Hey everyone,
I´m browsing this great base of knowledge for a long time now. Many users have posted their suspension setups over the years.
As the Pathfinder fansebase is getting smaller but more dense, I thought it might pose a common question again, on the base of current experiences of users.

What are the best Rear Lift Springs?

The situation:
My yellow Ironman "constant load" rear springs are dead and not able to handle load anymore.
The perspective Setup will contain:
~3 to 4 inch lift
- T-Swap in front
- 2inch rear subframe drop ???
-33" Sparetire + carrier, adds constant load.

Characteristics wanted:
- as much rear down travel as possible, currently realized with radflo shocks
- relatively stiff and able to handle higher loads, not necessarily towing

Absolutely not possible(in Germany )
-Front bracket lift, highly illegal
-Rear Armada Swap, subframe not available

Options i have in mind so far.

Please feel free to comment on my thoughts.

Moog 81085 Armada Springs
- Stated to provide 3-3,5" of lift, true?
- longer than OEM Spring
- stiff.

A constant lift of ~3" would limit the downtravel, and would make subframe drop obsolete, as a 5 Inch lift in front is not an option in regards to downtravel.

Old Men Emu 2610 / HD
- Provide just 1.25 inch of lift
- 460 lbs
- categrorized as heavier springs

Not much lift , would provide downtravel, airbags could add stabilty when loaded. 3.25" lift with subframe drop.

Alldogs Offroad 2" lift springs.
-advertised as high quality product
-medium springs, non HD
- real 2" lift

Are there any reviews of these springs yet? Due to beeing meedium springs, mightneed to run them with airbags from the start to compensate the spare?

Did I forget any suitable spring option?

Im really looking forward to your comments, as the Amercian market is the only way to go in this particular section.

Ok fellas; your time to shine!
Help the man out.

I believe your other two options for rear lift springs is Dobinsons and Kings - both from Australia.

As far as I know, the extended Radflo shocks gives you the most suspension travel compared to all other options in the market. Not sure if you got the Radflo shocks or the extended version? I believe the only difference between the two is the extended version removes the internal bumpstop? I forget exactly, but it had something to do internally to the shock to give you an extra inch or two of travel.

I'm fairly new to the Pathys, so I've only had a chance to test the medium OME springs and Kings(not sure if stock rating or medium). If you usually carry a heavy load, I definitely recommend heavy duty springs of any brand. I'll be testing the heavy duty Ironman springs on my weekend rig hopefully in a month and see how stiff that is since my weekend rig also has a welded tire carrier and it'll be carrying a 37" wheel. If it's too stiff, I'll move back down to a medium spring. I have a feeling I might end up having to swap out springs when I don't wheel since I don't always carry my spare with me on the pavement since I don't carry any tools to be able to lift my Pathy high enough for a tire change anyway.

@Palmerwmd has the Armada springs on his ; )

There's a few more guys on here that definitely has had more time & experience tweaking their suspension and will hopefully chime in soon.

silverarrow27 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 21, 2023 11:26 pm

I believe your other two options for rear lift springs is Dobinsons and Kings - both from Australia.

As far as I know, the extended Radflo shocks gives you the most suspension travel compared to all other options in the market. Not sure if you got the Radflo shocks or the extended version? I believe the only difference between the two is the extended version removes the internal bumpstop? I forget exactly, but it had something to do internally to the shock to give you an extra inch or two of travel. 1v1 lol

I'm fairly new to the Pathys, so I've only had a chance to test the medium OME springs and Kings(not sure if stock rating or medium). If you usually carry a heavy load, I definitely recommend heavy duty springs of any brand. I'll be testing the heavy duty Ironman springs on my weekend rig hopefully in a month and see how stiff that is since my weekend rig also has a welded tire carrier and it'll be carrying a 37" wheel. If it's too stiff, I'll move back down to a medium spring. I have a feeling I might end up having to swap out springs when I don't wheel since I don't always carry my spare with me on the pavement since I don't carry any tools to be able to lift my Pathy high enough for a tire change anyway.

@Palmerwmd has the Armada springs on his ; )

There's a few more guys on here that definitely has had more time & experience tweaking their suspension and will hopefully chime in soon.

I believe you have a correct opinion about it.

i have this kit with with i believe the medium springs in the back

https://www.alldogsoffroad.com/alldogs- ... pathfinder

i believe it has the all dogs springs your referring to. i havent had them for a lot of miles but they do quite well with a full load (like to the roof) of family travel stuff. i suspect airbags would be beneficial for towing heavy things.

long term i cannot comment but they appear to me to be good quality. far better than stock. lift wise it added a bunch but the original springs were shot so who knows what you measuring vs. i could go measure for you if you want. i carry an aftermarket full size spare 18-9 rim with 33" yokohama geolanders on it in the normal spare tire location.

not sure how much extra weight you have in the back or how to fogure out the appropriate spring for it. only what i have and my experience.

Thank you for your replies guys!
I decided to go with the MOOG 81085 springs.

As the Moogs are supposedly the hardest springs with lifts of roughly 3“
Doping on how much the will settle I`ll see if I need to replace bushings with eccentric ones like Code Pathfinder did.

I really wanted to go the 2“ route, unfortunately All Dogs Off-road did not reply to my Mail regarding shipment overseas and Old Men Emu Springs will settle around 1,5“

As soon as I installed the springs I will post an upgrade.

3-inches in the rear is substantial. I suspect your gonna have some trouble getting the alignment right on that. Let us know how you fare.

Hey everyone,

as I already mentioned I went with the MOOG 81085 Armada rear springs as these where supposed to be the thickest springs on the market.

The Ride
The Springs ride way better than the Ironman 4x4s even when they where new.
The Moogs ride like stiffer OEM ones but with better load carrying capacity and while they are stiffer they are not just hard like the ironman were at the beginning.

The Lift
After seemingly gathering all infomation about the Moog 81085 in the internet, they where supposed to provide between 2.5 and 3.5 inches of lift. As a result of the amount of lift, throwing wheel alingment far out of the adjustable range, resulting in the need for camber bolts and adjustable poly bushings like the superpros.
Here is where it gets interesting.
Code Pathfinder already noticed the differences in bushing size between US and European models so its possible that there are some more differences unnoticed because:

I don´t have an alignment problem at all! not even near to it. Neither do these spings provide an noticable amount of lift over common lift springs like the Old Men Emus or Ironman.

Maybe our european pathfinders come with higher OEM spring rates? or the bushing size does affect the alignment possibilites?

Anyway: here are some measurements of the OME,Ironman 4x4 (old model), Moog 81085 for Armada.

Wire Diamenter:
OEM 0,68 inch
Ironman 0.8 inch
Moog 0.81 inch

While all springs have roughly the same hight being not installed, the Moogs where much heavier than the Ironmans by just being 0,01 inch thicker which I thinks underlines the differences in material quality used. I´ll post an update once the springs have sagged.