Dobinsons C59-677V Rear Variable Rate Coil Springs
I've just spent several days repairing and rebuilding this thread thanks to the Photobucket debacle. Absolutely frustrating and I hope that they get what they deserve for that move. A lot of guys are feeling this frustration and have just said eff it, but I couldn't let this thread die. After 46 pages and 5 and a half years worth of information, history and memories, this thing has truly become a labor of love. It was kind of nice and nostalgic getting to take a trip through the thread while rebuilding. I got to see the evolution of the truck, my kids being born, vacations, my old bulldog, making friends for life, etc. Was kind of neat, so in a way, I guess I'm thankful for Photobucket for that. I've not messed with any of my other forums, but this one is too special to me.
This latest mod sort of culminated over the last couple of weeks. This weekend I have a trip up into the mountains (windy roads) for a Spartan race. My truck in it's current configuration exhibited more body roll than I cared for. It's not unmanageable, but for a truck that has been 100% street driven for the past few years, going back and forth between the WRX and truck can be a little jarring with my driving style. So to remedy this, I launched a couple of casual searches to dig up my rear sway bar... And was unsuccessful. I might have tossed it in the dumpster at some point. So Bobby suggested that I should look into swapping out my Medium Duty Metaltech Coils for some Heavy Duties like he has. Sure, why not? So to be clear, I like my Medium Duties. They ride nice, great lift height, and work nice, and if I was able to locate that sway bar, I would have solved my body roll issue with parts I had and called it a day.
So I looked into the Metaltech HD coils and as somebody who hasn't shopped suspension in a while found out that they do not offer two different coils any more, but now sell what they call their NextGen spring. This new coil supposedly provides the ride of the MD springs while being able to support weight like the HD using lessons learned from the previous generation of coils. They would cost me about $250 shipped.
Before pulling that trigger, I figured I'd browse the forum classifieds really quick, just to see what was out there. Actually came across a sale thread with some HD coils and within that thread was a GX guy looking for MD coils. So I proposed a 3 way transaction. While I awaited a response, ANOTHER GX guy reached out about purchasing my MD coils. Apparently, the no longer available, MT MD coils are highly sought after in the GX community, because they're a great pairing for air-ride converted trucks. So a little back and forth with this gentlemen and he suggested I look into some Dobinsons coils. Again, having been pretty out of the game for a while, I'd never heard of them. They're a pretty new player in the US market. This being the case, meant that there wasn't much available information or reviews. What I did find was an armored 5th gen that swapped out some MT HD coils for some heavy duty Dobinsons because they handled the weight better in his application. What I also found was that the Dobi's were $195 shipped from Amazon vs the $250 Metaltechs. This meant I could basically swap out for even, or damn near even, money. Being the guy that likes to be a little different as well as usually willing to try new things, I decided to pull the trigger on the Dobi's and my Metaltech buyer and I worked out a deal that worked out for all parties.
My fear going in though was that I would end up way too ass high and/or with a punishing ride since I don't really have any weight out back.
And away we go. Ordered them Wednesday. Shipped same day from FL and received them Friday. Installed them Sunday (Yesterday).
Install took about an hour with my buddy. I've done so many of these, I think I could do it blindfolded now. Having that much travel out back, does provide some unique challenges. Having two floor jacks would be great, which I don't. That's because no matter how I position everything, I can't get the body to lift high enough to get a tire up, so I have to jack the axle itself up first to get the tires off and then re-position it to give the axle enough room to come far enough down to get the coils in and out. Not a big deal. I made do. If I had something to use as a lift block for my jack, that would work, but I didn't have anything tall enough handy. I took a trip to Harbor Freight prior to the job to pick up some spring compressors (which I never ended up using) and a jack spreader beam that gave me about 5 more inches of jack height (not enough).
Old next to new:
The Dobinsons didn't appear to be side specific like the Metaltech NextGens. I just stuck the longer of the two (minimal difference) on the driver side. Next to the MT's the Dobinsons where a little taller in free height and while it my be hard to tell, I think the wire diameter is a little bigger as well. Obviously the rates are pretty different. What I did observe is that, the MT coils had not sagged at all when I took a pre-measurement so that's nice. I think they have about 26k total miles on them. Also, was able to clearly see that the lower rate section of the MT's (where the coil is wound tightest) is completely blocked (coil on coil) at ride height and will not come into play until the suspension goes into droop. This was by design. The Dobinsons do not do this. The coil seems to work in a smoother progressive pattern by design.
Driver side in. No fuss. Took a little to get the axle low enough to get the coil to pop out because I had a Daystar spacer on top of this one. Had to unhook the e-brake bracket because I ran out of slack. Only unhooked the upper stem of the shock. Old bottle jack trick made it easy peasy:
Bounced on the back then took her for a short drive. Right away it felt phenomenal. Back home:
Looks like I gained about 1" of lift over the Metaltechs (even the the DS spacer on top of the one).
Coils installed from the underside rear:
Trying to stretch out in the yard as good as I can. She never broke a sweat here:
Then took her down a nearby power line road for a little shakedown.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The Good:
- Good Value
- Quality Product
- I'm ready for additional load
- Exactly the ride I was after
The Bad:
- Um... That I didn't do it sooner
- That I actually had to install them and they didn't install themselves? (I'm fishing here)
Overall:
I'm not sure if I could be any more pleased. Exact outcome I was looking for. All fears alleviated. Drives amazing on and off road. Very, very pleased with this move.
For those that don't know, it looks like Dobinsons offers 1", 2", and 3" lift coils for our applications, with different load range and travel length specs for each ride height offering. So far, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these one bit. Only time will tell regarding long term usage, but it's coil springs. I don't see much going wrong here.
I've had a hankering to upgrade to a 2.5" rear shock, possibly with remote lately. When/if Dobinsons releases their MRR shock that's on their 5th Gen, I'm going to give this some serious consideration.
Thanks for looking!
UPDATE 7/31/17
Took them up the mountain over the weekend and wow! I couldn't be more satisfied. Exactly what I was looking for. Through the sweeping winding mountain roads at speed, they were confidence inspiring. Much less white knuckle driving than before. Bounced along some decent gravel roads, without issue. Felt nice and compliant. Took the route of Highway 9 from the house in Bat Cave to the race venue in Black Mountain know as "Sidewinder" and it was glorious. Lot's of hairpins and switchbacks. Truck chewed them up so much so, that a motorcycle actually had to pull over and let me by lol. I did get eaten up by a Subaru though lol. I'll definitely be taking this drive in the Subie in the future. Funnest I've been on in a very long time.
