Old Man Emu Dakar (OME) est.1976... sold to ARB in 1988. Update 2024, currently the 4/1 H3 leafs offered by ARB are 2x+$$$ the price of Dorman USA 4/1 leafs, and ONLY a 1 YEAR WARRANTY from Australia.

 

I replaced my OEM springs with Old Man Emu and I'm very happy with them.

My OE spring had failed exactly the way it showed in the video - a byproduct of how the leaf wraps around the front bushing and the truck spending its whole life in Ohio before I bought it. God knows when the spring itself failed since you can't directly see if its broken because the mount blocks the view of where it fails. Once it fails, the weight of the truck holds everything in place, until the spring gets unloaded. Mine unseated 750 miles after I bought the truck while offroading. It was just after the first time I took the suspension to full articulation on the trail - big clang and then my tire was rubbing on the aft fender liner! Made for a long day getting everything back in place before limping back to black top.

IMHO, everyone should take a few minutes to inspect and feel around top of the forward spring bushing mount and make sure the top part of the leaf hasn't failed and fallen off like mine had. When I got my leaf spring off to replace it you could see that the entire length of the fracture line was rusted, indicating the spring had failed many moons (and miles) before it actually unseated from the perch.

As far as the job goes, I did not have to use any cutting tools to remove the old springs - just lots of PB, a big breaker bar and some elbow grease.

Old bushings came out easily with a light duty air hammer (most of the bushing sleeve had long since rusted away and all that was left was a little metal where it contacted the frame mount.

For the driver-side front spring mount I'd recommend you take the 15 minutes it takes to remove the gas tank skid plate to get access to the driver side front bushing bolt. IMO, that was much easier (and safer) than using a cutting torch. Seems like all the guy in the video had in his tool box was torch, so for him it was the "tool for the job."

 

That is some funny chit.... have torch, will travel. Torch it all!

Thank you for your thoughts on the OME.

 

From the ground (concrete slab) drivers is 39 7/8 passenger is 40 5/8.

Front looks pretty level

Rear leans to the drivers side

 

Your tires tread appear worn uneven along with the ground. MEASURE FROM CENTER WHEEL TO FENDER LIP!

 

I will, and report back. Just a noten i have more tread on the low side than on the high side.

 

Your pictures also show unlevel ground below. Measure the right way as posted above and post the results on all 4 corners.

 

 

Drivers Front 23.5
Pass Front 24
Drivers rear 23.25
Pass rear 24.25
So an 1 inch difference in the rear side to side and 1/2 inch in the front side to side.

 

Drop pass front level to drivers front then recheck rears and post results.