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Shock solutions for 52" front?

MTMike

MTMike

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Lets' see the solutions those of you who swapped in 52's used? I hear of ford shock towers but what are some other options? Any pics?

Thanks!

-Mike
 
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The towers are abouy your only option. You will need at least 15" travel shocks and they just wont work in the stock location so the top mount will some how need to be extended, so your options are ford towers or some other type of hoop.
 
Im making towers. I had the furds mounted in the standard location and with all the axle relocation I have done (3" forward) they weren't going to work. I have a bender, so Im making some out of 1.75" x 0.120 wall DOM. Oughta be plenty strong. You can get hoop kits from several places for $50-70.

j
 
I just got a set of the hoops from BTF and the are very nice and the price was about average for what i found on the net. I dont have the 52's but it should work for you like it will me.
 
straighter up and down the shocks are mounted the better so hoops are a very good choice. The closer to 90*s shocks are mounted, the better they function in their designed job.
 
Assuming ball joints, put the right sized socket on the nut for the top one. Position the lower shock mounts so that everything *just* clears the socket.
Weld.
If K/P, work towards a location as close to the wheel as possible.
Then work out where the upper mount needs to be.
 
My 52's work just fine with Ford towers and 14" travel Rancho's. They are mounted for 8" droop and 6" compression. I get to within 1" of maxing them out both ways.

These are old pictures, best I have.
tubr.jpg

tube1.jpg

front.jpg

sdfg.jpg


Ignore the cut tube on the cab in the last pic- it was welded on before the body lift, had to cut it to do the body lift. It'll flex quite a bit more than shown in the pictures, the back of the flatbed is the highest ramp I have. :D

Anyways, like I said, the Ford towers work fine for me. it all depnds on where/how ya mount them. :)
 
Bringing back the dead. Is there anyone else on here using 14" travel shocks with their 52" front springs? I may be able to get a pair of bilstein 14" travel with remote reservoirs for next to nothing
 
I will be doing that since I had some laying around. Just going to make some hoops for them and not planing on running wheel wells.
 
muddermilitia said:
Bringing back the dead. Is there anyone else on here using 14" travel shocks with their 52" front springs? I may be able to get a pair of bilstein 14" travel with remote reservoirs for next to nothing
Click to expand...

Yes and built my upper mounts from extended stock front quad shock mounts - I'll try & get some pics posted
 
me 3. I am going to be doing the swap within the month. I bought some of those dana 60 shock tabs from kurt that put the shock on top of the axle too. This probably means im gonna have a tall hoop hunh? Everyone else runing stock lower mount location?
 
My lower mounts are still in the stockish location - no pics yet - pushing snow around ALL DAM DAY
 
I also plan on doing the 52, 56 combo swap and want to run my shocks like mrk5. It would be nice if we could get Kurt to make a hoop to go along with his Dana 60 shock tabs and I would really like to see a hoop for the rear so I could run my shocks through the body. What cha think Kurt??? The only problem I have seen so far with the hoops in the front is that they might interfere with the steering on the drivers side.
 
Ruffstuff is also making a bracket that's similar to what I did.
 
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