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Alternative to AC lift coils


jessrob
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lol this thread is stressing me out. I just pulled the trigger on the Ironman springs.....should I call and cancel before they ship and order the Dobinsons, what do you think ? The video it just doesn't look right. so are they defective out of the get go and why wouldn't they want to warranty them. Does anyone know the spring rate on dobinsons.......as said OME are just out of stock everywhere I spent all last week following dead ends to springs that end up being back-ordered even though they say they are in stock,

Edited by 02QX4
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lol this thread is stressing me out. I just pulled the trigger on the Ironman springs.....should I call and cancel before they ship and order the Dobinsons, what do you think ? The video it just doesn't look right. so are they defective out of the get go and why wouldn't they want to warranty them. Does anyone know the spring rate on dobinsons.......as said OME are just out of stock everywhere I spent all last week following dead ends to springs that end up being back-ordered even though they say they are in stock,

Cancel. Their support seems to be lacking.

 

 

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so I just got off the phone with dobinsons, for those interested...the front springs are 202 lbs/in c45-168. and rear springs are 174 lbs/in c45-169. so question for those running them. Are the fronts topping out the struts ?

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Personally, I find the video incomplete. It sounds like IronMan tried to engage the owner but he wasn’t interested in providing them information. If I were them, I’d probably be done there too. I wish we had a write up with the actual facts. Consequently, if the IronMan springs are coming, I’d wait to get too worried as I’m not convinced you won’t be okay or that IronMan won’t back their product up.

That said, no real reason not to go with the Dobinsons. Personally, I very much dislike IronMan’s vivid green.

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I agree with @RainGoat If they're on order wait on it. I only know of a couple others that have used them and they have yet to complain. The guy from the video was asked by Ironman directly for a hub to fender measurement from before and after which he opted to not provide.

 

The FSM provides the factory specifications for ride height so even though he never took measurements before installing the springs he could have referenced the FSM material and then provided a post-lift measurements, just as they asked.

 

We don't know what conversation took place prior to the video but I'd think if you provided them with OEM literature paired with before and after measurements, including photos, they would be obligated to fix the situation with a refund or replacement pair of springs. 

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10 hours ago, 02QX4 said:

so I just got off the phone with dobinsons, for those interested...the front springs are 202 lbs/in c45-168. and rear springs are 174 lbs/in c45-169. so question for those running them. Are the fronts topping out the struts ?

Did they quote you a price? 

 

I see there are two websites. Dobinsonsprings.com and dobinsondirect.com

 

The first is coming up to $540 total for front and back coils while the second site is $400 total. Just curious about the big difference in price if both state to be a dobinson website.

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4 hours ago, AR97Pathfinder said:

Did they quote you a price? 

 

I see there are two websites. Dobinsonsprings.com and dobinsondirect.com

 

The first is coming up to $540 total for front and back coils while the second site is $400 total. Just curious about the big difference in price if both state to be a dobinson website.

 

I could be wrong but I believe that Dobinsonsprings.com is their Australian site, and dobinsondirect.com is the US market site. I ordered my front springs from dobinsondirect.com. I chose to, and recommend sticking with LR springs for the rear.

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I could be wrong but I believe that Dobinsonsprings.com is their Australian site, and dobinsondirect.com is the US market site. I ordered my front springs from dobinsondirect.com. I chose to, and recommend sticking with LR springs for the rear.

Sounds like it could be.

The dobinson coil for the front advertises 1.2” lift and rear about 1.5”.

Which LR coils did you go with for the back?
I wanted to stay under 2” and reading through the many threads I see they give 2-2.5” lifts.

Is is okay to go with dobinson in rear also?


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5 hours ago, AR97Pathfinder said:


Sounds like it could be.

The dobinson coil for the front advertises 1.2” lift and rear about 1.5”.

Which LR coils did you go with for the back?
I wanted to stay under 2” and reading through the many threads I see they give 2-2.5” lifts.

Is is okay to go with dobinson in rear also?


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I went with LR9447 in the rear. You could certainly order the Dobinson's for the rear, however they will be significantly more expensive than the LR options. Because of the LR springs I'm not aware of anyone who has gone with Dobinson's for the rear... 

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FYI, I reached out to IronMan as I’ve heard nothing but good things until now & I’d love to see more Australian companies distribute their R50 products here. Here was their response - which, honestly, fits my impression as well. I couldn’t understand how he would be unhappy with it & yet not do what little effort was required to close the loop on follow up.b3ae7adbd071a2dc9aa3f3401cac5c1b.jpg

I don’t expect you’d find any different response from any other vendor; and probably worse.

 

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18 minutes ago, RainGoat said:

FYI, I reached out to IronMan as I’ve heard nothing but good things until now & I’d love to see more Australian companies distribute their R50 products here. Here was their response - which, honestly, fits my impression as well. I couldn’t understand how he would be unhappy with it & yet not do what little effort was required to close the loop on follow up.b3ae7adbd071a2dc9aa3f3401cac5c1b.jpg

I don’t expect you’d find any different response from any other vendor; and probably worse.

 

 

Why would he not want to cooperate if the springs really were not performing as advertised and the company was actually providing the warranty. 

 

Odd situation...

 

I was actaully going with them also until I saw the video. But now I'm unsure and looking at the dobinsons.

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Yeah, his front definitely doesn’t look correct, but his response is even more bizarre. I don’t see what he gains. I just wish it had played out in a normal fashion so we’d have an actual answer. I don’t begrudge you your reservations, I just think the responsibility for the uncertainty no longer lies with the company. I would have liked to either see them not honor their commitment or have us learn that there was indeed a particular problem with his units or that their units are systematically problematic. The current situation does no one any good and everybody ends up a loser. I would not be surprised to find those springs pulled from the US market - R50s are such a small market here, it’s not worth their trouble if they’re met with these kind of customer responses.

 

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@RainGoat thanks for the screen capture on that.

 

The video poster is looking more the problem now. If Ironman did eventually offer to let him return the coils, then I suppose that settles that, and we’ll never get to the bottom of what the heck that was about 

 

Here’s the other example of IM4x4 springs that I’ve seen, which appear to be working properly. 

 

33’s with a 1” strut spacer and IM4x4 front springs. It looks visually far better than what that QX4 was getting: 

HRrBHzC.png

 

 

 

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I will let you know, I wasn't able to cancel in time so I didn't push the issue, they are supposed to be delivered today I still need to find the time to do it and to get the rest of the components to do it. But I will get before and after measurements and let you know. I will also take some coil dimension measurements if people would like that.

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I will let you know, I wasn't able to cancel in time so I didn't push the issue, they are supposed to be delivered today I still need to find the time to do it and to get the rest of the components to do it. But I will get before and after measurements and let you know. I will also take some coil dimension measurements if people would like that.

That would be great if you could get measurements. The way I see it, the coils from the video are defective. Hopefully you get a pair that are consistent with their specs.


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Good news on that front. Apparently, a member of the U.S. IronMan staff bought a 2004 Pathfinder that they intend to test the R50 products on.

Good for them. Now they’ll know if their r50 springs are defective or not. Of course if they are, I doubt we’ll know about it.


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With the latest news of someone within the company picking up an R50 maybe it'll encourage them to open up more offerings specific to our platform. We can only hope, right? Let's play nice and encourage them diplomatically.

 

Maybe someone can inform them about the power valve issue and throttle body coolant leak that fries ECU's without frightening them off...

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6 hours ago, TowndawgR50 said:

With the latest news of someone within the company picking up an R50 maybe it'll encourage them to open up more offerings specific to our platform. We can only hope, right? Let's play nice and encourage them diplomatically.

 

Maybe someone can inform them about the power valve issue and throttle body coolant leak that fries ECU's without frightening them off...

If they truly did buy a 2004, at least it won’t have the ECU issue. Drive by wire, babyyyyy. Not sure if that’s truly a step up, but that system does avoid the IACV/ECU disaster. 

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With the latest news of someone within the company picking up an R50 maybe it'll encourage them to open up more offerings specific to our platform. We can only hope, right? Let's play nice and encourage them diplomatically.
 
Maybe someone can inform them about the power valve issue and throttle body coolant leak that fries ECU's without frightening them off...

I doubt they’ve bought an r50 as a daily. Their only offerings currently are springs for front and rear. At $200 for a pair of springs, I doubt they will be creating anything more for our platform. The market for r50s is extremely small and the majority of owners can’t afford that price point. I think them buying this car is simply to test if their springs are defective. If ARB is able to ramp up production for their products, then this company will be obsolete in the r50 world.


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I doubt they will be creating anything more for our platform. The market for r50s is extremely small and the majority of owners can’t afford that price point. I think them buying this car is simply to test if their springs are defective. If ARB is able to ramp up production for their products, then this company will be obsolete in the r50 world.

 Well, the R50 offroad market is small, cheap & diminishing here in the U.S. Sadly, while Pathfinders are common here (I literally see a couple on just about every drive I make), they’re rarely used as offroad vehicles. In almost 20 years I NEVER ran into another one on the trail (AZ, UT, CO, NM, CA, OR, WA, BC, ID) & think I only saw one other one and it was as minimally modified as mine at the time. In the last 5 years or so, there’s been an explosion of interest in offroading in the US and at the same time these trucks are now dirt cheap. Sadly, they’be become a bit of a throw away vehicle. It doesn’t take long on FaceBook to have a very sad impression of the R50 community these days.  Conversely, offroading has been a part of daily life for alot of Australians. My Australian friends here talk about things like how their Mom, as a teacher, checked a Land Cruiser out of the district motor pool for her teaching duties. Following PCoA & corresponding with a couple Australians, R50s offroad are fairly common there & suppliers are numerous - many of them laugh at us buying ARB because that’s the most expensive of more than a handful of options they have. IronMan is just one of a few of many Australian brands that already have a domestic product but are only now considering distribution in the US.

 

That said, I concur that they are unlikely to find a market willing to pay their prices (anyone familiar with the Toyota market would find our products ridiculously cheap but our options virtually non-existent. Everything on my Pathfinder cost a literal fraction of what something similar costs for my 5th Gen 4Runner). The Toyota world is full if 20 & 30 somethings willing to throw gobs of their disposable income at their truck.

 

I’d love to see more Australian manufacturers bring their products here. The video that sparked the IronMan debate was rife with oddities & we already have an example of a successful application. I suspect we’ll soon have a second. If the guy who decided to distribute IronMan products here has an employee with an R50, I expect it’s a personal purchase. Given our tiny market, buying an R50 would likely exceed any profit margin they can expect on ALL R50 products they’ll sell here. I imagine our best avenue to more R50 products is a personal interest by the staff who will be deciding which products to bother importing.

 

Frankly, I’m impressed with a professional response on their part in the face of a non-compliant customer. I don’t really understand what that truck owner’s goal was? All complaint, no attempt to fix or get his money back. I doubt any of the forum regulars would have responded similarly. IronMan already has a rep outside the R50 community & it’s pretty good. It’s my hope that one guy, and an overreaction on our part, doesn’t get us labelled as a community not worth supporting.

 

I have to admit I responded from a jaded perspective. I spent more time on FaceBook R50 sites in the last 2 weeks than I ever had before. The level of immaturity, ignorance & stupidity I observed was mind numbing & depressing. The NPORA forum is typically a respite from all of that & has tended to make me feel superior to what I read on the Toyota forums - FB negated all that.

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