OME (Old Man Emu) Shock Experience: Please Post

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 1:06 am

We have put two full new sets of Bilstein shocks on our KJ CRD (F4-BE5-D917-H0 [Rear] F4-BE5-D916-H0 [Front] with similar (unsatisfactory) results. Within 5000 miles, they have lost significant amounts of both bump and rebound damping.

I have gone over the situation with the tech people at Bilstein US in CA. Unfortunately, this mode of construction is not revalveable as many Bilsteins are.

What we resolved to do is to ship one of my used sets to their shop for dyno testing. They will graph the damping curves and compare with the new spec.

Also, i am sending them an OME front, (90009) and a rear (60069) to dyno and compare with the Bilsteins.

Jeepin' By Al has graciously agreed to take the OME set back if the dyno results suggest that the OMEs will NOT be an improvement over the Bilsteins.

So, I would like to hear from people with experience with these OMEs. They are supposedly fine for use at stock ride height with stock springs.

However, I imagine that virtually everyone here would have experience with these shocks in the context of a modest lift.

However, what I am interested in knowing is whether anyone has observed a loss of damping over a number of miles with OMEs.

If the dyno curves look good, the only thing to worry about is whether they will "go away" like both our sets of Bilsteins have.

(I have put Bilsteins on close to 90 vehicles in over 40 years and have never experienced any sort of perceptible loss of damping before, over time. This has been on several Formula Fords, street cars and trucks.)

So, what has been your OME experience?

Thanks as always!

DOC

Gageraid · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 2:03 am

Take this with a grain of salt because I have OME on my KK.
Shocks and springs are top notch.
Plenty of posts on Lost that would agree OME is nothing but quality.

ChesterCRD · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 11:18 am

I did the OME shocks and springs about 10K miles/four months ago. Obviously I don't know yet on longevity, but I've been impressed with them. The ride and height are exactly what I wanted and no issues at all. I just had the alignment checked (the springs should have settled a bit by now) and no adjustment was required. New tires went on too, so any alignment issues should be apparent over the next 10K miles. The shocks haven't changed a bit since installed as far as I can tell. I only do mild off-road stuff (grassy field, dirt road, occasional logging trail). I can take RR tracks at 45 mph with no floating or other craziness (wear was very apparent with the factory suspension after 100K miles).

ebbnflow · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 12:13 pm

X2 what chestercrd said. I've got 10k miles on mine too. One of my favorite upgrades.

On another note... Have you replaced your springs? Weak and tired springs can cause your shocks/struts to wear out faster. I know all my springs were very tired when I replaced them at 100k miles.

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 3:28 pm

OK, thanks! So the input, so far, is no perceptible loss in damping control in the short run (10K, or so). This is obviously good.

As I anticipated, all respondents (at least so far) have also installed some sort of lift kit that, among other things, involves new springs.

Obviously, changing the springs yields a different "feel", but damping is different.

Right now, the Bilsteins on our Jeep at this point have similar damping (or lack there of) to the OEM (NOT OME) shocks that came from the factory.

So could people with OME experience try to make a rough guess as to what percent stiffer the DAMPING is with their setup with OME shocks than they experienced with the original equipment shocks, albeit with different springs.

(I am looking for at least 30% more damping then we have now while traveling at 75 MPH on the highway, not towing anything. (Ironically, the Bilsteins are not a problem when towing our horse trailer. The equalizer bars are so stiff that they do not allow any wallowing.)

Thanks!

DOC

ChesterCRD · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 4:10 pm

It's really hard to compare my new OME to new OEM. My OEM worked pretty well when new and the wearing out was gradual. By the time I changed them the difference was substantial (100%?). It really was night and day going from my worn out OEM to the new OME, both from a dampening standpoint and the springs.

To add to the difficulty I did UCAs, LBJs, 2 wheel bearings, 4 brakes, and 2 CVs also around that time. Suffice to say everything about the front end feels better than it did with the worn/damaged/failing parts.

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 4:19 pm

ChesterCRD wrote:

It's really hard to compare my new OME to new OEM. My OEM worked pretty well when new and the wearing out was gradual. By the time I changed them the difference was substantial (100%?). It really was night and day going from my worn out OEM to the new OME, both from a dampening standpoint and the springs.

To add to the difficulty I did UCAs, LBJs, 2 wheel bearings, 4 brakes, and 2 CVs also around that time. Suffice to say everything about the front end feels better than it did with the worn/damaged/failing parts.

Agreed...I am on my second set and will soon need a new set (170,000 miles currently). Loved my OMEs when they were new ... but ... I wish there were something a bit "stronger" and "longer lasting"

Got to remember tho...most shocks only last 30-40K and then really lose their jounce IMO

Mountainman · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 7:15 pm

When I bought my first CRD, it had new OME springs, with OEM shocks&struts. It handled terribly. I replaced them with OME, for a full OME spring lift, and it is much more stable. Not sure how much more dampening there is, but to make my comparisons even worse, I replaced all of the worn out bushings, at the same time. hmm, I have been worried that I may have destroyed the rear bushings and perhaps springs by towing too heavy. It seems less stable since my last pull where I had maybe 1,000 lbs tongue weight with a ton of cargo and another CRD on a tow dolly :juggle:

Hopefully this is worth something :5SHOTS:

I love my OME lift!

PANHEAD · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2015 7:26 pm **Posts:** 63

I've had OME full Kit for about 100,000mi, have replaced one shock and one strut (leaking) but overall been pleased with them, rides smoother than most cars and can take speedbumps at 30mph and you can hardly feel it.

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 11:12 pm

Mountainman, you are one lucky SOB! With 1000 lbs of tongue weight, it is a miracle you did not break the hitch. Maybe your lift increases rear load capacity, but I imagine you still grossly overloaded the rear end.

DOC

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 11:47 pm

Will have to see how the dyno results come in. I have seen over 30 sets of Bilsteins go 100,000 miles with almost no loss of damping. Not happy with OMEs only lasting 40K before deteriorating.

DOC

Mountainman · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 11:53 pm

DOC4444 wrote:

Mountainman, you are one lucky SOB! With 1000 lbs of tongue weight, it is a miracle you did not break the hitch. Maybe your lift increases rear load capacity, but I imagine you still grossly overloaded the rear end.

DOC

Yeah, well I probably had 300 of that in the rear cargo area, so I guess I shouldn't have said tongue weight. I guess I better get into the stealership regardless to replace those bolts, although I've never let a dealer touch any of my rigs. Maybe I can convince them to give me the bolts. The alternative could be that I would no longer have a GDE tune, and they'd probably find some way to charge me lots of $$ :-)r

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:25 am

Stock replacement Bilsteins suck and always have,they run about the same as OEM stuff.There lifted and higher end stuff is top notch.I run there 7100 series in the rear,still a tad soft but there next stiffest valving would be way to stiff.

I ran OME's in the rear and way to soft,sadly Rancho stopped making the RSX series of shocks since they were hands down the best shocks.Sadly RE(Rubicon Express) was bought out so there old nitro shocks are no longer made(still sell but different maker) and they have been great and known to last 150k with no loss of damping as I run those in the front(made for V8 ZJ with 4.5" lift).

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:37 am

I am starting to think I may send a front and rear Koni (red) to Bilstein to dyno, as well. Not a big fan of this old style air over oil shock, but they do have a form of adjustment (really intended to compensate for wear). However, I could have them dyno them in several adjustment positions to see how the curves look.

Thanks again for all the input. It is starting to look like I may not be happy with OMEs, even when new.

(Please keep the info and opinions coming.)

So TJ, given what you know of the marketplace now, what would you buy to try to get much firmer damping for driving a non-lifted KJ at 75 MPH on smooth highways?

Thanks again!

DOC

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 3:53 pm

DOC4444 wrote:

So TJ, given what you know of the marketplace now, what would you buy to try to get much firmer damping for driving a non-lifted KJ at 75 MPH on smooth highway?

For a CRD I could not tell you truthfully.No one makes a good HD version worth a darn.The only 2 shocks I can think of are the Rancho 17505 and Monroe Reflex but the 1st was discontinued years ago and the 2nd isn't offered for a KJ.Lifted you have very good options,not cheap options though.

bucklanddj · **Posted:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 4:14 pm

Hi Doc. I have an ome set up i got from jeepin by al. bought springs and struts/shocks. had them on for around 220,000 km and still going just fine. it lifted my jeep about 1.5" over stock. i say get them.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 02, 2015 11:39 am

I have had the OME shocks springs and struts in my crd for just over 2 years.. I had over 80,000 miles on the stock stuff and it was getting low and riding like it was tired ad worn out. the first time I drove my Jeep after the stuff was installed I was only mildly impressed with the ride due to not being aligned until the next day the handling was way of but height and ride were ok. after the alignment I have to say it handled much better than ever, I loved it . the ride was good a bit firm but well controlled and still remains the same. I also think when towing my pop up the jeep is far better. with the old stock suspension it sagged a good bit when hitched up.

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 02, 2015 12:48 pm

Mikey,

How many miles on the OMEs, so far?

DOC

Mountainman · **Posted:** Mon Mar 02, 2015 3:36 pm

That reminds me, I have towed around 8,000 lbs with the OME lift, and I was able to cruise at 50+ mph. I guess that says good things about the springs, but I have no comparison. I think with all this heavy towing I've destroyed some of the new rear bushings I had just installed, as it likes to sway back and forth when I hit a significant dip at an angle now, or maybe it did it before also, who knows.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 05, 2015 8:42 am

DOC4444 wrote:

Mikey,

How many miles on the OMEs, so far?

DOC

The full OME kit with the heavy duty CRD front springs was installed early in January 2013. I would say I have close to 25,000 miles on the set up. I really do like the setup a lot. I notice no decrees in ride and handling. I do have the Terra Flex front bump stops and the Jeepin by al A arms too. the front stops make it bottom out on them sometimes on bad road irregularities.... but Pennsylvania has poopy roads so your results my vary.

OME (Old Man Emu) Shock Experience: Please Post

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