Optimal Shock Length

[Rubicon Josh]

Hey guys! Just wondering if people could give me a bit of feedback as to what they think is the optimal shock length for a Tj with 4" of lift. I have installed a long arm suspension with 4" coils and the rear shocks that were sent appear to only have 1" of up travel with another 1" of shock rubber stop. I'm guessing that they sent too long of a shock, but I also don't want to sacrifice travel by swaping out with a shorter shock. My goal was to have more extension than compression but I need to make sure that my shocks aren't bottoming out with every bump I hit.

Maybe the solution is to relocate the shocks, but I thought I would get some opinions of what works well and what doesn't work before I make a decision. Thanks for the help.

[Bnine]

Unless they are expensive shocks that you really want to fit, relocating wouldnt really be worth it.

Minimal uptravel should be right around 4 inches. Optimal would be 5-5.5".

Relocating is a pretty big deal. Although IMHO its worth it to relocate shocks. Specially the rear outboarding.

Capping and raising the fronts is relatively easy and cheap, but doing the rear can be considerably expensive depending on what you are using for brackets.

hth

[Rubicon Josh]

Thanks Bnine! I think I will end up having to relocate the rear shocks in some way. I agree that the best option is to move them outboard but it is a pretty big under taking.
I lifted both a front and a rear tire with a forklift today and I was only able to lift the front tire about 32" before the opposite rear shock was fully compressed and the front shock still had about an inch and a half of up travel left. I may re-attempt this with the rear sway bar disconnected to see if i get a little more out of it, but I don't see that as a good solution to the overall problem.

[Bnine]

What you are describing now is a much larger can of worms which has to do with front and rear suspension bias, swaybars, weight distribution, coil unloading, and body roll.

Need to keep the ramping type tuning seperate from the shock placement.


Shock placement should be done by just making the axle that you are trying to set up do the traveling. Articulating both axles can be misleading when setting up shocks.

Its really a lot to explain with a keyboard. If you get into seriously wanting to tune your suspension you can pm me for my number and we can go through the basics to get you started.

But for now, your best bet is to pull your springs and articulate one axle at a time in order to decide where you want your shocks to be based on tire clearence during articulation.


hth