OME BP51 vs others...

[stephan07]

Yeah I know. It’s been beaten to death. In a 2017 TRD Pro in NewEngland. Mostly an overland vehicle and no crazy rock crawling. That said I do hit some serious mud, beaches on the cape, moderate rocks and some water. I like the Kings from all I have read except the likelihood of salt corrosion. That’s what lead me to the OME BP51 and durability. The price is about the same.:.. I just don’t want to drop the coin on King’s and have to replace/rebuild every 2 years....i have another vehicle as a daily and another fun vehicle.

Currently have RCI full skid and sliders and riding on 275s. SSO Slimline front bumper and winch en route. And would love to add the expedition one dual swing rear bumper.

Thanks!!

 

[honda250xtitan]

Yeah I know. It’s been beaten to death. In a 2017 TRD Pro in NewEngland. Mostly an overland vehicle and no crazy rock crawling. That said I do hit some serious mud, beaches on the cape, moderate rocks and some water. I like the Kings from all I have read except the likelihood of salt corrosion. That’s what lead me to the OME BP51 and durability. The price is about the same.:.. I just don’t want to drop the coin on King’s and have to replace/rebuild every 2 years....i have another vehicle as a daily and another fun vehicle.

Currently have RCI full skid and sliders and riding on 275s. SSO Slimline front bumper and winch en route. And would love to add the expedition one dual swing rear bumper.

Thanks!!

the bp51 are the same style as King. so you'll have the same maintenance. the only thing that will be maintenance free is a twin tube style shock. aka OEM style.

they are also pretty new so how do you know they are durable? aren't they assembled in Thailand? "designed and tested in austrailia" i know. King is all here in the states. plus it's King.

 

[wfo9]

OME makes two very different setups. Nitrocharger and now BP51. Durability between the two is not comparable.

I would look into the noise complaints about bp-51 before going that route.. I know many have had issues. The cool thing about them is that they are an internal bypass shock, so the dampening is travel specific.. not just shaft speed.

 

[LJ75 Driver]

A lot of those reasons are why I went with Dobinson. Sounds like a lot of their guys used to be with OME? But anyway, I don't wanna be rebuilding stuff, I'd rather just replace and move on. Plus, long travel 3.5" option without coilovers... I don't know of any other options for that.
I'll be installing all my stuff next week. I'm hoping it works well!

 

[sn_85]

A lot of those reasons are why I went with Dobinson. Sounds like a lot of their guys used to be with OME? But anyway, I don't wanna be rebuilding stuff, I'd rather just replace and move on. Plus, long travel 3.5" option without coilovers... I don't know of any other options for that.
I'll be installing all my stuff next week. I'm hoping it works well!

I think to expand on what [MENTION=106176]wfo9[/MENTION] wrote, it's the BP-51 setup that people have been having problems with not their tried and true twin tube line. Besides a rough ride on the OME twin tube shocks there has been nary a complaint in regards to its reliability, performance, or durability. As of right now Dobinsons only has a comparable twin tube option until their MRR (monotube remote resevoir) line is released. I think most people that choose Dobinsons over OME do so because Dobs has more options when it comes to spring rates and ride heights. Also Dobs has only been in the US market for about a year and to their credit are very active on this forum. People tend to like the new kid on the block especially if they are present on here or on social media. They aren't necessarily choosing Dobs over OME because of quality or durability because the twin tube offerings from both companies are pretty much bulletproof.

To answer the OP, if you looking at the price point of the BP-51 just get a set of Kings. With either the BP51 or Kings you will have to rebuild the shock. So no getting around that. TBH if you're not doing any high speed desert racing you probably don't even need to spend that much. Just get either a set of Bilstein 6112/5160 combo or the twin tube offerings from OME or Dobinsons.

Also take a look at this video on the BP51's vs Kings
https://youtu.be/-MsKf1lIYI0?t=12m20s

 

[LJ75 Driver]

I wasn't trying to insinuate any problems with theOME twin tube stuff by any means. I've never run it... and you're exactly right about Dobinson choices. That's a lot of the reason I went with them. Not necessarily the 'new kid' stuff, but to each their own.
OP, if you're not into maintenance, I'd shy away from any coilover set up. I have a personal shop, and don't want to mess with that stuff anymore. No time... lol

 

[oulaw]

I have the BP-51s and love them! Ride quality substantially improved on and off road, no noise complaints here, and tons of compliments!

 

[Jetboy]

The "rebuild" that you'll need most often is the spherical bearing ends. If you're handy - you can do them yourself for about $50 in a few hours. For the love of god - make sure you put antisieze on the misalignment spacers. I had to cut mine apart to get them out after only 2 years.

All of the top model shocks use the same COM10T bearings, they're all interchangeable, and they all wear out the same way. You really should never wear out the other parts except oil seals - so they should otherwise last just as long as any other shock absorber. Sending them in every 2 years for a rebuild is not common or necessary on any of them if you're not racing.

As for dampening - I've never driven the BP51's, but the idea of adjustable rebound and compression along with internal bypass is very compelling to me. As for the others - after putting a few hundred miles in an ICON setup compared to my FOX - I'd go with ICON. Regardless of all the other noise about material quality and such - ICON has the dampening dialed in. They are progressive compression and digressive rebound - for whatever reason it's just the goldilocks dampening. I'm going to be ordering new shim stacks for my fox this week after riding in the ICON (internally they're pretty much all the same - so any fox/king/icon/saw shock can be tuned to act like any other) - it really is that much better. Is it as good as a BP51? I have no idea.

 

[Nightglow]

Twins

Yeah I know. It’s been beaten to death. In a 2017 TRD Pro in NewEngland. Mostly an overland vehicle and no crazy rock crawling. That said I do hit some serious mud, beaches on the cape, moderate rocks and some water. I like the Kings from all I have read except the likelihood of salt corrosion. That’s what lead me to the OME BP51 and durability. The price is about the same.:.. I just don’t want to drop the coin on King’s and have to replace/rebuild every 2 years....i have another vehicle as a daily and another fun vehicle.

Currently have RCI full skid and sliders and riding on 275s. SSO Slimline front bumper and winch en route. And would love to add the expedition one dual swing rear bumper.

Thanks!!

I have almost the same setup and have been riding on BP-51's for 3-4 months. They are as quiet as the stock suspension (not sure why people say different) as in I never hear anything, smoother on and off road, especially when loaded up for a weekend in the mountains and mine were about $800 less than the comparable adjustable Kings. Just sayin...

 

[PeoplecallmeIan]

I was on the same boat about this question. I've heard that the BP's are stiff as hell. Whereas the Kings are buttery smooth. I have decided that I'll most likely end up with the kings but am looking to do a LT system. I have to save way more money than just going with the shocks and UCA's. So i'm going to go with the 6112/5160 setup in the meantime. 10k for LT is a bit crazy but that's my goal. I want to most offroad capable vehicle that I can get.

 

[Jono.ful]

For the love of god - make sure you put antisieze on the misalignment spacers. I had to cut mine apart to get them out after only 2 years.

All of the top model shocks use the same COM10T bearings

Actually no, they don't. Upper and lower bearings are different sizes, with the upper being smaller IIRC - at least on my radflos. The com style bearings are also made from carbon steel. It's only a couple bucks a bearing to upgrade to full stainless steel, and you may well save yourself some issues with corrosion.

 

[Jetboy]

Actually no, they don't. Upper and lower bearings are different sizes, with the upper being smaller IIRC - at least on my radflos. The com style bearings are also made from carbon steel. It's only a couple bucks a bearing to upgrade to full stainless steel, and you may well save yourself some issues with corrosion.

Fox uses the same on both ends. I order 4 at a time. I doubt Radflo uses a smaller one on top. Or a larger one on the bottom. Going down a size would get pretty small. Going up a size probably wouldn't fit on the bottom.

Having different ones would probably be the result of parts bin mix and match if they used different ones top and bottom. They both experience exactly the same force, so you'd never engineer them to be different unless you had some other constraint like physical size limits or a parts bin that you were using didn't have matching ends.

COM10 is a size rather than a material designation. All the spherical bearings in 99.99% of parts will be a standard commercial spherical bushing size, whether it's a "uni-ball" on a control arm or a shock bushing. They're all generic bushings. Almost all of the uniball control arms use COM16 size. Most shocks use the COM10 size. COM10t has a teflon liner. And a COM10t can be had in a variety of different materials - even plastic. Stainless are about half as strong as high carbon steel ones - which I assume is why the OEM's usually don't use stainless. Price wise it's a wash between the two.

 

[Jono.ful]

You're correct about sizing.... Size 10 on the upper and lower bearings for the front, it's the rear shock that takes a 12 on my setup.
Total Chaos uses a wssxt-16 from f&k rod ends as their oem in both UCA and LCA. Head over to their website and look at the materials and dimensions of the COM and FKSSX bearings in various sizes. I won't speak for all manufacturers, but f&k certainly differentiates between the two models based on materials used.