Coilovers: are they worth the cost?

[JohnD]

hoes !

Agree with alot of the guys. There really is no cons to a good set of C/O. As for weight i have D/R c/o's S/W winch bar,dual optimas, winch, etc. I lost a 1/4 of lift with the hoes. Ive run Mojave pretty hard with the Hoes and thye just dont say uncle very often if at all.. My advise just do it, you wont be let down.. if i remeber correctly D/r hoes have a 650lb coil..


Good Luck!

 

[7wt]

I love my Hoes! I fought the decision for the longest time but did it and love it.

 

[Jacket]

I wish I would have started this thread a year ago. In the last year I went from stock to OME 882 to my SAWS 2.5". Everything everybody has been saying is what I was able to learn from experience. With a winch and a big bumper you are going to want a heavier spring rate. I am not talking ********** about allpro because I have used them with good experiences, but when I asked them why I should get their coilovers instead of the SAWS they said that the higher end coilovers are way nicer of a shock then I would probably ever use. That sold the SAWS. When I had the OME with the ARB bumper, winch, and no swaybar the truck drove decent but had a lot of body roll on road. It was horrible in the rocks. Every time the front rolled off a rock the it would go flying down. The truck is much better now and handles better on road without the swaybar than it did when I bought 6 years ago new. It is some much fun offroad now. If you can afford coilovers I would do it. My truck is better in every condition from the interstate to the rocks. That being said I would at least determine if you need a stiffer spring rate.

That's good info right there. I've noticed similar behavior with my OME's coming off rocks, but just accepted it as a penalty of my modified suspension. I've got the 886's with the 660 lb spring rate, and it holds my bumper/winch combo quite well, but I'd only give them "average to above average" in the driving performance category.

The trouble with these kinds of threads (on other forums) is that there are rarely people that have driven extensively on multiple suspension platforms that can provide factual information and experiences. You get a lot of "I have those _____'s and I love them." Well that's great, but not that helpful in a compare/contrast thread. Nice to see quite a few posts from folks that have run several coilover and OME setups on the same rig :clapsmile

 

[007]

I didn't look back after buying Donahoes up front. My only regret is putting Billi 5125's on the back. Its a great shock for moderate use but it doesn't keep up with the hoes in front if you're pushing it for long periods over choppy terrain.

The billies will fade and become too hot to touch before the hoes even warm up. I should have known to put a rear resi shock in back to complement the hoes, but reviews raved about the 5100's so I thought it would work for me also.

I do like how they work at slow and moderate speed.

My Tacoma shock experience is only based on a stock 01 taco non-TRD, 07 TRD and the hoe/billie set up. Scoring them out of a possible 10 this is how I rate them:

Hoes/Billie 5100's - 7
Stock 07 TRD - 4
Stock 01 non TRD - 3

 

[YotaPilot]

Ok...reviving this very old thread with a few more questions on Coilovers.

First off, my truck is a 2001 Tacoma DC daily driver with stock TRD suspension. My original suspension plan was the OME Kit, with the Dakar leafs, and HD springs due to plans of adding an ARB bumper to the front. But now after reading about the experiences with C/Os I am reconsidering.

My reservation with C/Os is this: I will not use it enough to make the extra $700 (for the kit) worth it. I plan to use my truck on multiple weekend trips per year and 1 or 2 week+ long trips per year. Trip locations would be though out the Southwest (forgive my ignorance - I am new to all this. I am not too familiar with the off road terrain and what suspension works best for this region). I don't expect to do any serious rock crawling or mudding.

So...the $1,000,000 question is this: are coil overs worth it?....or would the OME kit do fine for the type of driving I plan on doing?

 

[Clutch]

Ok...reviving this very old thread with a few more questions on Coilovers.

First off, my truck is a 2001 Tacoma DC daily driver with stock TRD suspension. My original suspension plan was the OME Kit, with the Dakar leafs, and HD springs due to plans of adding an ARB bumper to the front. But now after reading about the experiences with C/Os I am reconsidering.

My reservation with C/Os is this: I will not use it enough to make the extra $700 (for the kit) worth it. I plan to use my truck on multiple weekend trips per year and 1 or 2 week+ long trips per year. Trip locations would be though out the Southwest (forgive my ignorance - I am new to all this. I am not too familiar with the off road terrain and what suspension works best for this region). I don't expect to do any serious rock crawling or mudding.

So...the $1,000,000 question is this: are coil overs worth it?....or would the OME kit do fine for the type of driving I plan on doing?

I think you'll be fine with an OME setup, coil overs might be overkill for what you want....but if you want to fine tune your suspension...you may want to go the coil over route, and either custom Deavers or Alcans for the rear, which ride a whole heck of a lot better than an Old Man Emu system. It all comes down to how much money you want to spend and what compromises you are willing to deal with.

I like coil-overs myself...since you can rebuild them for about $100 or so, and I am off-pavement at least once or twice a week out here in the desert...heck our roads are so bad, need them for the daily commute too! :truck:

A note to the guy who mentioned disconnecting the sway bar...adding an emulsion shock in the place of the sway bar helps tremendously with body roll, without sacrificing travel.

 

[Dave Bennett]

I remember this thread...

... and I still have the same CO's!

My Donahoe (now Icon) coilovers went over 80,000 miles before needing a rebuild for ONE weeping seal on the passenger side... only one seal after over 80k of ME flogging them with a heavily laden truck all over the western US and Baja. I had Icon rebuild them and when the springs were tested they were still within spec so we are seeing how long/how far the springs will go.

I highly recommend Icon for this reason.

Note: The shock body and springs in this picture have over 108,000 miles on them now and still going strong!

 

[offthebeatenpath]

Note: The shock body and springs in this picture have over 108,000 miles on them now and still going strong!

Wow.

That's pretty stinkin' incredible for any aftermarket product.

Thanks for bringing this thread back up, I'd not read it before. Lots of good stuff here, hopefully more can be added.

 

[Clutch]

Wow.

That's pretty stinkin' incredible for any aftermarket product.

Thanks for bringing this thread back up, I'd not read it before. Lots of good stuff here, hopefully more can be added.

210,000 miles on my Camburgs, they have been rebuilt once...and probably could use another, they aren't leaking, but I am sure the shock fluid could use a change.

 

[GTABurnout]

I think you'll be fine with an OME setup, coil overs might be overkill for what you want....but if you want to fine tune your suspension...you may want to go the coil over route, and either custom Deavers or Alcans for the rear, which ride a whole heck of a lot better than an Old Man Emu system. It all comes down to how much money you want to spend and what compromises you are willing to deal with.

I like coil-overs myself...since you can rebuild them for about $100 or so, and I am off-pavement at least once or twice a week out here in the desert...heck our roads are so bad, need them for the daily commute too! :truck:

A note to the guy who mentioned disconnecting the sway bar...adding an emulsion shock in the place of the sway bar helps tremendously with body roll, without sacrificing travel.

I plan to swap out My OME Stuff for a full up Icon set up soon. And as a fellow Tucson Resident I can not agree more with the crap roads in this town.

 

[Clutch]

I plan to swap out My OME Stuff for a full up Icon set up soon. And as a fellow Tucson Resident I can not agree more with the crap roads in this town.

I have OME on the rear, not very happy with the ride quality...plan is to go with long travel. Total Chaos arms in the front, custom Deaver pack in the rear, with Fox all the way around.

The roads are horrible, the heat and the buses/garbage trucks kill the right hand lanes...plus it seems like everywhere you go there is road construction, and yet the roads never seem to get any better.

 

[Ryanmb21]

I have icon stuff all around and I like it a lot better than the OME suspension I had for 50K before it. (I don't know much though, so take that with a grain of salt.)

 

[keezer37]

My unbiased opinion of ICON:
I've got 115k on my Donahoes. One rebuild at about 90k and one broken spring. I'm on the fence as to whether I would buy them again. They are worry free with regards to how they handle various weight and various terrain. Ride is beautiful.
My issue is cost. In my opinion, the company charges every penny they can for their product, just to the point of people balking.

While I've never owned OME, my perception is they provide reliability and value for the money but you may suffer ride quality if your weight does not match their setups. Specifically, a steel bumper sans winch.

 

[Clutch]

My unbiased opinion of ICON:
I've got 115k on my Donahoes. One rebuild at about 90k and one broken spring. I'm on the fence as to whether I would buy them again. They are worry free with regards to how they handle various weight and various terrain. Ride is beautiful.
My issue is cost. In my opinion, the company charges every penny they can for their product, just to the point of people balking.

While I've never owned OME, my perception is they provide reliability and value for the money but you may suffer ride quality if your weight does not match their setups. Specifically, a steel bumper sans winch.

I would think Icon has improved from when they were Donahoe, there are other companies out there if you're not happy with their product...Sway-A-Way, Fox, King, etc...

Lets face it, stuff breaks...as soon as we start using it, it starts to wear out, you know the old saying..."If gots tits or wheels, it's gonna give ya trouble..."

One way to keep cost low is to look on the used market, some guys who upgrade to long travel will sell off their lesser travel coil overs. Recently saw a pair of Camburgs with UCA's on TTORA for $1100, have seen similar setups go for cheaper. Keep an eye on the RaceDezert classifieds as well, or call some of the off-road shops like SDHQ or SoCal Supertrucks...they might have some pull-offs sitting on a shelf...

 

[Willman]

I sure love my Doahoe's (now icon).....

They keep going and going!

Worth the penny....