The OME (Old Man Emu) suspension kit was installed today. I’m pretty impressed with the difference in ride quality over the old, flat stock springs on our ‘82 BJ42. I have no idea who Old Man Emu is or was but he makes some nice leaf springs.
I was a little worried the Cruiser wouldn’t fit in the garage. It does, just barely with a half-inch to spare on a seven foot garage door.
I briefly thought about installing the suspension kit myself. I could have done it but it would have taken me a couple days and lots of swearing. Poulin’s Garage handled it for me and it only took them a five hours. The kit included new springs, shocks, u-bolts, greasable shackles, and extended stainless steel brake lines. It’s a 2.5″ lift over stock ride hight. I’m impressed with the difference in ride quality. It’s no Cadillac but it’s about as good as it’s going to get for a short wheelbase vehicle.
I’ve never owned a vehicle with a lift kit. I was a little apprehensive that it would feel top heavy. So far so good. We’ll see what it’s like when the roof rack goes on in a week or two.
We really sit up high over the tops cars in traffic now. 33 inch tires and the OME Suspension is a comfortable height. Any more and we’d need special steps to climb into the thing.
I had to reuse one of the stock u-bolts. I waited seven weeks for Cruiser Solutions to finally ship me the u-bolts to complete my order. When they did they shipped 7 of the 8 correctly. It’s unfortunate really, they are close and I’m going to need more parts but I doubt I’ll ever do business with them again.
I think the new suspension will drastically improve the quality of our trip out West. We’ll do over 6,000 miles on the trip and now it should be a lot more comfortable. No more kidney-jarring pain over small cracks in the pavement. I know some people think we’re crazy for traveling 6,000+ miles in a 1982 BJ42. I figure that back in 82 people did this kind of trip all the time so what’s the big deal?
Things are really coming together nicely on our Landcruiser. There’s two more big projects left: front steering knuckle rebuilds (with wheel bearings) and the fabrication of a custom roof rack. I’ll be tackling both projects in the next couple of weeks.
BTW, it’s April 9th and we still have tons of snow on the ground. I’ve been slowly chipping away at the small glacier on the slab in front of the garage in preparation for welding the roof rack.
Tags: bj42 · landcruiser · old man emu4 Comments
4 responses so far ↓
Hello from warm, sunny, hot, humid Florida! I like the look of your L/C! I have a ‘75 FJ40. It’s painted grey at this point, but I plan on re-painting the original mustard yellow… like yours. It looks like you are running 33×9.5 BFG’s A/T’s. I need suspension lift as well. I’m looking at the OME 2.5 lift with the A/I shackles. I’m not so sure I ned the A/I shackles, but it come with the kit! CCOT has some good looking suspensions, and it looks like they commonly use the “H’ style. I plan on putting the same tires on, but use a 10.5 width. Do you think this will clear the fenders? I assume it would, but that’s just a guess on my part. I plan on using the skinny old factory 15″ by 5.5″ rims with the hub caps. Hey, the more I read about suspensions. center points, shackle angles, blah, blah blah, the less I seem to know!! Thanks for your $ .02 worth! David
Hi David,
Thanks for visiting my blog. I don’t get many comments so I was a little surprised when I saw yours.
On our recent trip out to Utah I was able to rub the back tires on my Cruiser twice. It happened each time when leaning on an off-camber section. I was pretty surprised the first time it happened.
We had a very serious load on the Cruiser though. Both fuel tanks were full, we were carrying 20 gallons of fresh water (~150 lbs.) , 300 pounds of gear and occupants (2 people and 2 dogs) added another 425 pounds. I’m sure if I had 10.5s on it I would have rubbed more frequently.
I find the 9.5s easier to steer than the 10.5s. My Cruiser doesn’t have power steering. They also offer less rolling resistance so might help fuel economy a little.
I don’t know much about shackle design but I’ve read that the “H” designs don’t flex properly and can tend to put extra stress on areas. I have no idea if it’s true. Have you tried forum.ih8mud.com? There’s tons of people there that know far more than I do about suspensions for these vehicles.
hey looks great thx for the info im thinking of going ome for my 82 bj42 LX Cruiser but still trying to make up my mind im running 33×12.5r15 bfg muds after reading this im thinking they may hit the body in the ruff stuff but great info thx bud from australia
I do think that the larger tires would rub. what did you end up doing?