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Rear shock ideas?

Mastiff

Mastiff

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I'm working on getting my front shock mounts set up for 14" travel shocks. Most of the clever ideas I see on here relate to the fronts. What are people doing in the back? With my factory mounts, it looks like I could get an 11" or maybe 12" shock in there if I want to keep decent up-travel (6" or so). That seems pretty lame compared to the fronts.

The only thing I've really seen is the inboarding thing, which seems sort of complex and expensive. Is that it?
 
Since the shocks are at an angle in the rear, you don't need as much travel.
My rear shocks have only 11" of travel, and I've even relocated my lower mounts an inch or so upwards for increased ground clearance.
So the distance between the shock mounts are even shorter than stock.
And I still haven't bottomed them out.

775201182858P24df.jpg
 
Yes, very bad-ass looking. :D Are you Swedish, or an American transplant?

Anyway, yeah, I know there is some "benefit" for the angled shock in terms of length but I'll need to think more about that to see if it'll get me where I want to go. I was thinking about it in terms of how much shock compression you get for a certain amount of axle travel and it didn't seem to provide much benefit. I'll think more though.

I'm not really interested in inboarding based on the complexity/cost and effect on body roll, axle wrap, etc.
 
I'm all Swedish :D

You would get more effective damping with the shocks straight up though.
If I had a truggy I'd probably get some longer shocks and mount them that way.

But it's not so practical to have them sticking up through the floor/bed in a Blazer or truck :doah:
 
You could do a cantilever shock mount, something like this:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/gene...777-cantilever-shock-set-up.html#post20901673

I've thought about this several times but I've always pictured it with pivot point mounted to the frame. You could use a shock with say half as much travel but twice as stiff if you make the 'lever arm' that attaches to the axle twice as long as the other, if that makes sense. But that all depends on where the pivot point is located.

Here's another setup:
http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265157
 
Pretty cool. I remember reading about these dual shock setups, where you have two shocks mounted together and one end of one goes to the axle and one end of the other goes to the frame. Twice the travel if I'm thinking right. I'm not sure why it didn't go anywhere since it seems clever and relatively easy. Just need a way to keep the whole thing from rotating around.

rampage said:
You could do a cantilever shock mount, something like this:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/gene...777-cantilever-shock-set-up.html#post20901673

I've thought about this several times but I've always pictured it with pivot point mounted to the frame. You could use a shock with say half as much travel but twice as stiff if you make the 'lever arm' that attaches to the axle twice as long as the other, if that makes sense. But that all depends on where the pivot point is located.

Here's another setup:
http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265157
Click to expand...
 
Very interesting.
The only problem I see with trying to make two standard shocks work is that the compression valving of one would affect the rebound valving of the other. I'm sure those have the compression/rebound valving engineered into them.
 
Seems way over complicated to me. If it were linked, etc sure but for a full bodied, leaf sprung truck @ $400+ per corner you could do a whole lot more than buy an exotic shock.
 
Seems like every modern vehicle has dropped shock mounts on the axle side. How bad an idea is it to do that, really? The mounts on my JK Rubicon must be dropped 5-6" and everyone thinks those are the greatest rigs ever. No matter what the mounts could never hang as low as the 14ff diff...
 
nvrenuf said:
Marketing
Click to expand...

I don't think so. They're just the only option if you want something new that isn't a pickup truck.

Don't derail the thread. :D Point is, lots of people use JK's for more extreme rock crawling than I'll ever do, and their shock mounts hang way low.
 
If you're going to hang them below the axle, closer to the tire as possible would be best. If you can pick the line, they'll never be an issue.

At some point they'll take a hit. Whether its enough to cause issue depends on you and how you build them.
 
If your not opposed to going thru the floor this is how I did it, and if I must say so it works quite well. The passengers legs are not an issue. I had to move the seat back 4 inches, now there is so much leg room for even the longest legged rider. Hea it's just an idea

IMG_3620.JPG

IMG_3617.jpg
 
Well, it's not a masterpiece of fabrication, but I think it'll be pretty tough. I learned that the frame is not straight here, even outside of the indented area, so I had to put an angle into the mount and not just use the straight steel. Space is tight in back, so I plan to tack weld a nut back there and mount the shock by threading the bolt in from the front.

20140330_203240.jpg
 
Since my truck has a 1" body lift, I'm thinking of doing some mounts similar to ^^^ and take advantage of the room. Then my 12" shocks will become 14" shocks.

My rear droop is more than my 12" shocks in the stock location can handle. They do not bottom out though. My front 14" shocks do bottom out, with 5.5-6" of up travel. They do not over extend.
 
I was thinking the same thing. With a body lift you could raise it up. Driver's side is a little more challenging though.

I went with 11" shocks and I'm not sure I made the right choice. I was going between 11" or 12" and figured it would be a lot worse to bottom out. I have 6.5-7" of shock uptravel available though, so only around 4" of shock extension left. In the front I went for the 14" shocks and I have a hair under 6" of uptravel, so a full 8" of droop.

I think I'll do the zip tie trick and see how much uptravel actually gets used.
 
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