The shocks are AWESOME!!! The completely change the ride in ways that are sooooo much better. Even lifted 4" with 37's the OME BP-51's make my Jeep ride even better than it did at stock height factory tires on the way home from the dealership.
Installing the shocks sucks badly, and they can't even be installed as is unless you custom fab something. If you want them to work with your factory JK mounts then you'll need to buy the front and rear install kits that are sold separately.
Also I think they are valved for a 4 door, so if you have a 2 door they will be just slightly firmer than what would be ideal, so you would need to adjust them 1 click less firm on a 2 door than a 4 door, but softening up the shocks also allows more nose lift/squat when accelerating, dive on braking, and allows the Jeep to lean slightly more than wanted when cornering.
So a notch higher and all the squat/dive/lean firms up, but now the small event compliance becomes more noticeable.
Fortunately the adjusters aren't "clickers" which limit you to one setting or another. The adjusters are variable, so if you really wanted you can play with them very slightly until you feel satisfied with the softness, yet also comfortable with the firmness, but basically you're trading one unwanted thing for another unwanted thing.
Overall I give the shocks a 4 out of 5.
I deducted half a point because they are a royal pain to install and you have to buy separate front and rear mounting kits. They are also really big requiring lots of clearance, and I had to chop my rear trackbar mount with a sawzall to provide room for the axle to compress without the trackbar bracket hitting the shock.
I deducted another half a point, because even though the custom front and rear mounting kits are required, they're not the only things needed to install these shocks. The custom mounting brackets don't work with the factory brakelines, so custom brake line relocation brackets had to be fabricated.
Overall these shocks cost as much each, as a full set of quality shocks cost. So is the ride quality improvement good enough to justify the price increase?
That depends... how sensitive is your butt dyno?
IMO they're a giant improvement over the Rancho 9000xl's that I was running before.
However, after the first few days of "Wow! These ride much smoother!" I was right back at noticing bumps and harshness like I did before. So while they ARE an improvement, eventually you'll get used to them, and start noticing crappy roads just like you did before.
So after a few days of getting used to them, I started noticing harsh spots in their performance and I dialed the compression and rebound levels down.
That made bumps a lot softer, but also handling became soft. The Jeep now leans in corners, squats in the rear when I accelerate, and rises in the front. It's a more comfortable straight line ride, but much worse in corners, clover leafs, sweeping turns etc...
