BFG KO2 265/65 18 PSI?

avslash said:

Thus, at the end of the string of changes, you have a truck somewhere between factory "normal" and factory "offroad" height. Air strut pressure somewhere between factory "normal" and factory "access" pressures. Suspension geometry somewhere between factory "normal" and factory "offroad" settings.

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actually not quite. after strut spacers and iidtool to "tight tolerence" the fender to hub 515 525 which are the +50 like you wrote, you end up with nothing "in between" but it being pretty much right at factory off road height. the only difference may be that factory orh may be more lift in the rear vs front whereas this bumps it up equal 50 front and rear.

air pressure should actually be EXACTLY factory normal height seeing as the struts were set to exactly that length. 465 + 50, 485+50. make sense?

I can confirm that the butt meter over several highway speed dips n such give the same suspension travel and feel. this spot on hwy 18 near black diamond is perfect. you come through a pavement transition to a bridge and there's this huge swath that dips. if you had a small car with weak springs, you'd probably get a little smack on bump stops at 70 mph. with the weight of my lr3, the dip is the perfect length and dept to give a full vehicle body woosh down then compression at end of dip.

i tested that spot with various llams +/- to see if i could get away with no strut spacers way back. it's amazing what +/- 1" will feel like, it's quite dramatic actually. the ride now with spacers but +2" pushed back in via shorter rods is perfect. also now the 34" tire does not make a huge grind against inside of fender liner on that dip and also shown by slow movement on my street i've tested the strut spacers allow rolling along on bump stops without grinding either. That was the main purpose for the strut spacer.

jwest said:

dding the strut spacer and doing nothing else...how could that result in same vehicle height? vehicle knows nothing of what you did, so why would the struts now magically allow themselves to compress? the vehicle will only know that the control arms are angled down while it has not told the strut to extend...thus it's confusion and requirement of shorter rods to let it see the sensor back to the factory position.

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Have to run to meeting, so will read your post in detail later.

Short answer to the first paragraph is that I am going only off what I have read as I haven't installed these, or seen them on a local truck. Several posts among separate forums stating that merely adding the strut spacers would not change the ride height.

Obviously, the struts with spacers are now 2" longer, so that 2" has to be absorbed somewhere. I assumed the struts themselves based on people posting that ride height remained the same as stock after installing the spacers.

Well, “d’oh” on me is what havevtobsay now LOL. It’s refreshing my memory and I think you’re right in that. I have the llams quick height switch and knew I wanted the struts to retain same length so I probably switched the llams to 2” higher mode right off the bat.

Then I found the computers not liking it due to the rod/height sensor arm trllingbit the upper control arm was a lot lower which causes faults.

So then I added the shorter rods which I made myself but you can buy some that have markings i think for different resulting adjustments.

I can tell you that without adding length back in, the ride would be 100% total **** though. My road testing said to me that even -1” on the highway is marginal on nice roadways and kind of crap on anything variable so 2” would be basically ******** and you’d hit the tops all the time on any dips or bumps.

jwest said:

Well, “d’oh” on me is what havevtobsay now LOL. It’s refreshing my memory and I think you’re right in that. I have the llams quick height switch and knew I wanted the struts to retain same length so I probably switched the llams to 2” higher mode right off the bat.

Then I found the computers not liking it due to the rod/height sensor arm trllingbit the upper control arm was a lot lower which causes faults.

So then I added the shorter rods which I made myself but you can buy some that have markings i think for different resulting adjustments.

I can tell you that without adding length back in, the ride would be 100% total **** though. My road testing said to me that even -1” on the highway is marginal on nice roadways and kind of crap on anything variable so 2” would be basically ******** and you’d hit the tops all the time on any dips or bumps.

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Sounds like we might be moving closer together on our reasoning.

I didn't recall you were running the LLAMS system, as well.

So if we agree that adding the strut spacers in and of itself doesn't change the ride height of the truck, then I think my original thoughts on the cumulative changes is reasonably correct.

I just broke down and ordered some Compomotive wheels this morning so I can finally ditch my 1.25" spacers that allowed me to run factory LR3 18's on the LR4. So I think I am going to proceed like as follow:

1. Ditch the wheel spacers and install Compo wheels and take baseline measurement of hub to wheel arch measurement with everything else stock.
2. Install the strut spacers.
3. Verify hub to wheel arch measurement is the same as in step 1. Assuming this is true then,
3. Install adjustable rods set to 2" higher than stock. This should put air struts back at stock extension and control arm geometry at factory "offroad" position, and theoretically leave my hub to wheel arch measurement at +50mm from my original measurement.
4. Start experimenting with dialing some of the lift back out via the IID Tool and see if there is some reasonable medium between factory "normal" and "offroad" height.

For anyone else following this discussion, as well, please note that my truck, like Jwest's has also been extensively modified in the wheel openings to accommodate 32" or larger tires. To include cutting and welding the frame horns, relocating height sensor wiring in front left wheel well, pounding flat the body flanges the rear wheel wells, heat gunning and reshaping the fender liners in various spots, and probably some other things I'm not remembering, as well.

Well, couple grand later, the wheel spacers are history after 40K+ miles of use, and the Compomotive wheels are in place.

I'm really pleased with them. Haven't dropped it to access height yet, but there is absolutely no rubbing in normal or offroad height with my 275/65R18s.

No matter what I did, I always experienced some minor runs with the LR3 wheel/spacer combo, especially in reverse.

nice!

the OP started this thread about "psi" in the 18" 265/65 - i've forgotten why not but the psi is highly weight dependent as we hopefully went over. I could see a stock lr3/4 on 31.5"-32" tire going to 20 psi after seeing mine at 24-26 on 34" tires. I forgot to record psi when i was using the 275/65-18 bfg ko2 but it was in the upper 20's zone.

I feel better about the lower psi and more sidewall squish on the 34" though with so much more sidewall to work with. I may have never used less than 30 on the 265/65-18 due to over an inch less sidewall.