coilover/air shocks mounting angles ?

[frenchy]

CJ - 1 tons - 40's -v8 - 4link rear - RE type radius front

For the various terrain we have here in Alberta and perhaps the odd competition or two...
What would be the preferred angles?
I like speed/jumps, but probably not going to see too much of that stuff

[Bnine]

As straight as you can. Anything more then 10 degrees and you have to factor in the angle into your rates.

More importantly would be what rates to run for what applications.

If you want to go fast, you want a higher rate in the rear, then you do in the front. Its expressed as front to rear coil rate frequency.

Baja racers use a frequency of about 1.6. As in, if you have 100lbs/inch in the front, you run 160 lbs/inch in the rear.

Mixed guys like us, that go fast usually max out around 1.2

More then that, and the rear will get to stiff during technically crawling.

Straight crawlers run lower rates in the rear, but that is more for slow speed, and gets pretty rough if you try to speed up.

Coil overs are easier to tune then an air shock, since you have pressure, valving, and spring rates to use. Where as air shocks you dont have springs to support the system.

The serious guys that go fast and use air shocks are mostly using the air shock bypass combo's.

For valving you always run more rebound then compressor. A jeep on 1 tons that wants to go a bit fast here and there but not jar your teeth out like a medium compression valve, and firm rebound.

For the softer side you can light compression, and medium rebound. If its to soft, you can cheater tune the shock by adding some N2 pressure.

Uptravel is a major concern when looking to go a bit fast.

Two reasons. Bottoming out being the most obvious, and spring rate selection being the not so obvious. Not enough uptravel with the right coils to go fast will result in to much coil unloaded at full droop, or to soft of coils to work well going fast.

With a good 5-6 inch of uptravel, you can run a good medium rate spring setup on a 14 or 16" coilover with minimal to no unlaoding of the spring. If a tender is require for an inch or two its no big deal.

If you have 6 inch of slack at full droop it will tend to unload more, and cause for pretty unstable trasnsitions from side to side.

Hope that helps.

What coilovers do you have in mind Serge? Denver has a full set of fox 16's for sale at a good price. They are apparently brand new.

[GiS]

As far out on the axle as you can get them (towards knuckle or axle flange) also helps substantially with stability.

Set of Kings for sale on EVO right now too, come with springs etc etc.

Good luck!

P.S. Billy, what are those King stacks you got again? 12 thou? Comp and Rebound??

[Bnine]

Yep, I think they are 12's. I have them labeled.

[frenchy]

Going with the ORI's

Don't think I can mount them straight, on the fronts anyways... Diff has been moved forward about a foot. They'd be right next to my grille.
 the look and the flow of the lines just wouldn't look right   

Think I can re-arrange the still stock rear body to pretty much place those guys wherever needed.

[Bnine]

Hmmm, well, ORI's are compeltely out of my realm for tuning.

Only word of caution I have for the front, is to be really carefull with your misalignment. Make sure it still has room at full bump.

I snapped a shaft because of that once. Never really got into the bumps, while testing and tuning. First run out at 50-55mph on the trail and I snapped a shaft when I ran out of misalignment.

Be cool to see a set of these work up here Serge. Hurry up and get them done

[frenchy]

Just found this Doc.
Says 50Degree max angle, That's a little much I think...

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BwEirGQHEbVlZmIxMjlhNmItYTUzYS00NDBlLTk4MmUtYTk1YjIxNzkxMTVj&hl=en