Intro to fitting 35s (< 3" Lifts for those that wheel and love alignments)

It’s not even 1” in most cases. No one buys Fox, Kind, ADS etc for extended travel. It’s just an option you can select at the time of purchase.

I would say most people just get it because it sounds cool to say they have extended travel because there is minimal benefit.

 

If the stock travel is 8” then +1” (+13%) seems significant to me in comparison to other modifications I am considering. For example, 34.7” vs 30.6” tires is 13%. Also it makes sense to me to gain back half the droop that is lost after a 2” lift. I say all this without having driven a truck with and without +1” travel.

 

That’s interesting, this has me considering bilsteins 6112s to save some money.

So I’m a little confused. I was initially looking at Fox 2.5 extended travel on headstrongs website. It says the standard travel can be lifted up to 2” while extended up to 3”

 

I run 6112s not the best but they have taken an absolute beating.

I was going to get into that but that led me back to my comment a couple pages ago that he needs to learn more about basic suspensions and stuff before trying to get too in depth and complicated with it.

 

Amen on the tuned thing which is why I think the king vs fox vs icon vs ads vs radflo is all bunk. Some got the off the shelf valving good off the gate others not so much and depends on how the truck is built too.

 

We can keep repeating ourselves but you can rationalize it however you want.

 

I'm not following your logic here. As I understand it, the extended travel shock will increase the distance the wheel can travel downward and this is not limited by fender walls or bump stops. This has a few advantages:

1) When leaving ground or fully extending the suspension and then coming back down there is a longer travel distance that the wheel is touching the ground and thus a greater cushion
2) There is a greater chance the wheel stays in contact with the ground and thus provides traction to move the truck.
3) Other's I am forgetting?

I think this is extra advantageous when adding a lift because:

1) You lose droop when adding a lift. Adding an extra inch gets it closer to stock.
2) The coil spring preload is increased when adding a lift (at least for a coil over lift), thus the compression of the shock at full extension is greater, thus it pushes into the ground harder at full extension. Adding an extra inch gets it closer to stock.

Please point out any misunderstanding I have. And again, my disclaimer is that all of this is theoretical. I've never experimented with different suspension configurations.

 

1) In theory yes, in practice negligible If you have a wheel in the air 0.5" of travel is literally moot.
2) If you are on the edge of 0.5" of travel, there won't be enough ground contact pressure to generate any reasonable traction, get a locker instead.
3) I think you just need to go wheeling

1) Yes, but as has been pointed out several times it's more like 0.5" but you dont get closer to stock...
2) Preload is used to adjust ride height it doesnt increase shock compression.

I suggest you just go wheeling

 

Love the 6112s. They totally solved my over heating issues on the stock TRD shocks. They are a great value. I will probably get adjustable rebuildable shocks once the 6112s die. But they have been great for the price and the fact I have added weight and they still work.

 

I think you are referring to the shock compression at ride height. That will be the same because the load on the shock is the same (i.e. the truck's weight is the same). I am talking about the compression in the shock at full extension. That will be equal to the preload. That's why it's called "pre"-load, yes?

 

What is the ideal SPC UBJ setting for fitting? Setting E?

What is the best setting for the Cam Bolt on LCA? turned inside towards the motor or outside away from the motor?

 

There is some discussion of that topic in the begging of the thread.

 

Every truck is different everyone I know has different settings for the cam bolts some different on the SPCs.

 

No pre-load is on the spring and adds lift as well as some other debatable not so good or good qualities. This gets into more things that aren't where you are at right now.

Take @JoeCOVA advice get out there and go wheeling get some experience in the seat. Also it might help to learn some more about suspension systems and how they work etc. I can recc. some really good books.

 

Shocks are tuned differently and are either, digressive, progressive or linear. Typically King, Fox, ADS are linear while Bilstein and Icon are Digressive. Spring pre-load is used to adjust ride height.

I recommend doing some additional research on shocks and coils and just go wheeling

 

I take your point. The challenge is that I can't right now. We are in the spring thaw here and everything is closed. I can't wheel, I can't ride dirt bike, and I can't mountain bike. I did get out 2 weekends ago before stuff started shutting down. It was the first serious trip in the 2020 OR. Either way, this forum is about me educating myself about the truck modification options. Theory and practice go together.

I'm not completely unexperienced at this. I have wheeled trucks, road dirt bikes, and mountain biked. I also used to do all of own wrenching including engine rebuilds. (I can't anymore because I live in a condo that doesn't allow it.) However, my previous trucks were 2wd rust buckets I owned when I could not afford to modify them. I didn't own a 4wd truck until 2016, so I am relatively new to off-road trucks. Owning multiple dirt bikes over a range of years helps one to really appreciate off-road suspension systems. Nothing on any of my trucks or bicycles can compare to the suspensions on my dirt bikes. TBQH though, I never really messed with the suspensions. They just worked (except when a bearing went out).

I also have a BA in physics with a year of mechanical engineering classes before going a different career route.

 

I realize that preload is used to adjust ride height. My point is that preload has the side effect (primary effect?) of changing the compression in the spring at full extension and this could affect the way the suspension performs.

This effect of preload is really obvious on a dirt bike. Pick the back wheel off the ground and set it back down. The wheel is not just hanging loose when off the ground.

 

I blew up my 5100s, 4wheel parts has a 3 year warranty for $10. Got a replacement for now but if they blow up again I’ll have to move up to something else. My parts list keeps growing and everything I need seems equally important

 

How does it change the compression. It's still a linear spring. If you require too much compression you have the wrong springs either length or weight.

 

I like the 6112s ok they have been air born multiple times and thrashed as far as offroading goes. I go fast and hard. More throttle is my friend getting up and through obstacles.