ORI Struts

If you are looking for a stable, compact, lightweight, and heavy duty suspension solution, you've come to the right place. ORI Struts are a popular with custom Jeep builders, full tube frame rock crawlers, rock racers, desert racers, full sized mud trucks, and now UTVs, ORI truly offers a versatile product! ORI offers stroke lengths ranging between 8-20 inches in travel, and gives you the option to choose from a variety of custom anodized colors. 

How to setup and tune ORI Struts

• Mount struts on vehicle and pressurize lower chambers with the struts fully compressed.

  There should be .7 inch, roughly 5/8" chrome showing with the struts fully bottomed out. This last .7 inches does not compress. The 1 inch bump stop begins 1-5/8" from the bottom portion of the chrome. This is a hydraulic plunger piston with a return spring. It can be easily compressed by hand, and will function as a bump stop during a high velocity impact.

• With the struts fully compressed, set the lower chamber pressures to obtain desired stability or softness. 

  90-120psi is a good starting range for the lower pressure on most vehicles. Less pressure will result in a softer ride, while more pressure will yield a more stable ride. The higher the pressure, the less the suspension will push off/unload. You may use as little as 20psi, or as much as 300psi if needed, but these are usually special circumstances (i.e. using the struts in combination with a sway bar and a really low pressure, like 20psi, in the bottom chambers will result in a soft and stable ride, optimal for street riding. Running 200-300psi will often help stabilize vehicles with a high center of gravity, vehicles that have the suspension leaning on sharp angles, or have the struts mounted inside the frame). 

• Pressurize the upper chambers until your desired ride height is reached.

  When filling the upper chambers, the actual ride height measurement is more important than the pressure in the struts. Relying solely on the pressure in the upper chambers can be misleading. Best way to make the ride height settle where you want is to let the pressure lift the vehicle. Once the ride height is close, shut off your valves, and compress the suspension or rock the vehicle to make the struts settle, then fine tune as needed. Using a nitrogen dual fill kit is highly recommended. It greatly speeds up the process of filling the struts and allows you to share pressure between the left and right sides of the vehicle, making the final ride height adjustments much easier.

• Adjust rebound screw on lower mount to obtain desired rebound speed

  Turning the 7 position rebound adjustment screw will change how fast the struts extend. Counter-clockwise makes the struts extend faster, and clockwise makes the struts extend slower.

• If equipped, adjust compression knob on reservoirs to desired compression speed 

  There are 24 positions on the reservoir compression adjuster. Counter-clockwise speeds up the compression rate, and clockwise slows the compression rate.

  This is only applicable to integral and remote reservoirs, not to be confused with piggyback reservoirs, which do not have the adjuster.

More in-depth tuning

Spring rate and compression rate and be further altered by adding/removing oil, or swapping/modifying the compression valves.

• Oil and Nitrogen Volume:

  Adding compressible gas volume to the top chambers (adding reservoirs or removing oil), will soften the spring rate. This will make the overall ride softer. You may remove up to 100ml of oil in the top chamber to achieve this, just keep in mind, that this will lower the oil height in the main cylinder by 2 inches, and you will have less oil for your compression stroke. This may cause you to bottom out easier. Adding a simple piggyback reservoir will add nitrogen volume and 150ml of extra oil for 3 additional inches of oil for the compression stroke, while still gaining the additional nitrogen volume for the overall softer ride.

• Modifying/swapping out the compression valves:

  There are now 2 optional compression valves that may be used with a standard STX strut. One is more restrictive and is designed to close quickly for vehicles that will be running a very low ride height, 4" or less of chrome showing, and the other is less restrictive to help those who will be running their struts closer to mid range in the travel. The less restrictive valve will make high speed compression and overall chop feel softer. Any valve can be modified, to a point, to change how fast the high speed compression damping operates. This is a velocity sensitive valve. It is designed to restrict oil flow when you hit something hard enough to close the valve. Normal driving shouldn't close the valve, and the oil should be allowed to freely flow through the top cap of the struts. This was standard in all STX struts after the ST strut was discontinued sometime around 2013-2014.

  To modify a valve, remove the upper cap, and the compression valve with 3 small springs will be visible sitting on top of the internal steel cylinder. The small holes around the outside of the valve are for the high speed compression damping. To change the high speed compression damping, add or plug holes to make the valve softer or more restrictive. There are also 2 different sets of springs that may be used, the weaker springs will allow the valve to close easier, while the stiffer springs will resist or delay closing the valve.

• Strut Mounting Angles and Position

  The angle and position in which the struts are mounted can have significant effect on how the struts perform. For optimum stability, we have often recommended mounting the strut outboard the frame (usually on full width axles), with the tops leaned in toward the frame, so that when one wheel is fully compressed, the strut and axle on that side will be perpendicular to one another. This setup is not, however, the optimum setup for achieving a soft ride. Often times, mounting the struts at a steeper angle, can make the struts compress easier, resulting in a softer ride. This can be the case even though the struts will require more pressure to lift the vehicle. Mounting the struts on a control arm, or trailing arm, can also soften the ride in a similar way. Similar to leaning the struts on an angle, this will create leverage on the struts and cause them to compress easier, once again resulting in a softer ride and increased wheel travel. 

• General Notes and Things to Avoid

  There is a lot of mis-information circulating on the internet about altering the length of the brass by-pass tubes to change the bump stop height. The bump stop is a fixed plunger piston with a return spring that is activated hydraulically. It is not adjustable. Cutting the bypass tubes shorter will only cause more oil to reside in the outside of the strut between the inner steel cylinder and the outer shell with the polished rings. If you wish to lower the oil level in the main cylinder, simply remove oil. Every 50ml of oil that is removed will lower the oil in the inner cylinder 1 inch, and give 1 inch less oil before the oil begins dampening the compression stroke.

  Although most air shocks are pressurized while at full extension, it is more beneficial to pressurize the bottom chambers of the ORI struts first, with the struts fully bottomed out, then pressurize the uppers, letting the pressure lift the vehicle. This is the easiest method we have found to set the ride height accurately, and have the driver and passenger sides behave the same. Filling the lower chambers at inequal ride heights will cause in imbalance in the spring rates and tuning process.

  It is critical to fill the bottom chambers first, while at full compression, so that the pressure added is as effective as possible. When the struts are fully bottomed out, the volume in the lower chambers is at its largest size. For an example: If I add 100psi to the lower chambers at full compression, then extend the strut, the pressure will build exponentially. If I add the same 100psi while at ride height, the pressure will still build, but not nearly as much, since you're now compression a smaller gas volume than before. The pressure won't build as much, and stability won't be as expected.

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ORI Struts VS Coilovers

ORI Struts have become a popular alternative to coilover shocks because of the added stability, ease of installation and compact design. Check out this link to see what others are saying: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/general-4x4-discussion/843818-why-ori-struts-vs-coilovers.html