I do occasionally tow a horse float (we live on a farm) he gave me the lightest coils Dobinson make for the 150 which have a working load of 60-100kg- Far short of a dual horse floats ball weight that’s for sure. For some reason he is of the view that the stronger springs I want (100-300kg weight) will be much harsher even with a bit of weight on them, and will have a chance of popping out of their seats as the correct Bilstein shock for the 150 has 20mm extra travel than the one I've got. I’m unsure why they would, because both components are rated by their individual manufacturers for a 150 Prado (instead of a 120) and both are intended for a 45-50mm lift. To add insult to injury he questioned why I wanted the greater suspension travel in the correct shocks- A question which i would have thought was self-explanatory. I'll be ringing John Zordo Monday morning and making sure that everything I've ordered will be fine together (again, cannot thank him enough for his customer service and could not rate him highly enough for any prospective buyers on suspension)

Perhaps the most alarming thing with Superior out of this is that the salesman initially claimed that there was nothing wrong with my lift height- He said that over 50 Prados that they'd fitted had the same ride height and kit in them. So, there's at least 50 Prado owners getting around with totally wrong gear in them, and they've paid a handsome sum of money for the honour of doing so.

I should say that I don't have a problem with Superior in general, and I don't mean this to be a big hate rant against them- It's probably more of a cautionary tale for anyone else considering products that they're not that knowledgeable about. I've learned a serious lesson from this and it's that I'd rather go to someone who really knows what they're talking about and pay more for the job getting done right the first time, than to have to muck around driving hours to and from my place to Brisbane to get it fixed. I'll still buy gear from Superior in the future, but it'll be things like recovery gear/ bashplates etc. They do have a good range of products and they're of decent quality.

Anyway, sorry if that sounded a bit confused and jumbled,

TL;DR: They're going to replace the shocks and coils with the ones I want.

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

Good result I think. Well worth the effort of pushing them. And yes I have seen some Prados around with horrible lifts, no rake, front way too high. No idea what gear they had but it makes me shake my head.

[Tailshaft Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Tailshaft]

Mate that's really unfortunate about the stuff up with the suspension. I've been meaning to get some pics of the Ironman upgrade i did on mine, should be up in the next few days.

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

Another update today from Superior. Got a different salesman on the line and what a difference. Angus could not have been more helpful, no dramas at all to get the "custom" shocks that I wanted (Zordo advises that 150 owners use them, but they're a bit rare as they're not openly marketed by Bilstein but rather sold as a "Long travel Option" for those that know what to ask for). The springs will be returned and an exchange given to the heavier option as I previously asked for. They are also quite happy for me to drive in and take the new springs and shocks, drive to "a mates house" (Zordo) and the return later that day having taken the old ones out and installed the new ones.

I did consider taking the old ones out at home and putting the factory ones in, but the car sits down quite a bit in the rear like that and I'm not really keen on driving to brisbane like that if i don't have to.

In conclusion, I have had a positive experience with Superior- They did sell me the wrong gear, but were willing to fix it with very little prodding. Haggling doesn't come easily to me, and I confess to not being a very good negotiator with this sort of thing, however I'm more than happy with the outcome. I'd probably advise people to steer clear of them if you have no idea what you want- I think they are probably fine if you have a live axel car (thinking GQ/GU/80/105/70 Series etc.) but for an IFS front it's a bit more complicated and you might be better off talking to a professional like John Zordo. If you've got a definite parts list and know exactly how you want to set it up, they're hard to beat- They don't charge the world like ARB and sell very well made products for reasonable prices and their returns policy seems to be fair dinkum.

I will post photos at Zordos when the lift is fitted

**Final note: Zordo actually sells other stuff than Suspenion, I'm picking up a set of recovery points off him as well which are very well priced (better than Superior actually).