Montero 3rd gen lift question

[maximluchnik]

Hey man, nice looking rig!

What made you go for the Dobinson's? I just got myself a 2002 Mitsubishi Montero Limited, and I'm planning to put a 2" lift kit on it. The two major ones I've seen are Dobinson's (on Amazon), and OME. From what I've read, Dobinson's are a bit softer than OME, but OME is the "tried and true" one out there.

Any thoughts on what I should do? I plan to use it for about 85% city driving, and trails/mudding for the rest.

 

[kvr1969]

Hey man, nice looking rig!

What made you go for the Dobinson's? I just got myself a 2002 Mitsubishi Montero Limited, and I'm planning to put a 2" lift kit on it. The two major ones I've seen are Dobinson's (on Amazon), and OME. From what I've read, Dobinson's are a bit softer than OME, but OME is the "tried and true" one out there.

Any thoughts on what I should do? I plan to use it for about 85% city driving, and trails/mudding for the rest.

Congrats on your new rig maximluchnik! They're such awesome vehicles, not sure if there's anything more well built, unique, versatile and capable from that era.

As for why I went with the Dobinson's, I looked at both Dobinson's and OME, as well as Adventure Driven Design which Evomaki mentioned above. I finally went with the Dobinson's because I found it most frequently referred to –and positively– when I sifted through info on the internet. Not that there is that much out there but what I did find was pretty glowing. I was also looking for something on the softer side since we don't do any towing or much hauling with it. we're actually getting it set up for my 16 yo son, who will proably use it with the 85/15 street/ trail ratio you're talking about.

If you do end up going with the Dobinson's, I got my kit from All Dogs Offroad, which was the least expensive option for that kit, by quite a bit, including Amazon. It was also less expensive than the others, and this was another factor in favor of the Dobinsons in the decision making process. All Dogs Offroad had it at my door in three days, which was appreciated.

Good luck with your lift, love to see some before and after photos of your new beast!

 

[maximluchnik]

Congrats on your new rig maximluchnik! They're such awesome vehicles, not sure if there's anything more well built, unique, versatile and capable from that era.

As for why I went with the Dobinson's, I looked at both Dobinson's and OME, as well as Adventure Driven Design which Evomaki mentioned above. I finally went with the Dobinson's because I found it most frequently referred to –and positively– when I sifted through info on the internet. Not that there is that much out there but what I did find was pretty glowing. I was also looking for something on the softer side since we don't do any towing or much hauling with it. we're actually getting it set up for my 16 yo son, who will proably use it with the 85/15 street/ trail ratio you're talking about.

If you do end up going with the Dobinson's, I got my kit from All Dogs Offroad, which was the least expensive option for that kit, by quite a bit, including Amazon. It was also less expensive than the others, and this was another factor in favor of the Dobinsons in the decision making process. All Dogs Offroad had it at my door in three days, which was appreciated.

Good luck with your lift, love to see some before and after photos of your new beast!

Thanks for the tip kvr1969. I almost got the OME, but you convinced me to go with the Dobinsons.

Coincidentally, me and my dad are also building out our Monty as my first car, though it will work as a family car on trips as well. I checked out your profile, and you're located in Issaquah, WA. I'm right northwest of you in Bellevue, WA! You know of any good trails/ places to go mudding in the area?

 

[kvr1969]

Thanks for the tip kvr1969. I almost got the OME, but you convinced me to go with the Dobinsons.

Coincidentally, me and my dad are also building out our Monty as my first car, though it will work as a family car on trips as well. I checked out your profile, and you're located in Issaquah, WA. I'm right northwest of you in Bellevue, WA! You know of any good trails/ places to go mudding in the area?

Hey great to hear your in the area maximluchnik. Sounds like your Montero will be a great project for you and your Dad.

There's alot of good stuff around here for trails and mud for sure. I think some of the closest trails are accessible from fireroads just a few miles of east of Greenwater, like from FS Rd 70 and 72. You'll see the signs for these two forest service roads as you're heading east out of Greenwater on the left. There's a number of great 4WD trails that spur off these two main dirt roads. Then from FS 72 you can get up to Naches Pass where the Naches Trail is. There's some pretty hardcore wheeling in that area, I've done it on dirt bikes but not with the Montero. The Naches Trail is Jeep heaven, but I think with a lift kit, some patience, and some driver skill a Montero could manage most of it. Enjoy!

 

[RAWags44]

Nice write up on this. I used spacers on my 03 and they have been great, but I think they are a lot smaller than the spacers you used. I got just under 1.5 inch of a lift. I installed them with Tough Dog foam cell shocks and have been amazed at the improved handling. I might get the matching Tough Dog springs down the road but for now, I'm happy.

Rear spacers


Front spacer





Here is the stance right after the spacers and shocks were installed. I took the struts and spacers to a local shop because I didn't want to mess with a spring compressor. The back springs were easy. Just got the spring in and used a bottle jack to raise the lower A-arm till I got get the bolt in.



This is with all my gear and three family members in the car. I'm running 235/85/16 Falken Wilpeaks

 

[kvr1969]

Nice write up on this. I used spacers on my 03 and they have been great, but I think they are a lot smaller than the spacers you used. I got just under 1.5 inch of a lift. I installed them with Tough Dog foam cell shocks and have been amazed at the improved handling. I might get the matching Tough Dog springs down the road but for now, I'm happy.

Rear spacers
View attachment 539754

Front spacer

View attachment 539756
View attachment 539762


Here is the stance right after the spacers and shocks were installed. I took the struts and spacers to a local shop because I didn't want to mess with a spring compressor. The back springs were easy. Just got the spring in and used a bottle jack to raise the lower A-arm till I got get the bolt in.
View attachment 539760


This is with all my gear and three family members in the car. I'm running 235/85/16 Falken Wilpeaks
View attachment 539761

Great photos RAWags44, really nice looking rig. Good to hear yours turned out well.

I think I can see why your spacers worked and mine didn't. As you mentioned, yours are shorter, and also, the rears look like they have seats for the springs. Mine were just flat with a raised center that fit in the middle of the spring. Without the seat, as yours have, the springs didn't sit right on the spacers, they just kind of squished around in the pocket. Also, I think the fact that my shocks and struts were older didn't help matters.

So maybe a few takeaway points here for current or future readers who come across this thread are:

1) If you go with spacers, go with 1.5 inches or less.
2) Make sure the rear spacers have seats for the springs, as illustrated in RAWags44's photo above.
3) Maybe kind of obvious, but, install some new shocks and struts at the same time!

 

[kvr1969]

Well, now I have a new problem. At highway speeds, now it wanders.... really badly. It's manageable until hitting the semi truck ruts on the four lane, then I'm in my lane plus half the other two on each side of me.

I know about vehicles with larger tires wandering, my truck has 35's and it has a little problem with it but not bad. I also had a '72 Scout awhile back with 35's. The steering box and ball joints were shot and it was better than this. It's so bad it's not safe.

It's not the tires or the tire size; they were on there before the lift and it tracked well.

I've had the alignment checked twice, it's fine. Tires were just balanced. Had a shop check out my installation just to have a second set of eyes on it, everything looked good. They had no idea on how to fix it.

Any ideas would be extremely helpful, thanks in advance!

 

[kvr1969]

Just going over the Hunter report, here is it if anyone is interested (ignore the top 1/5 of the page, those are the specs prior to the alignment):


Here's my written summary of it (just wrote this up for my benefit, thought I'd include it in case it helps):

Front:
Caster left is -1.8, Caster right is -2.0.
Camber left is -.9, Camber right is -.5
Toe left is.15, Toe right is .22

Rear:
Camber left is .1, Camber right is .5
Toe left is -1.13, Toe right is -.92 (total toe is -2.06)

Left front camber and caster are out of factory spec, and right front caster is out as well.
Toe on both rears is way out of spec at -2.06.

I don't really know what to make of this. I guess my main question is if any of these out-of-spec figures are severe enough to cause the wandering problem. Probably hard to say but I'd welcome any more thoughts.

 

[Schitzangiggles]

If it is out of spec and your having issuesthat weren't there before it was that far out of spec, I'd suspect it was an out of spec issue...
Can the alignment shop get it into spec?

 

[kvr1969]

If it is out of spec and your having issuesthat weren't there before it was that far out of spec, I'd suspect it was an out of spec issue...
Can the alignment shop get it into spec?

The issues are new, i.e they weren't there before it was out of spec. It had though developed a new front end vibration between 60-70 mph before the suspension and tires were messed with. Scnitzandgiggles, regarding your question at the bottom, the one alignment shop I took it to said they've done all they can, going off the factory specs.

Had an additional thought along these lines, I wonder if the factory alignment specs are now irrelevant with the changes in suspension geometry subsequent to the lift? If this is the case, i.e. no specs for guidance that take in the geometry created with the 2" lift, it seems like getting the alignment right might be trial and error.

We have one source of hope in view right now. My son put some wheel spacers in so the larger tires would fit better. We're going to pull those off and see if makes any improvement. As it is now, we can't drive it on the freeway. I'll keep posting with results.

 

[Schitzangiggles]

Were the spacers hub centric? Because if they aren't that will cause issues.

 

[kvr1969]

Were the spacers hub centric? Because if they aren't that will cause issues.

Good point, they were hub centric.

 

[maximluchnik]

The issues are new, i.e they weren't there before it was out of spec. It had though developed a new front end vibration between 60-70 mph before the suspension and tires were messed with. Scnitzandgiggles, regarding your question at the bottom, the one alignment shop I took it to said they've done all they can, going off the factory specs.

Had an additional thought along these lines, I wonder if the factory alignment specs are now irrelevant with the changes in suspension geometry subsequent to the lift? If this is the case, i.e. no specs for guidance that take in the geometry created with the 2" lift, it seems like getting the alignment right might be trial and error.

We have one source of hope in view right now. My son put some wheel spacers in so the larger tires would fit better. We're going to pull those off and see if makes any improvement. As it is now, we can't drive it on the freeway. I'll keep posting with results.

Any updates?

 

[kvr1969]

Here's the update. Took the spacers off yesterday, and thankfully no more tramlining on the freeway so they were the culprit. My guess is that the positive scrub radius caused by the spacers, along with changes in geometry associated with the lift, was the issue. I also had an ABS fault coming on which I think was caused by the scrub radius problem, i.e. massive toe out drag at the brake moment.

 

[maximluchnik]

Here's the update. Took the spacers off yesterday, and thankfully no more tramlining on the freeway so they were the culprit. My guess is that the positive scrub radius caused by the spacers, along with changes in geometry associated with the lift, was the issue. I also had an ABS fault coming on which I think was caused by the scrub radius problem, i.e. massive toe out drag at the brake moment.

Thank God it was the spacers.

I just got the Dobinsons lift yesterday, will be putting it on this next week.