Dobinsons Suspension Review

Sucks y’all are dealing with this. This is the exact same BS I’m dealing with with my OME 613 and 614 coil sets (the 613 is .5” higher). I blew out my rack and pinion trying to work the suspension into settling. Then I had to swap from a set of 613’s to another set of 613’s because OME said they must’ve been labeled wrong (both gave 4.75” lift) to a set of 614’s (gave ~4.25” lift). My front still bangs when I hit bumps or dirt roads from the shocks maxing out on extension. I hope y’all get this figured out. I know what an asswhoop it can be!

 

Maybe I'll do second sitting, no shims? Should be around 3 inches?

 

Jeez. That's wild. Let's hope this works out. I'm glad I could help some others out here in the process and not run into the same issues as me. Hopefully they remedy the 780s by just scrapping the whole lot lol. They're sending me new coils, but what they don't realize is that I have to get the truck aligned again and waste my time and money for an issue on their end. Such is life.

 

That's very possible if you don't have any driver side lean.

 

Sounds like American trucks need American lift kits.

 

Would tend to agree. I'm pretty sure Dobinsons shocks are made in China anyhow, but I also think all of them are made in China haha.

 

Yes, thanks to your posts, it's helped me to get this taken care of before I got them installed! Does such about having to get another alignment, I'm gonna have to as well! I'm getting the shocks installed without the coils first. Then I'm going back as soon as I receive the new ones. I'm dealing with exitoffroad.com, hopefully it all works out for us!

 

For sure. Yup, and if it doesn't then we all get refunds and go American lol.

 

The spring perch on the IMS looks like a machined part. They'll probably just redesign it so it doesn't sit so high on the clip, especially if 780s work fine on the twin tubes?

Like Teraflex or Eibach. I think I've all but pulled the trigger on the Eibach Pro-Truck adjustable coil overs for the front of mine.

 

Are the Eibachs just 2.0" diameter shocks?

 

The Pro Truck are 2"

 

I also had to get 2 alignments. Springs swapped on shocks 3 times, 2 alignments plus install/uninstall/install/uninstall/install it adds up to a whole lot more than them saying “here, just swap these springs out”. It costs extra money and a bunch more labor that they don’t take into consideration!

 

Kind of a bummer. You could have purchased a high end set of coilovers for all that cost, not to state the obvious. I haven't seen these Dobinsons around before but they look nice and seem to have a great reputation over seas. Too bad

 

I know. It's crazy man@!

 

Got my back truck from the alignment shop. Still running about 2.75" to 3" depending on how I park. So about an inch higher than advertised but still in the acceptable lift range. I'm taking it to the desert this weekend so I can really open it up and see what these shocks can do

 

Can anyone confirm the spring rate of the C59-778 coils?

 

Tundras don’t really handle 3” lift very well, I’d stick with 2.5” or less unless you are doing full long travel front end.

 

I still love my 2.25” lift. We’ll see after I add a couple hundred pounds of winch and bumper. Seems like they may need an American to help them test stuff out...
And if you really wanna know I’d talk to John K at MLO NH. They install a lot of Dobinsons stuff and he’s a good dude. He recently helped give real world information for their leaf springs that Dobinsons was totally clueless about. I have over a thousand pounds extra at times and their heavy leaf pack barely moves lol. Good luck getting everything sorted out to all!

 

Also I cannot imagine having to reinstall coils. I paid about a thousand bucks for my suspension install (front rear and alignment) which was reasonable in my eyes. I’d be too broke to do it twice if that had happened to me. Dobinsons USA really needs to get their stuff together. Sounds like OME has similar issues. I guess the Tundra market is small enough that they just really don’t care or have enough r&d budget to get things right the first, second, or third time. But if you like firm and are ok with a lower lift the 2.25”
Coils have been great so far for me. Pretty sure I could fit 37” tires with the right BMC and bumper mods. I don’t want 37’s but I could.

 

Don’t they have Tundras in Australia? Seems odd that an Australian company can’t get their shit together.

 

Nope, Tundra is a North American only vehicle I believe or

 

No shit! I would’ve if I’d of known the BS I’d be dealing with. I had OME on my FZJ80 and it was flawless. I had Fox 2.5’s on my Taco and while it rode good, I felt my FZJ rode better with the OME so I thought I’d try it with this Tundra. FAIL!!!
Here’s a link to my headache for any that get bored and want to read:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/ome-2-5”-lift-measurements.75458/

 

John is super legit. Funny how Exit and Dobinson's had no clue how much the medium load leaf springs give, but John was like, dude, its 2.5".

 

Dobinsons is sending me new coils, but when asked about how they could have messed this up this bad, and put me in a bind to spend even more money getting another install and alignment, they just said too bad.

 

They do not. I bet you they just looked at the dimensions and specs and based everything off that. Maybe they found one Tundra, but its nothing like Fox or King testing tundras for 14 years now.

 

Yours is stiff af, huh?

Let us know in the next couple days what your lift comes out to.

 

Eh still on the fence. It rides better than my F250 ever did but not 100% sold on the ride quality yet. I'm headed to the desert weekend and hoping to run it through the paces. The sag should all be out by Monday

 

are you running IMS? I ran MRR on my jeep jk and it was amazing just got a Tundra and got IMS installed and I love it it got rid of the nose-dive and horrible turn feeling the OEM had and it's stiffer really changed my opinion on the truck now im finally enjoying to drive it

 

Yes I'm running the IMS. The ride quality has improved in some areas but degraded in others. I'm trying to be realistic that this suspension is better suited for offroad use but I haven't had a chance to push it hard enough to see the suspension truly shine. I will say that I am starting to feel/hear the limited down travel the more I drive. I felt the front end go to full droop twice on the way to work on the freeway. I know it's a rough section of road but it's still a freeway that my stock shocks didn't even flinch at

 

I’m pretty sure they do. I’ve seen Tundras in Australia on TrakYakker.