Offroad-Express

Hey I have 70 cruiser with 50ml Old man emu springs But the previous owner has removed a couple of leaves to make it softer , Now because of this the springs are sagged and it sits very lop sided.
I talked to G-guy motors In Wellington They recomend to go for the Heavy-duty spring pack they also said the softer ones better suit the FRP top and can sag over time , I want some users opinions .I use the vehicle on the road and run 33"muds and rancho adjustable shocks , anyone out there used the soft springs?? anyone out there used the Heavy duty? what is a better spring for all round... good flex ,good onroad ,less body roll, comfortable ride.
is it possible to go heavy duty rear and soft on front??
appreciate any advice . as $1000 to replace springs I wanna make a good decesion
thanks

Crizpy, this is my findings and views after setting up my FJ70 SWB Cruiser. If anyone tries to sell you a soft flex spring that will stay at the original fitted height they are telling porkies and only trying to get a sale. A mate of mine fitted a set of OME heavy duty springs to his Cruiser and found they dropped 30mm with in two months, the agents answer was to have them reset locally with an extra leaf, not exactly what he paid big money for. I went for a custom set of springs on the advise of our local spring maker who guaranteed he could do the job and be better and cheaper than any after market imported springs, wrong, after about six attempts and each time they mucked around with spring packs and added extra leafs they came up with the excuse that I had a bull bar, heavy motor, ( original 3F ) and was expecting to much and yet the vehicle was the same as they first looked at it and said we can build a better spring than anyone else. The result is I have a very stiff set of springs that have only sagged marginally.

LIKE BREWERS DROOP WHEN IT'S SOFT IT AIN'T GOING TO STAY UP,

FITZY.

It is a compromise really, what works best off road, will not work best on and vice versa, and soft packs will settle or sag. I would probably got for the HD set myself.
I agree with Fitzy, his post sums it up totally.

If it's going to be used off road, softer is better. HD spring packs are designed for heavy loads but they handle like shit in the shit. Everyone forgets the shocks! If you put heavier duty springs in and don't change the shocks you're going to have problems. I've often seen Offroaders going up hills over ruts bouncing all over the bloody place and the driver with a confused look on his face wondering why that even with all the diffs locked he aint goin' anywhere and it's obvious that it's down to his shocks.

If you don't want cart springs to sag there are two solutions, change to coils (Which will still sag overtime anyway just not as fast) or put in a good set of variable pressure Air Shocks and take a bit of the strain off the springs. But do some research, all shocks are not created equal and adjustables are only as good as the guy doing the adjusting.

Having said all that, Cruiser cart springs are pretty damn narrow and designed for weight loading. If I was going softer I would also be going for wider leaves, a bit more engineering involved but not major. Of course certing may be an issue but not a huge deal.

Put the softer spring packs in and you'll be back to a sagged out truck again in no time, stick the heavy duty packs in and it'll take longer before it sags out again. Theres a shit load of weight for the front springs to hold up especially if you have a 3 ton 3F engine sitting under the bonnet and even better if you've go another 100kg+ of bullbar and winch hanging off the front.

My heavy duty front OME's are about 2 1/2 years old and have lost height from when new

Theres enought weight to get the heavy duty spring packs to articulate and they still bottem easily out when you get the wheels off the ground