Gen 4 Old an EMU Suspension Lift?

I have not yet fitted OME to my Gen 4, primarily because it's not yet a month old, and I want to at least get it run-in and to the first service, I'm also waiting on the dealer to get back to me on how it will impact my warranty.

I have however, installed OME on other Suzukis and Soeley's experience matches mine, a significant increase in ride comfort.

Yes, a taller vehicle with a higher center of gravity will tend to roll more, but OME deals with this by using a stiffer spring and valving their shocks to match. Other lifts, especially suspension spacer lifts may not provide the same results.

wjamieson wrote: I believe the thinking is if you increase the height then you increase the centre of gravity so adding spacers increasing the width negates the negative effect of the increase in height and provides greater stability.



 

There's no meaningful dynamic impact on the handling of a Jimny that can be attributed to fitting wheel spacers, simply the geometry on a live axle is such that the only way to increase the roll stability would be to increase the distance between the road springs and the centre of the axle. Yes wheel spacers do increase the base of support which does come into affect on a side slope but the increase in the width of the whole axle expressed as a percentage over standard is so small that any advantage is difficult to quantify and even harder to notice. That isn't to say that spacers don't have any benefits as they can improve aesthetic aspects and in certain situations they can provide additional clearance. But in general terms anyone saying they make a difference to the stability of a live axle is either trying to sell some or trying to justify having bought some. This is not the case with independent suspension where the geometry is different.

Fitting wheel spacers increases the load on the wheel bearings and king pin bearings. The material used is also significant as I have seen aluminium ones bent into a wave form because the use of secondary wheel bolts ie. spacer bolts to hub and wheel bolts to spacer is a poor engineering substitute for longer wheel bolts of suitable material that uses the spacer purely as a spacer and not a load bearing medium..

Roger

Which will topple first on a sideslope then?...

 

The one with wheel spacers (or offset rims) or the one without... considering the CofG is higher with the lift fitted...

If you were to scale that image up to actual size of a Jimny axle then the spacers would be very large. 40 or 60mm over the track width of a Jimny at around 1355 is in real terms less than 5% so like I said before it would be difficult to to feel a difference. I certainly wouldn't feel confident pushing further up a steep side slope just because I had an extra 5% track width.

I have been driven on the 45 degree sideslope at the Rover test ground at Solihull and survived but that was a smooth concrete surface .Now take the same slope but this time make it a rough hard earth surface. Hit a bump on that stuff and the jolt will easily unbalance the motor and over you go. Physics is all very well but we live in the real world.

Roger