702krawler
Adventurer
Never thought I'd be doing a u-bolt comparo, but I'll definitely post them up tomorrow.
Rear leaf spring advice needed
- Thread starter fortel
- Start date
jbumx2
Observer
Hi everyone. I also recently placed an order for the OME MD leaf packs from Nisstec. I did not order the ubolts from them because I read on clubfrontier that the diameter of their ubolts is slightly larger that the holes in the spring plates. Anyway, I was going to order ubolts from PRG since the diameter of their ubolts is the same as OEM, and I did not want to have to go buy a new drill bit and enlarge the plate holes myself, especially if the correct sized ubolts existed to begin with. But after seeing your pictures, I'm not sure if I should be concerned about the ubolts being wider than the axle housing. I've never replaced leaf springs before so I don't know much about these things at all. I was hoping they would simply bolt on. Robert suggested bending the ubolts so they line up with the spring plate holes. I would imagine this would make the legs of the ubolts no longer parallel to each other. Is this something that I should be worried about? Or is this typical when installing ubolts? Anyway... I'll be looking forward to the ubolt comparo from 702krawler.
702krawler
Adventurer
And now for the highlight of your weekend, the PRG vs. Nisstec u-bolt comparo:
As you probably guessed by now, I received the Nisstec u-bolts today. I eagerly took them out of the box (sorry, no un-boxing video), to see how they would fit. In short, they fit pretty well.
The Nisstec bolts are the same diameter as the PRG bolts. Both are slightly larger in diameter than the OEM bolts, but they do fit in the bottom bracket without having to drill it (just barely). While the PRG bolts are longer than the OEM bolts, the Nisstec bolts are longer still -- probably a full 1" longer per side than the PRGs. Not sure yet if this is a good or bad thing (too long of a bolt hanging down might tend to catch things off-road).
As for widths, the Nisstec bolt looks to be about dead-on in terms of width compared to the OEM bolt, which of course means it is narrower than the PRG bolt. Below is an overall photo of all three bolts side-by-sde so you can compare their widths for yourself. Left to right is OEM, PRG, Nisstec:
For an even better comparison, you can see the OEM (top) vs. PRG (bottom):
Next is OEM (top) vs. Nisstec (bottom):
And finally Nisstec (bottom) vs. PRG (top):
So how do they "wrap" over the top of the axle?
First up (for comparison's sake) is the OEM:
Next up is the PRG:
And finally the Nisstec:
Overall, I'm much happier with the Nisstec supplied bolts. They appear to be nearly identical in width to the OEM bolts, sharing the proper radius with the rear axle. One thing I will say PRG does well that Nisstec should strongly consider doing is they include nyloc nuts instead of plain nuts. Of course, if PRG adjusted their width to match OEM width, then they'd end up on top.
As you probably guessed by now, I received the Nisstec u-bolts today. I eagerly took them out of the box (sorry, no un-boxing video), to see how they would fit. In short, they fit pretty well.
The Nisstec bolts are the same diameter as the PRG bolts. Both are slightly larger in diameter than the OEM bolts, but they do fit in the bottom bracket without having to drill it (just barely). While the PRG bolts are longer than the OEM bolts, the Nisstec bolts are longer still -- probably a full 1" longer per side than the PRGs. Not sure yet if this is a good or bad thing (too long of a bolt hanging down might tend to catch things off-road).
As for widths, the Nisstec bolt looks to be about dead-on in terms of width compared to the OEM bolt, which of course means it is narrower than the PRG bolt. Below is an overall photo of all three bolts side-by-sde so you can compare their widths for yourself. Left to right is OEM, PRG, Nisstec:
For an even better comparison, you can see the OEM (top) vs. PRG (bottom):
Next is OEM (top) vs. Nisstec (bottom):
And finally Nisstec (bottom) vs. PRG (top):
So how do they "wrap" over the top of the axle?
First up (for comparison's sake) is the OEM:
Next up is the PRG:
And finally the Nisstec:
Overall, I'm much happier with the Nisstec supplied bolts. They appear to be nearly identical in width to the OEM bolts, sharing the proper radius with the rear axle. One thing I will say PRG does well that Nisstec should strongly consider doing is they include nyloc nuts instead of plain nuts. Of course, if PRG adjusted their width to match OEM width, then they'd end up on top.
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