Old Man Emu lift kit.

[Transporter]

Any member here fitted one to his Amarok?

I'm installing the ARB bull bar to my Rok and am looking to lift the suspension and firm the ride a bit. There are quite a few options there. The ARB has the Old Man Emu (OME) kit that is well priced and well proven in AU. So, I'm interested to hear form others who may have the experience with the OMU, but also with the other offerings out there.

Here is the link to an Amarok with some ARB gear fitted, take a note his front bumper that has the Warn winch fitted.

[Tornado_ALIVE]

Hi Transporter. I would not bother with OME. They are just King Springs (not too bad but known to sag) and Munro shocks which have been known to fail along with most other brands in rough terrain including OEM. Not sure what leafs they use but have not heard positive reviews from them either.

Talk to bauerco from the Ausamarok forum (forum sponsor Net 4x4) and he can sort you out with a set of Dobinson coils / leafs and Bilstien B6 shocks. Much better package and he will sort you out with a price that will be hard for even cheap kits to beat.

FYI, a little info on the difference between the Bilstien and othr shocks.

FYI, the difference between Bilstein B6 Off Roads and OEM (Seikel Dessert, OME, TJM, Pedders are simular to the OEM)

Bilstein are made from nodular iron rather than pressed steel plate, the main shock tube is a machined tube instead of an extruded tube & the strut shaft is quite substantially thicker. All round much heavier duty unit & completely rebuildable.

A picture speaks a 1000 words.

[Transporter]

Thanks for the tips Tornado_ALIVE. I will certainly look into other offerings as well. Do you know if the Bilstein strut has extended travel?

[gavs]

Hi Transporter. I would not bother with OME. They are just King Springs (not too bad but known to sag) and Munro shocks which have been known to fail along with most other brands in rough terrain including OEM. Not sure what leafs they use but have not heard positive reviews from them either.

Talk to bauerco from the Ausamarok forum (forum sponsor Net 4x4) and he can sort you out with a set of Dobinson coils / leafs and Bilstien B6 shocks. Much better package and he will sort you out with a price that will be hard for even cheap kits to beat.

FYI, a little info on the difference between the Bilstien and othr shocks.

Yeah, righto mate....

[Tornado_ALIVE]

Thanks for the tips Tornado_ALIVE. I will certainly look into other offerings as well. Do you know if the Bilstein strut has extended travel?

None of the aftermarket struts do, so unfortunatly you loose a little travel but hey, the lockers in the back help when you lift a leg.

FYI, they dont offer the extra travel because if they do the CV's will have a very short life.

[gavs]

Again I'll have to pull you up on that Tornado_ALIVE, are you 100% sure about what you're saying there?

[Tornado_ALIVE]

What part/s are you concerned about???

[Transporter]

The OME has extended travel.

[Tornado_ALIVE]

For Amarok??? I am repeating what I have been told about them from others through their experiences. BTW, I am talking struts, not rear shocks. If the struts have extended travel, I would stay away from them as it wont be kind on the CVs. That said, I would not bother as the quality of ride is not up to the Billies and several have failed at the top of the strut shaft and also the arms that come around the CV (folding sideways, snapping CV's)

[Tornado_ALIVE]

Someone who has fitted OME struts and measured the down travel........... no increase in down travel

Basically whatever you gain in lift, you lose in downwards travel. Thank goodness for traction control.

Front suspension downwards travel - help please?

[Tornado_ALIVE]

OME (King springs) only give a 20mm lift (with bar and winch accounted for). My Dobinson springs gave me 40 to 45mm. I have not measured my down travel but none of us guys who have fitted this combination have been troubled. I am guessing we still have about 45mm

From ARB

Just as a follow up, I was speaking with our head OME engineer and he reminded me that the other reason for the theoretically small lift height is due to the limited down-travel that VW have built into their system. If you lift the car to it's maximum, drivable height (which in south america, they're doing to 50mm at the front) you have no down travel on your wheels, which means that if you break traction over a hole in a track or a wheel rut, that wheel gives you no traction and will just spin freely. Unfortunately, there is no fix for this like on other cars, by just chucking in an air locker, VW welded the crownwheel in the front diff.

Another scenario is that you will have other ride issues in that in some corners, you will potentially be lifting your inside front tyre. You're also more likely to get airborne too at the front end.

By all means, all of you interested in suspension upgrades, investigate and weigh up your options in regards to what's out there, how much your willing to spend and what you're using the car for. If it's just getting lifted for looks, then yeah, go high but risk the CV destruction. Otherwise, sometimes a more conservative option can be a better option when you hit the hard stuff.

Hopefully that provides you guys with a bit of insight and I wasn't too biased

[Transporter]

Someone who has fitted OME struts and measured the down travel........... no increase in down travel

According to ARB the OME strut has a 12mm longer stroke. Not much but it has actually longer stroke than the original struts. Also they have 3 years warranty. Their struts and shocks are made by Monroe 6 km from my home. The factory has 3 different production lines, the OME are made to a different standards than Monroe.

It will be a few months before I upgrade the suspension, so plenty of time to check what is the best option for me.

[Tornado_ALIVE]

Hi Transporter, talk to the guys on the Ausamarok forum who have experience in fitting and using these shocks in anger. There experience is that they are not getting any additional drop. I was under the impression that no drop was added to OME Amarok struts. May be other vehicle's, but for not the Roks.

Note also, they have seen failures with the top nut snapping of on several Amaroks as well as the shock base folding, snapping CV's. Your call but the Billies are a MUCH more robust unit. See the photo on page 1. Even more noticeable in the flesh. TJM, revised their shocks after simular failures but I am not convinced (doubt) they are an equal to the Billies yet. Furthermore, only the Billes from this group are rebuildable.



Old TJM strut







Revised TJM strut







Outback Armour

[Transporter]

It's all good info Tornado_ALIVE, thanks for posting that.
I will check the Pedders upgrade as well, since this is for me the most economical choice, though I never buy on price only and always appreciate a good product even if it's not visible.

The suspension travel and stiffness is important for me, I will measure the stock suspension travel on mine, jackng the car up tomorrow.
So far, before the ARB bull bar went on the distance from the edge of the guard to the top of the rim was 285mm. I need to drive the Rok tomorrow to check the drop caused by bull bar (no winch). It took me bloody 8 hours to fit the bull bar, including taking many pictures in the process, and soldering the wiring in instead using the scotch locks connectors.

[gavs]

Old Man Emu lift kit.

Tornado_ALIVE, I think you are getting confused between the relationship of lift vs down travel. Lifting a car decreases your down travel unless you also increase the internal length that the piston in the damper can travel through. The OME Amarok front strut indeed does have an increased stroke length allowing the vehicle to retain as much of the factory down travel as it can. The reason that the FRONT STRUTS are limited to a 20mm lift is to retain CV joint life expectancy. The rear can comfortably go up by 60mm but for looks, comfort and ride balance, the rears have also been limited in the height increase. If you lift the rear too far over the front the entire ride balance and specifically, vehicle control can be VERY adversely affected, to the tune of ESC no longer functioning properly.

RE your argument regarding build quality, last time I was in China looking at different manufacturing plants, I happened to get shown through the factory that produces Gabriel dampers. Not only Gabriel but KYB, Tokico, low end Koni reds and the Bilstein B6 and B8's. As Miro said, just because the OME dampers are produced in the same factory as Monroe, they aren't the same, the internals are COMPLETELY different and they're built on their own line. Monroe also supply factory fitted dampers to the likes of Ducati, Volkswagen, Renault, BMW and Porsche, just to name a few.
Yes the springs are made by kings springs but they are made to OME's specifications using material selected by OME, the generic Kings you buy at autobarn aren't the same.
Problems with the leaf springs? There can't be too many other than verbal bashing by forum warriors who probably didn't get the right spring/damper combo to begin with maybe, could you sight some examples of the problems?

Transporter, it's your choice as to what you want to go with but knowing how long was spent developing the Amarok suspension by OME, I can comfortably say that you won't find many equal, let alone better setups on the market.