picked up the OME suspension upgrade from IRON PIG OFFROAD in Fredericksburg on Friday afternoon. their shop is SICK SICK SICK!!! I'll bring my gear to get some good photos next time I'm up, but Jack, the Production Manager, says they spend a lot of time on http://www.ih8mud.com.

okay, so got the front end part of the install complete yesterday, and went ahead and did the rear shocks at least. I was going to put off the rear springs for a while pending nicer weather since it was rainy here last night and this morning, but it's cleared up now and I'm getting ready to head out to start.

first impressions with half of it done -- very promising. I went with the light kit. it feels good. handles bumps nicely, but still feels like a truck, which is a good thing. I do notice that it feels a lot looser than it did before. sloppy almost, but that's just because I've been used to my truck having practically NO suspension before. was having a good time yesterday afternoon driving all over town seeing how it feels over the spots that rattle me up pretty badly. and speed bumps -- I can drive over speed bumps like you're supposed to be able to in a truck

even without the OME springs on the rear, I still feel a really nice difference. the longer travel, softer riding shocks have really made a huge difference so far, as has getting those 25mm torsion bars off the front end. I think the OME ones are 23.x mm; yes, some fraction of a mm

here are some photos



Existing Rear Suspension Setup - Skyjacker Leafs with KYB Monomax shocks. Very stiff.


Front Shocks - check out the difference in length, and the shaft diameter on the OME (yellow)


Rear Shocks - again, note difference in length


Torsion Bars


The rear shocks shipped without the polyurethane bushings installed, so I had to do that. This was a pretty tough little job at first. Put some antiseize on them to help them slide in, but then they don't compress well, and they kept skipping. So I put the end of a ratchet handle through the bushing and then through the shock eyelet, lined everything up and gently worked them in with my foot.