front end sagging..........AGAIN!

[FITZY]

the hilux is going back for more warranty work which is now the 2nd time in 9 months that the front end has dropped well over an inch.first time it happened the springs were checked for sagging but were exact same height as a set of brand newies.so they decided to move the circlip to its highest groove(machined 15mm higher than the grooves that come standard on bilstein shockies) and all was good for about 2-3months... but now it has happened again:x im running H-duty 19mm lovells springs with bilstein shocks.i also have an arb steel b-bar,dual batteries and 9000lb winch.has anyone else had these dramas, any suggestions appreciated

[jep]

i tried the lovell springs but found they were too soft and the bloke who put them in agreed and replaced them with the kings KTFR101HD i have noticed a lil sag but that was on the middle setting and now are on the top one and am happy. i have the arb steel winch bar warn 9500 winch but not dual btteries. think there is enough weight up the front for now! was the highest groove on the strut one standard (i.e thee grooves) or hav you put another into it making it four grooves?

[hound]

Use heavy duty Ridepro springs! I have bilsteins & Ride Pro coils.

[Rich]

I have ARB Steel bar, Magnum Winch and dual batteries and I had to take my OME suspension back to ARB and they changed the springs (it had sagged about 40 MM in a month).

Since then it has sagged again about 20 mm in 16 months but is out of warranty now, so its staying like that.

I think its just too much weight with all those accessories.

Rich.

[FITZY]

yep four grooves (3 standard-1 machined)im goin in there this friday,will see what he comes up with

[jep]

shite hmm not sure then could jus be the spring cant handle the weight but wen the weight is taken off it goes back to its normal length???? not sure. are you considering a new spring? i think next il try the raw and king hd setup a mates trialing it now for a suspension place so wil be interesting ta see the outcome!

[Macca]

What are these grooves you guys are talking about?
Macca

[shane308]

macca, the plate that the bottom of the coil sits on is adjustable (you can slide it up and down the strut)and is held up by a big circlip, the grooves the blokes are talking about is what the circlip sits in. i'll try and post some pic tomorrow.

[Macca]

That must be a Bilstien feature, my Koni's don't appear to have the circlip
Macca

[Skog07]

What about OME? Does it have adustable circlips?Could get under the car but would rather as you guys.
Mark

[jogal]

I have had 3 sets of lovell springs fail on me i too have an arb bar with dual batt set up and in the end the suspension shop couldnt work out what the prob was so they fitted the kings hd havent a a prob since

[Higherlux]

I have the same problem; I am getting some prado springs put on,along with some spacers.Won't say who with unless he says its ok to, but ARB will not touch it...This guy has done it to his truck and thrashed it with no problems.
I will let you know how it goes, the end result should push that front back up rather than slope forward with all that weight on it.

[FITZY]

took my ute back today and just as i thought, he could not give a clear answer to why it was sagging.he phoned lovells to find a cure but the guy he deals with is on holidays till monday.he also said he thinks they may be bringing out an even h-d spring (20mm)to fix the problem but could not confirm till his mate got back from holidays.so doug (hilux.net member who was also there this morning)and i let him know how much trouble other owners have been having with these springs aswell, and suggested to replace ours with king springs.well he wasnt real keen with that as he does not deal in king springs.so now we play the waiting game until his mate at lovells comes up with a solution.he also told us (doug and i) to supply some info on the h-d king springs for our hilux's as so he can compare them to his beloved lovells.
so just a quick question or two to finish up for macca,jogal and any other h-duty king spring owners out there:
1#how long have they been on the vehicle?
2#what accessories eg=bull bar,winch,dual batt etc.

thanx in advance

[bms]

I had a set of kings 19mm wire in my ute and they were to stiff
Ride was harsh and lost wheel travel as well so took them out and replaced with reset kings that are 18mm wire

I have an arb steel bar so will see how these go as they ride heaps better and improved wheel travel so I'm hoping they don't sag to much .

[jep]

i have only had mine for about 4 months now. and jus the other week changed them to the top setting. i wouldn do this from the start as it maxed out my travel. I have a ARB Deluxe Steel Winch bar, warn 9500 winch puttin the dual batt in tray! spotties and other stuff are only minor. A ARB mob in perth used the same setup as me apparently the came and looked at it wen it was getn done and used the same setup! Im thinkin of just puttin in some 20mm spacers to get that lil bit extra height and thats it.

[bms]

(Quote ) Im thinkin of just puttin in some 20mm spacers to get that lil bit extra height and thats it.

This is what I'm going to do if it sags to much

[jogal]

Hey FITZY,
Mine have been on for about 8 months with no prob,s.I have a ARB deluxe bar and dual batt,s.Like i said earlier i had 3 sets of lovells all failed even tried the Prado set.W.A suspension done my set up and as frustrating as it was they were quite helpful. It was there idea to switch to Kings as Lovell H.Q told them that they had made a bad batch. After reading yours and others issues sounds like they havent sorted there shit out.

[kazdan69]

Hi all,
Haven't had any sag in mine at all, EFS heavy duty shocks and springs package. Have steel winch bar and dual batteries. Will say though that EFS gets their coils wound by Kings to their specs- they reckon the others are crap!!
Cheers
Dan

[shane308]

for those that haven't seen the grooves in the bilsteins that we've been talking about.

skog07, no the OME doesn't have the grooves, it has a collar welded around the strut that the the plate sits on see pic below.

[jep]

sjhane how did you get so many grooves in your struts? mine only come witht he three. did you get these extras machined in? if so who by????