Shock mounting

[skyhigh4by]

I have ORDs bilstien 5125s for my 8" lift. 11" front travel 14" rear. I just brought my lift down to around 5" so my shocks are too long and bottom out just with normal bumpy road driving. So I'm installing F250 towers..

My rear springs are stock 8+ overload leaf 56" so they really don't articulate much but the fronts are really soft and have a lot of travel. I was thinking about switching the rear longer travel shocks to the front because with the new mounts I could take advantage of the added length. Anyone see any issues with this??

Next problem is how much shock travel should I have on up travel vs down travel?? I can/will fab bumpstops to whatever the shocks are setup at.

 

[Zeus33rd]

I have 8" lift, almost exactly the same bilstein 5125 shocks. 11" travel rear, 12" front, on a factory 1 ton dually.

There is no problem with what you want to do, assuming both the front and rear are valved the same. All 4 of mine are valved 255/70. You can certainly still do whatever, regardless the valving, but the ride/handling will be different.

To figure out what shock should go where- remove all shocks, jack up one rear (or front etc) till the opposite front tire is at max droop and dangling in the air on the spring, measure distance between shock mounting points, reverse the process and measure the distance between the same shock eye when that side is at max compression. That distance will tell you how long your shocks need to be. Also, get a measurement between shock mounting points at static ride height. You can figure the max droop with those measurements.

You could also drive up a rock or rti ramp or somthing...whatever it takes to articulate the suspension enough to get a tire off the ground, or as close as possible. Take your measurements then.

 

[skyhigh4by]

I have 8" lift, almost exactly the same bilstein 5125 shocks. 11" travel rear, 12" front, on a factory 1 ton dually.

There is no problem with what you want to do, assuming both the front and rear are valved the same. All 4 of mine are valved 255/70. You can certainly still do whatever, regardless the valving, but the ride/handling will be different.

To figure out what shock should go where- remove all shocks, jack up one rear (or front etc) till the opposite front tire is at max droop and dangling in the air on the spring, measure distance between shock mounting points, reverse the process and measure the distance between the same shock eye when that side is at max compression. That distance will tell you how long your shocks need to be. Also, get a measurement between shock mounting points at static ride height. You can figure the max droop with those measurements.

You could also drive up a rock or rti ramp or somthing...whatever it takes to articulate the suspension enough to get a tire off the ground, or as close as possible. Take your measurements then.

The thing about that is I currently don't have front upper mounts at all. Trying to figure out how long/where I should mount the f250 towers.

Are the 5125 valving specs stamped on them somewhere?

 

[Zeus33rd]

No on the valving specs thing. You have to look that up with the part #.

As long as you have a mounting point on the axle, thats all ya need. All you need to do is measure the distance the suspension can travel, in the location the shock is being mounted. Tack a piece of tube to the frame, or tape a broom handle or whatever, it doesnt matter...close to where you think the new upper mount will go. take your articulated measurements from the lower mounting to a fixed point on whatever you used as an upper measuring point, just the same as if it were an actual upper mount.

Bolt your shock into the ford tower, and into the lower mount. Compress the shock with a ratchet strap till the measurement from the lower mounting point to the shock eye is whatever it needs to be, all the while with the ford tower bolted to the upper shock eye. Thats where you tack your ford tower to the frame. Remove shock, double check measurements. Re-cycle suspension, double check etc.

 

[Zeus33rd]

I'm working on mostly the same thing, so it's fresh in my mind.