Old Man Emu Struts

I have an 05' DC 2WD. I'm considering the OME prebuilt struts w/2885 coil after talking to Toytec and them explaining why I should not run Eibach or OME coils with the 5100s.

Does anyone have some info or experience with the OME struts I've listed above? I am not familiar with their performance.

 

What was their reasoning for not running Bilsteins with Eibach or OME coils? I've got OME coils ready to install right now, and they'll either go on Bilstein 4600/5100 or Eibachs.

I don't have experience with the Tundra, but on my 98 Tacoma I put OME 2883s with OME shocks. It was a very stiff ride. Even after a major workout on desert roads and a few years of pavement of dirt mountain road driving, they never got noticeably softer. Not sure if it'd be the same with the Tundra, but that was my experience with the Tacoma.

I don't see many first gen Tundra owners on the forum running OME shocks. You can't always tell with these things...whether it's just groupthink or whether there's a solid reason for it. Like why does everyone recommend Bilstein 5100s for lifted front applications, but I've never seen anyone recommend Eibach shocks in for the same application (in the first gen subforum)? Why only Bilstein? Is there a quality/compatibility reason, or just..."because"? I don't know.

Anyway my experience was a very stiff ride, but I have to say I don't know whether that was more the coil, the shock, or the combination of the two. I'll find out fairly soon, though...I'm just waiting for new sway bar end links to show up, then I'm installing the OME 2883 coils on my 4600s, since the Bilsteins are less than a year old, might as well save some money. Down the road I'll probably put another shock up there, but I'll admit OME shocks weren't one of the options I was considering.

 

The way Toytec's 'sales manager' explained it to me was that the three manufactures, Bilstein, OME, and Eibach, have decided in recent years to change slightly their individual designs with the coil base, the spring perch, or both in hopes people would not mix and match parts, but rather run the full setup from a single manufacturer. He told me that the OME coils have a slightly 'fatter' wire diameter (the actual diameter of the round metal that forms the entire spring) and have a wider base than the others and that OME uses a larger diameter spring perch on their struts, and it has a cupped edge around the outside. Eibach coils have a tapered coil base (pigtail end) and that the size of the wire diameter is different than what the Bilstein 5100 perch is designed for. The Eibach coil also has a larger wire diameter than what the 5100 spring perch was designed for, and vice versa for the Bilstein coil with Eibach struts . Again, all this was his explanation.

I questioned him about other users complaining about the OME ride quality, to which he said most likely it was the incorrect spring....that many customers that they work with locally have said the OME is smooth and soft when paired with the correct spring for their application. He did confirm for the Tundra DC the 2885 was the more reasonable spring to use (if 2wd and no heavy weight front end mods), however since it is being used as a lift spring there would still be more stiffness than the factory, and that if I wanted a plusher ride to go down to the 2884.

At the end of our conversation I asked if it was still possible to mix Eibach coils with the 5100 and he said yes, but that if anything ever happened the warranty from either brand would be voided, and that Toytec would not assemble the strut for me. He also stated that depending on what configuration of mix and match, there is a greater risk of the coil loosing it's seat and coming off the spring perch, especially in off-road situations.

I have an 06' Tacoma with Toytec's Bilstein 3" lift that I installed around 2010, and it uses the Eibach coil w/5100's. I compared the spring design and it is different from what is current. For my Tundra I decided to just go with the pre-assembled OME w/2885's (I am needing the 2"+- lift in the front) since I wanted to eliminate the need of buying separate coils and having them built locally since the 5100's they had listed were unassembled struts. At the time, they only had listed a full lift kit using an assembled 5100 strut setup and I didn't want to do the full lift.

*before anyone says just buy from another source for assembled struts, I looked into it and the price was about the same in the end for everything, I have good experiences purchasing and getting tech support from Toytec, and I saw some reviews that made me think twice before purchasing from another source.

 

Thank you. Interesting that this is a recent design change.

I'm sure there's a solid reasoning behind it, but it seems like they'd all be better off if they let people mix & match. For example, if I could only use OME shocks with OME coils, I wouldn't have bought OME coils...

Well let me know your experience. I guess I'll compare the OME to my OEM coils and how well they fit onto the 4600 spring perch. I'm very interested now on how much difference there will be.

 

My experience, i had OME suspension on an LC80 and a Nissan Frontier. They both rode great. I wouldn't use OME springs on other struts, as you mention the coil size and seat dimensions could be different.

The different OME numbers are usually just length changes, not stiffness changes.

Case in point: Both the 2884 and 2885 coil are 590lbf/in (stock is listed as 500lbf/in), so they are both stiffer than stock. the 2884 has a free length of 390mm, the 2885 has a free length of 395mm. So the ride should be very similar between the two, but the 2885 will sit higher and ride higher in the shock stroke.

 

yea, same here. I'm not sure how much difference there really is either, but i am curious to how well a different spring will engage with the perch. If the 5100 can receive the factory spring, that can be somewhat of an indicator i suppose for that. But 4600 I've never dealt with.

 

You ok with me quoting part of your response in a thread I just started? The Toytech explanation is exactly the sort of thing I'm asking for in that thread.

 

I don't care. But like I said that was their explanation to me on the phone.