[SuziBlu]

I need to seriously start looking at shock towers, my diffs are not that far away, have donk to put in, pumkins to pull and send off for 5.12 gears, then the whole lot goes back together.

So what towers do yaz use, I have tried search, and beside being hopeless, am hopeless at it.

Also, hydrolic bump stops, those who have them, any tricks in locating them, till I get home Im unsure, but would like to start thinking where, n how.

[want33s]

Hilux 4wd 84-95 I think.. anything with solid axle.
The look a lot like stock but are about 100mm taller.
Check Alex's build.

Hydro bumps come with a retaining can that needs to be welded to the chassis.

[SuziBlu]

Ahh, welded, so be sure of your measurements hey.

Alex's build, mkay

[atari4x4]

cause i know you genuinely suck at the search here is alex's build thread

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4269&hilit=stealth+ruf

[want33s]

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4269&start=30

[SuziBlu]

atari4x4 wrote:

cause i know you genuinely suck at the search here is alex's build thread

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4269&hilit=stealth+ruf

LOL thanks mate, funnily enuf, I have this build bookmarked, but its on my other computer.

I "think" the shocks I have are both eyes, may put a spanner in the works, will see when I get home. Got Bilstein 5125 14"

Thanks Jas, may need one with both eyes, Im sure I was emailing the bloke and he suggested double eye for better movement.

[Red89]

Ford shock mounts sold by Lowrange suit an eye to eye shock.

[SuziBlu]

Ahh, cool, will look at them as well

[skyman]

Red89 wrote:

Ford shock mounts sold by Lowrange suit an eye to eye shock.

This is what i run. I plated the frame so they don't pull off, and they have worked very well for me. Place them as high in the wheel well, you will need the room for uptravel.

Trail Tough also includes them in a lot of their suspensions (YJ, Coil kits etc.)

[SuziBlu]

Skyman,

I aim for as much uptravel as down, im not sure why you would want 90% down and 10% up.

I have YJ SUA and OME springs to go on, so wheel travel should be long, and I want long up for when landing after flight.

Do you perchance have any pics ?

[skyman]

I can see if I can dig some pics up, not sure if I have any on this netbook.

I was disappointed when I followed Trail tough's instructions and only ended up with 2" uptravel in the front, and 1.5" in the rear.

For rocks and off camber you don't want the low side to be able to use that uptravel to allow weight shift and lean, but it makes for shit handling and loose filling at speed.

Looking for pics now.

[skyman]

Here's some pics, mine are MIA so I found some on the web.


Here's how we plate the frame


and what they look like all done up.

[SuziBlu]

Thanks for the pics, gave me a good notion on how.

Ok I can dig the lessened uptravel on dead slow now, I like faster, and no uptravell means a shocking ride, unto no fun and broken back/neck; and possible roll.

[royce]

The compressed length of the shocks you plan to run are longer than the extended length that most people use in a Sierra
You are going to need some custom bent hoops, its likely these hoops will go through the inner guard and maybe even nudge the underside of the bonnet some!

Just set the length of them so they have 25mm or so of travel left with the bumpstop fully compressed and the bumpstops setup so they are fully compressed before the diff can bash into anything, if you make their mounts so that is as high up the mounting can they can go you can slide them down some to tune the suspension a bit

[SuziBlu]

Royce, the YJ set up will give a chassis lift of 4.5" add to that I will need a 2" body lift, that should surely cover the shocks ?

Will also be doing as much of a virtual lift as is possible.

Dont want shocks sticking out of the bonnet lol.

[royce]

dont matter how much you lift you have, the fully compressed suspension room is still teh same

somebody grab and tape and stick in on the bottom shock mount and measure say 600mm straight up, let us know what point that is

[SierraDan]

On mine it's 140mm above the stock upper mount.
That's with 2" springs on even ground passenger side.

[GRPABT1]

What do you mean by 4.5" chassis lift? If you mean suspension lift then without bump stop extensions I cannot see how this will effectively help shock clearance? And considering you mentioned landing jumps and wanting alot of up travel then you won't be wanting big bump stop extensions. The body lift is a good start though.

I use these shock mounts with a 2" body lift and bump stop extensions and they work well for me. http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/index.ph ... hoops.html

[SuziBlu]

GRPABT1 wrote:

What do you mean by 4.5" chassis lift? If you mean suspension lift then without bump stop extensions I cannot see how this will effectively help shock clearance? And considering you mentioned landing jumps and wanting alot of up travel then you won't be wanting big bump stop extensions. The body lift is a good start though.

I use these shock mounts with a 2" body lift and bump stop extensions and they work well for me. http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/index.ph ... hoops.html

Chassis/suspension lift, SSDD.

By going 4.5 inches higher, my wheels can travel 4.5" more up, before hitting bumpstops, my bumpstops are these http://www.radflo.com/hydraulic.htm they come in 2" 4" and 6", I have the 4".

Add body lift and virtual lift, I should be able to have long uptravel, as much as needed anyway.

[SuziBlu]

SierraDan wrote:

On mine it's 140mm above the stock upper mount.
That's with 2" springs on even ground passenger side.

So by this, if I get 75mm raised shock towers I am in the ball park, 100mm to be safe ?

I will not order till I get home and measure everything up, then time after when im home again (7 weeks from now) the suspension side will all be there ready for installation, I hope.

Ideas are coming on strong, thanks.

[Gwagensteve]

This thread brings the lolz.

How are you turning 4.5" of spring lift into 8.5" of compression?

[SuziBlu]

Gwagensteve wrote:

This thread brings the lolz.

How are you turning 4.5" of spring lift into 8.5" of compression?

Treat me like a 6 year old Steve, explain what I said to make you think what you just said.

[Gwagensteve]

4.5" lift. Stock front end= approx 1.5" to bumpstop. That's 6" of compression. Allow 1" for bumpstop squish. 7".
7" of total possible compression - 4" of air bump= you're 3" off the bumpstops at ride height. Have you done any research into the rate of the bumpstops? They're going to add a lot to your spring rate when you transition on to them, and you'll be spending a lot of time on them.

I understand what you are trying to achieve, I just think you are being very optimistic with your travel figures.

IMHO leaf suspension is a poor candidate for air bumps too.

[SuziBlu]

Steve,

I dont get it, if my bump stop is "say" 2 inches off my diff, at stock height, and I add a 4.5" lift then I would have thought that the bump stop would be 4.5" over stock, if I add a 4" shock tower, then that is 4" over stock.

4.5" of chassis lift and 4" of shock tower extension comes to 8.5" extra over stock.

Maybe im missing something.

Its hard being away from my car, I have a week with it, a month away, so far I have missed 10 weeks of build because of tiny bits missing, last one was being unable to get the flywheel machined. All I can do is go on memory and try to ask here what I remeber and how to do, then order items and hope I have been correct, or say stuff it and put my build off for many years till I am done with this job.

The air shocks are tuned for a suzi, each is tuned for the weight of said vehicle.

[JrZook]

SuziBlu wrote:

4.5" of chassis lift and 4" of shock tower extension comes to 8.5" extra over stock.

= 8.5" of extra shock length assuming that's where the car sits static.

So realistically you will have 2" of what ever the stock BS spacing if + your 4.5" of extra up travel = 6.5" of useable uptravel and factoring in BS squish will be a max of ~7.5 of suspension up travel.

[royce]

SuziBlu wrote:

SierraDan wrote:

On mine it's 140mm above the stock upper mount.
That's with 2" springs on even ground passenger side.

So by this, if I get 75mm raised shock towers I am in the ball park, 100mm to be safe ?

I will not order till I get home and measure everything up, then time after when im home again (7 weeks from now) the suspension side will all be there ready for installation, I hope.

Ideas are coming on strong, thanks.

If Dan has measured it how I poorly explained it it means

with his 2" lifted sierra sitting at normal ride height and your choice of shock FULLY COMPRESSED the mount needs to be about 140mm higher than stock

So add in the 4-6" of uptravel that it would likely have and we are talking close on 250mm, I dont think there is that much room in there

FWIW I cant see any Sierra using more then 10-12" in the front, 14" of wheel travel at speed is damn hard for a Stadium truck let alone a Sierra

[skyman]

The ford towers lean out towards the tire a bit which allows you to raise them up more than a vertical mount. I bashed the fender well with hammer to make for another 1-1.5" of room without having to cut the sheetmetal.

There is plenty of room in there for along travel shock, the problem with the Trail tough kit is that they rtry to stuff a very long (IMHO oversize) shock in there to exaggerate droop.

Have you already purchased your shocks?

Form my understanding air bumps fairly easily user-tuned. If that is the case I think they would work well for about any suspension. Say you have a 6" air bump, just tune it so it comes in soft at first (or soft all over) that way the air bumps cushion the travel on the way to the stops, rather than the "bottom out hard scenario" most stock bumps provide.

I would love to try a set just to see how they accent a decent suspension.

FWIW,
You will like the YJ's. Try to fudge the wheelbase out as much as you can (even if it is with the extra hole in the perches). IMHO A nice soft spring does wonders, but there is no substitute for a longer wheelbase when it comes to a comfortable ride.

[SuziBlu]

JR, 7.5" is more than I need, so I am on target with what I have been finding out, hope so anyway.

Royce, full speed will not necessitate full articulation, just when airborn so that you get a soft not bone jarring landing, well, that is what is behind a lot of my thoughts, IF you land on all 4 wheels together, well its going to be ok, but come down hard onto one wheel and you can break a hard suspension very nastily.

Skyman, this is what I want, coming down on a semi rigid bump stop is terribly harsh on the driver, and even harsher on the driveline, and as they always come down nose first, I have no desire to land and have one wheel pointing one way, and the other a different way. The LWB is quite a bit longer than the SWB and the YJ kit I am told adds a further 1" in either direction, soo, maybe my idea of a sandrail cross 4wd will be good.

[want33s]

Just build a V8 sand rail and buy a Patrol...

[SuziBlu]

I still want a lil suzi to put shit on Patrol owners who cant follow, ha