I got my Ford shock towers in - have some ?

[TX Mudder]

I read through the write-up about the shock towers. I have mine in hand, but when I tried to trial fit them they hit the inner fenderwell. Do you guys just clearance the fenderwell a little or what?

Secondly, I will be installing the Doetsch 8403 shocks. Am I supoosed to mount the shock tower so that the shock is, when just sitting there, in the middle of its stroke or...? I don't know if my truck has more travel up or down, but I have 6" stiff front springs.
-- Mike

 

[chevyfumes]

yeah , you have to cut it out, it's right there in the write up.... /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif

 

[Sandman]

Mine fit with the 3" body lift. I cut my towers to 10" in length and fit the bottom of the towers to the bottom of the frame. All the way stuffed I still have a few inches and flexed as much as I could, I still have an inch or two of travel left. this is on a 6" lift.

 

[Seventy4Blazer]

just a thought here....
i am doing 6 inch lift, and the ford shock towers as well. you say you have about 2 inches left of up travel at full flex. what if you were to make the shock towers about 8.5 to 9 inches long. this would give you about .5 to 1 inch for security on the up side, and about 1 to 1.5 inches of possible flex on the down side?
Grant

 

[Sandman]

This is true but I was not able to test a hard bump if that makes sense. I got crossed up in a gully to test things out and to get out and take a look. If I had hit it harder or some other mis-hap occured, It might have bottomed out the shock. I still lift the tire before the shock travel is over but you might be right. Maybe the extra inch would be fine.

 

[TX Mudder]

So, should I mount the shocks with it in the middle of the travel, or biased a little one way or the other?
What do you guys think?
-- Mike

 

[Sandman]

I will go out an measure mine right now.

 

[Sandman]

Ok, I've got about 7.5" of shaft showing on the shock sitting level. These are also brand new springs and I expect them to drop down some.

 

[imiceman44]

The way I did it on my van since it was a custom everything, I let it droop to the max, measured, the n compressed it to the max, and measured and I put the shock where it will still have some travel left on both ends equally. So I suggest you do the same, no 2 springs are alike, and no 2 setups are alike, test yours and put the shocks accordingly.
/forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif

 

[Triaged]

Put them so that you will have about 1" of shock shaft showing at full stuff and leave the rest for droop. Stuff travel is often limited my things like the axle hitting the oil filter or starter and other stuff like that. Droop is the only travel that you can increase without as meny problems.

 

[reddog64]

I agree with you... you will get more down travel than up travel.. do half/half biases by 1 inch on the down travel... so 8/7? with 15 travel total.... or even 8.5/6.5 ..... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[TorkDSR]

sweet, i have the same setup, doetsch and ford towers /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif. the easiest thing to do is to remove the inner fenders...saves time on cutting, and on the passenger side dont drill through any fuel lines. leave a bit more droop than stuff in the shocks. and they have that built in bump stop, not sure if itll take that much weight, but its cool to say "my shocks have integratd bump stops"
Ryan

 

[Sandman]

I went out yesterday and did a whole bunch of measuring and flexing. Now I have a 6" Tuff Country easy ride spring that is brand new and not broken in. I have the ORD greasable shackles and no swaybar with crossover steering. Stuffing the tire up as high as I was able, I measured 1.5" left of travel on the shock. I expect this to go a little more when the springs break in. Drooping one tire as far as I could, I measured 10.75" on the shock shaft. I measured a solid 13.5" of travel on the shock before I installed it so I have a good 2 inches plus left to go. I also expect this to move more when the springs break in. I expect these measurements to maybe even go down some when I work on the rear suspension as I suspect that it is able to flex more, it will take up some of the twist. Hope this helps.