[Deego]

 
I wanna get longer shocks for my sierra.just wondering what ones are good to get.I don't wanna spend heaps of money.

[SierraDan]

Are your current ones limiting your travel?

[Deego]

There standard ones

[zukmeista]

I bought kyb's for my sierra. There is a listing in the catalogue to suit 50mm lift, nice and long but don't bottom out before it reaches the bumpstops.

[Mike57]

Deego. May I ask why think you need longer shocks?

[TWINCAM16]

i'm interested in this one, i have a sierra with 2" lifted spreings and just put some longer sahckles on and my shocks don't go long enough to get from mount to mount now guess ill be up for some new ones too

[atari4x4]

^ the Hiace/Commodore Combo should work

[fully sick coily]

Mike57 wrote:

Deego. May I ask why think you need longer shocks?

maby the ones he has now are to short?

[TWINCAM16]

fully sick coily wrote:

Mike57 wrote:

Deego. May I ask why think you need longer shocks?

maby the ones he has now are to short?

maybe

[Gwagensteve]

TWINCAM16 wrote:

i'm interested in this one, i have a sierra with 2" lifted spreings and just put some longer sahckles on and my shocks don't go long enough to get from mount to mount now guess ill be up for some new ones too

Quote:

^ the Hiace/Commodore Combo should work

Or you could take the longer shackles off. What do you think the longer shackles are achieving?

Steve.

[TWINCAM16]

Gwagensteve wrote:

TWINCAM16 wrote:

i'm interested in this one, i have a sierra with 2" lifted spreings and just put some longer sahckles on and my shocks don't go long enough to get from mount to mount now guess ill be up for some new ones too

Quote:

^ the Hiace/Commodore Combo should work

Or you could take the longer shackles off. What do you think the longer shackles are achieving?

Steve.

i'm pretty sure i got another 1" with them, call me stupid but the 31's at full flex got a small scrub on lock so............ problem solved

[Gwagensteve]

OK, lets analyse what's really gone on here.

By fitting longer shackles, you have moved one end of the spring down 2". As you have pointed out, that's provided 1" of suspension lift at static ride height. That might have been what your car needed, but I doubt that's really the case, and I reckon it's probably introduced more problems than the one you have solved.

Firstly, you haven't really added any suspension travel. You have gained an inch of droop, which sounds great, and is why your shocks are now too short, but you'll now find it much harder to get the axle to make contact the bumpstop, so in reality, in normal conditions, you've gained very little suspension travel. If you land a jump or something, sure the springs will invert enough for the axle to reach the bumpstop, so you haven't actually made any room for your bigger tyres. Because the axle can still, under some circumstances, reach the bumpstop, you haven't really added any tyre clearance with your shackles, only static clearance. (i.e when the car is parked)

You could find longer shocks to suit the new droop your longer shackles have provided, but a shock that's longer extended is also longer compressed, so you'll need to add bumpstop spacing to prevent the shock from bottoming out before the axle reaches the bumpstop, so overall wheel travel is reduced, not increased, what you've done is move the same amount of travel downwards, you haven't added to it.

Adding extended shackles to the front end reduces caster. This reduces turn in bite and increases "wandering" when the car is tracking straight. Have you done anything to counter this?

Extended shackles increase the force on the suspension bushes when cornering. This leads to increased "play" in the front end, effectively slowing the steering rate.

Shackle length is really just a function of spring length. Long springs need long shackles. Short springs don't need long shackles. I have and do use longer shackles as part of RUF conversions or when custom work has been done like moving rear shackle hangers forward for more droop, but they aren't a bolt on solution for anything. They might also be a relevant solution for "trimming" small amounts of ride height - to bring the rear up to match front height once a RUF has been done or something.

I ran extended shackles for years on my own car, but my front spring hangers were rolled for more caster. My car handled well, but the steering was loose and slow. With stock caster, extended shackles feel pretty bad in the front.

Sorry of this seems too flamey or negative for the noob board, but there is so much information out there about the negatives of longer shackles (especially in the front) I'm surprised that they still come up as a viable solution for tyre clearance issues.

Steve.

[TWINCAM16]

wow you sure put me in my plaace............ so what your saying there is i should have bump stops????? lol i don't think my bus even has them,