ARB/OME BP-51

[maringx550]

Anyone have experience - good or bad - with the OME BP-51 suspension system?

Leaning that direction but not finding much about how this performs on the gx550 OT. Lots of good comments from owners of Tacomas, 4Runners and other Toyotas, but seeing far fewer examples on gx550s.

If you have the BP-51, what did you go with for UCAs? Any reason not to stick with the OME control arms?

Any input would be greatly appreciated - would like to be once and done with the suspension.

Use case for me is daily driver, long road trips, mountain fire roads/trails and some relatively light (3-5 day) overlanding.

 

[Bic Jet]

I am installing PN 0021 UCA on my GX in about a week. I had BP51 on my Land Cruiser and have similar driving as you. Expect the same driving in the GX.

 

[Matthew@LC250Mods]

The BP51s are great. Honestly very little reason to go with anything more--they just work under every condition really well.

For control arms:
Best Value: SPC Forged Control Arms
Most Bling: Icon Billet Control Arms

 

[Bic Jet]

These are what I am using:

Upper Control Arm UCA0021

Upper Control Arms

store.arbusa.com

 

[maringx550]

I am installing PN 0021 UCA on my GX in about a week. I had BP51 on my Land Cruiser and have similar driving as you. Expect the same driving in the GX.

Thanks, Bic Jet. Please let me know how the install goes. Kinda surprised how few examples of this set up I can find for the gx550.

 

[maringx550]

The BP51s are great. Honestly very little reason to go with anything more--they just work under every condition really well.

For control arms:
Best Value: SPC Forged Control Arms
Most Bling: Icon Billet Control Arms

Thanks for the input. Very much appreciated.

 

[Bic Jet]

Michael has installed them on a few others, and says theya re great.

 

[eurospek]

Save some coin

💵 For Sale - Old Man Emu BP51's W/ OMEUCA's $2,750

Just feeling out interest for now..... Curious what the interest would be for my Old Man Emu BP51 setup, front and rear, adjustable compression and rebound, with OME UCA's. Purchased directly from ARB. No damage or problems at all, absolutely one of the best rides out there, just looking for a...

www.landcruiserforum.com

 

[SwainBuilt]

We have been using and installing BP-51 shocks since they were first released for the 200 Series around 2015. The BP-51 shock design offers adjustment not available from other manufactures resulting is both a comfortable/supple ride and great control with loads and/or unexpected bumps and holes. Though not advertised through ARB/OME for the GX550 we have installed a few sets. There can be some small hurtles with the front reservoir mounts as the GX frame differs from the LC250. We also use different rear springs at times as the weight of the two models differs. The OME upper control arms are great for a fixed correction type arm. We will be offering SPC arms shortly for projects requiring adjustable upper arms. Feel free to reach out to our sales team with any questions you may have. OME BP51 - 2.5" Suspension Lift'24+ LC 250 / GX 550 - Slee Off Road

 

[rocksallday]

Not sure how it applies here, but I have both a GX and a Jeep JK. My JK has BP51 3.5" lift.

Considering the JK is a very different beast, I just wanted to say that yes, the BP51 are better than stock in terms of ride quality (considering the lift), but I gave up on trying to adjust them.
Unlike some other brands where you either have just one adjustment, or a low-frequency / high-frequency (which makes sense in my brain for fast highway vs slow rock crawling), here you have separate compression and rebound settings. It is beyond me to figure out how to treat it as anything but setting both to soft or both to hard.

Also, it is extremely difficult (for me) to turn that adjustment knob. I read somewhere that you just adjust it as you air down/up at the start/end of the trail, but there's just no way. Sometimes the rings just don't want to turn. Sometimes they'll turn on 3 out of the 4 shocks and you ride unbalanced.
I don't think it's dirt because I keep a clean setup, but it could be uneven load at the side of the road.
In the JK I also have to lay under the car for the rears, which is pretty sketchy when the engine is running for airing up and pretty sketchy when the exhaust is hot / trail is muddy / ... not sure how the access is on the GX setup.

I have them always set at what I consider 'reasonable', more tuned for offroad because that's what I use the JK for, and never bother adjusting.

 

[ColoradoOutdoors]

Now that I've decided to keep the GX550 long-term, back to getting ready to order MT64 or BP51. I may have missed on a thread somewhere, but has anyone provided a review on BP51 highway ride and handling vs stock OT+ suspension? Plenty of great info on MT64 on this forum but looking for real world reviews on the BP51.

 

[rocksallday]

Now that I've decided to keep the GX550 long-term, back to getting ready to order MT64 or BP51. I may have missed on a thread somewhere, but has anyone provided a review on BP51 highway ride and handling vs stock OT+ suspension? Plenty of great info on MT64 on this forum but looking for real world reviews on the BP51.

I have MT64 on my GX550 and BP51 on my Jeep JK.
My next jeep shocks will probably be the MT64.

I think the BP51 has some good qualities but some nasty cons that should be considered-
From a ride perspective, the MT64 is good, solid, reliable and comes factory tuned for a wide range of use cases.
The BP51 is solid but requires tuning to get right and tuning isn't trivial with the 2 adjusters per shock. I never really managed to figure out an optimal setting. Got it to be "good enough".
The reservoir works great in terms of heat dissipation on long fast washboards, but the MT64 is so big I doubt it has any issue with what you'd do with the GX despite the lack of reservoirs. Also lack of reservoirs means better reliability which is definitely something I want in my GX.

I don't know how many places in the US can rebuild the BP51 if needed. MT64 is much more available in terms of local supply and I'd just get a new one if I ever have to. I had to wait a month to get my delivery allocation of BP51 (2 years ago).

As for actual adjustments and usage - you're not going to use the adjustment rings. They're the least practical rings to adjust I've seen. They're poorly accessible and impossible to turn. The O-rings are tight and the tool they give you will leave your hands hurting. And the story about "adjust it while you're airing up/down entering/leaving the trail"- no way. You're not going to lie on your back in the dirt trying to find an access point that gives you enough leverage to adjust those things.
Fox/King/ADS - they all seem to have easily adjustable knobs, so I don't know what's going on here.
Also the compression vs rebound settings - I have no idea what I'm doing tuning one vs the other.

It's likely that you can adjust the BP51 to be better than the MT64 on the road and then tune it to be better on the trail, but the MT64 just works well on both as far as I could manage to adjust it.

Having said all this- they're both very well constructed. They both seem like they could take a beating, and the finish on both of them is very durable.
I did dump the silly little plastic "rock protection cover" that comes with both (it just broke the first time it actually saw a rock) and replaced it with a generic rubber boot. Yet another thing that the BP51 adjusters make inconvenient - as the adjustment knobs are exactly where you'd normally want the rubber boot to hold the shock body.

 

[ColoradoOutdoors]

I have MT64 on my GX550 and BP51 on my Jeep JK.
My next jeep shocks will probably be the MT64.

I think the BP51 has some good qualities but some nasty cons that should be considered-
From a ride perspective, the MT64 is good, solid, reliable and comes factory tuned for a wide range of use cases.
The BP51 is solid but requires tuning to get right and tuning isn't trivial with the 2 adjusters per shock. I never really managed to figure out an optimal setting. Got it to be "good enough".
The reservoir works great in terms of heat dissipation on long fast washboards, but the MT64 is so big I doubt it has any issue with what you'd do with the GX despite the lack of reservoirs. Also lack of reservoirs means better reliability which is definitely something I want in my GX.

I don't know how many places in the US can rebuild the BP51 if needed. MT64 is much more available in terms of local supply and I'd just get a new one if I ever have to. I had to wait a month to get my delivery allocation of BP51 (2 years ago).

As for actual adjustments and usage - you're not going to use the adjustment rings. They're the least practical rings to adjust I've seen. They're poorly accessible and impossible to turn. The O-rings are tight and the tool they give you will leave your hands hurting. And the story about "adjust it while you're airing up/down entering/leaving the trail"- no way. You're not going to lie on your back in the dirt trying to find an access point that gives you enough leverage to adjust those things.
Fox/King/ADS - they all seem to have easily adjustable knobs, so I don't know what's going on here.
Also the compression vs rebound settings - I have no idea what I'm doing tuning one vs the other.

It's likely that you can adjust the BP51 to be better than the MT64 on the road and then tune it to be better on the trail, but the MT64 just works well on both as far as I could manage to adjust it.

Having said all this- they're both very well constructed. They both seem like they could take a beating, and the finish on both of them is very durable.
I did dump the silly little plastic "rock protection cover" that comes with both (it just broke the first time it actually saw a rock) and replaced it with a generic rubber boot. Yet another thing that the BP51 adjusters make inconvenient - as the adjustment knobs are exactly where you'd normally want the rubber boot to hold the shock body.

Thank you. All of that makes sense. I deal with a bunch of mountain bikes and always messing around with sag, compression and rebound. so maybe I'm a potential candidate for the adjustability of the 51.

 

[rocksallday]

Thank you. All of that makes sense. I deal with a bunch of mountain bikes and always messing around with sag, compression and rebound. so maybe I'm a potential candidate for the adjustability of the 51.

I really suggest you find someone where you can check out the adjustments and how practical it is in the field. I'm planning a CO trip sometime in the next 2 months, wife, health, weather and fires permitting.

 

[ColoradoOutdoors]

I really suggest you find someone where you can check out the adjustments and how practical it is in the field. I'm planning a CO trip sometime in the next 2 months, wife, health, weather and fires permitting.

Thanks for the advice and I am certainly learning that I won't be wanting to make adjustments regularly. Slee Offroad will be handling the install and hoping with their help, I can get the settings right from the get go and minimize any headache of multiple adjustments. Was able to see the shocks in person today and certainly got a sense of the task of any adjustment.

 

[ColoradoOutdoors]

OME BP-51 and UCAs installed today. Over the moon happy with results and will post a full write up soon.

 

[rocksallday]

OME BP-51 and UCAs installed today. Over the moon happy with results and will post a full write up soon.View attachment 23780

btw, just noticed your signature. how do you decide which car to take where?
i mean there's a lot of overlap between the Canyon, GX, iX and Sierra.
Maybe better question - under what circumstances would you take the GX vs the Canyon to a trail and under what circumstances would you take the GX vs the iX to the opera?

since we're on the topic of suspension, would you mind maybe comparing all your various rides as far as suspensions go?

 

[ColoradoOutdoors]

btw, just noticed your signature. how do you decide which car to take where?
i mean there's a lot of overlap between the Canyon, GX, iX and Sierra.
Maybe better question - under what circumstances would you take the GX vs the Canyon to a trail and under what circumstances would you take the GX vs the iX to the opera?

since we're on the topic of suspension, would you mind maybe comparing all your various rides as far as suspensions go?

Great question. 4 drivers in the family but I pick and maintain them and drive each one sometimes. GX was the oddball in terms of not having sorted suspension. I was blown away how good the AT4 suspension is for a low $40kish truck compared to the GX. 3/4 ton was smoother too until it engages the leaf springs, then it kicks back hard. BP-51 solved most of my issues with the GX; more on that soon.

 

[SilverMedal]

A good friend of mine has a Canyon AT4X with the multimatic DSSV dampers. It's the one thing I'm quite envious of— the OE GX dampers leave a lot to be desired.

 

[Angelitopstar27]

A good friend of mine has a Canyon AT4X with the multimatic DSSV dampers. It's the one thing I'm quite envious of— the OE GX dampers leave a lot to be desired.

It never actually settles. those avs shock are weirdly tuned.