Long Travel BS Thread

When your pvc mock up doesn’t fit like a glove.

 

So I'm not sure what is better or if it really makes a difference, but I have 16x600 and 18x600 on each of the coilovers:



You can see how much preload I have just to keep the spring seat on with the 16" spring and the 18" spring is going to have to be compressed a little - an inch maybe to get the spring seat on.




Thanks to @Happysmiley I looked up spring travel numbers here and found even the 16" spring should surpass the travel limit of the shaft at 8.28" so even though it's riding way down on the shock body, I guess it should still work right? It'll just look weird - or is there something I'm not getting?



I also think I will need different fittings for the hoses so they point down a little. Anyone know a good shop in LA / OC that has these kinds of fittings? And when it comes to shock oil what is best - to get King oil, or is there a similar generic / national brand that costs less with similar performance? Sorry for all the nooby questions.

 

This conversation got me understanding shock oil a lot better and what performance characteristics to look for. Lots of opinions out there.

 

Thanks for the link!


It looks like King is actually a pretty good deal with $40 a gallon - the Shell oil they supposedly use only comes in 5 gallon drums from what I can see. Lucas is another $25 a gallon, so at least I know I'm getting a decent price for the volume I want and I'm sure their quality is more than enough for my needs

 

You bet!
The MIL PRF 5606 and Royco 756 are the same product and very common in the aviation world if you have any friends in the industry. It’s much less flammable too.

 

Besides guys on here, I don't have any friends.

 

If everything clears and there is enough travel with either 16" or 18" then there's really no difference between them other than having a little more choice for preload with the 18"s.

I've heard the argument that 18's are more prone to spring rub on the bodies than shorter springs since the taller the spring the more if can bow/deflect in or out as it is compressed.

Nothing technical about the spring travel stuff.
If your shocks cycle 8" and your spring has 8.28" travel, you're good with barely any preload with the shock fully extended.
In this example, put more than 1/4" preload and you're risking coil bind before the shock is fully compressed.

Coil bind is bad not just for the coils. If the coilovers bind before the suspension travel is limited by a bump stop then all the bottom out force is going into the coil buckets.

Since Tacoma coil buckets are somewhat tall off the frame, the angle of the bound up coilovers have good leverage to push the coil buckets inward towards the engine, twisting your frame rails in at the top.

Those travel specs obviously are for Eibach springs and kings may be a little different but you should have enough travel with the 16's with little to no preload.

If you can fit the 18's I would run them, if your 8's have angled hose fittings at the top cap that won't clear the upper spring seat then I guess you have to run the 16".

I just use king oil in all shock brands when I rebuild, not too expensive and everyone seems to have it in stock.

 

Thanks Fabien! I had maybe thought about this incorrectly, but looking at the specs and seeing that the coil completely is compressed at 7.72", I measured from the bottom of the top spring seat to the bottom of the shock body and got 9.25" so I guess that would mean I have about 1.5" of preload available if there are no other limiting factors (bumps, metal to metal, etc) that the shaft bottoming out like you mentioned. Is there some point before the springs compress completely that they are powerful / stiff enough to push in a stock coil bucket? It said the load at full compression is almost 5k lbs.


I think the 18's should work, I will get some other hose fittings simply because I doubt the upper arms are going to jive with the fittings that are on there now. I want to take apart some shocks and get into valving anyway, these "cheapies" seem like a good place to start!

 

As far as shock oil goes Mobil 1 dte10 excel 15 is the really good

 

If you use vegetable oil in your shocks, your truck will smell like fried chicken when the suspension heats up

 

As long as suspension travel is actually stopped by a bumpstop before a spring/shock runs out of travel, the shock/spring should give/compress before it bends coil buckets or twists frame rails.
Stuff is going to flex though.

A raised spring seat should have potential to "cup" the bottom of the shock body at full compression, putting the bottom of the coil slightly above the bottom of the shock

I measure it this way,
How much usable/exposed shaft does your shock have fully extended with the lower spring seat sitting on the rod end?

That's how much travel your shock has. Subtract that measurement from the springs total travel and that's how much preload you can add to the coil before coil bind.

Preload is:
You put a 16" coil on your coilover and spin the upper retainer down till it just touches and barley holds the coil between seats.
The coil still measures 16" tall.

This is zero preload.
Spinning the upper retainer past this point is adding preload.
The more you add, the less spring travel you have.

Now say you have to compress an 18" coil to to fit it on your coilover.

The upper spring seat is all the way up against the top cap and your 18" spring is only 17.5" tall now that it's installed on the coilover. It is preloaded 1/2" and lost 1/2" of spring travel.

I don't mean anything by it if I'm dumbing this stuff down too much, just trying to make it easy to understand for people who may just be learning about suspension stuff.

 

Eibach has the block heights avaliable for any spring they make I'm sure king does too. That is the height of the spring where is touch coils and is basically sold at the point. As long as that number is lower than the shock compression measurement of the spring perches you're good

 

Sure that's another way but how are you going to measure that?

You would have to let out the nitrogen, compress the shock, spin the upper spring seat down to the point of spring block height between seats and then note that location by measuring off some point of the shock body, then use that point for reference when actually installing the springs and setting preload.

A coilover shock only has as much travel as the shaft going from being fully extended to bottoming out with the lower seat on.
Easy to measure.

Subtract spring block height from spring free height to get spring travel if you don't know spring travel.

Compare spring travel to shock travel.

Make sure you have equal or more spring travel than shock travel.

Don't preload the spring more than the difference between the two.

 

You go to eibach website and look at the spec sheet for their springs. They have that info already. That's how.

 

Last piece of the puzzle showed up.... if your looking for an affordable swaybar check these guys out

 

OMG man, not the spring block height..
Someone shoot me please.

 

Are all T100’s spring under? 2wd and 4WD? Anyone happen to know?

 

none are i believe

 

2wd is spring under and 4x4 is over just like the pickups