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

Here's an analogy that might help everyone understand. I love analogies! Springs in series add up like electrical resistors in parallel and springs in parallel add up like resistors in series.

Thus the total spring constant of two springs in series or the total resistance of two resistors in parallel is:

K = 1 / (1 / k1 + 1 / k2)

And the total spring constant of two springs in parallel or the total resistance of two resistors in series is:

K = k1 + k2

That given, you can think of a "dual rate" spring (assuming there is no coil binding) as two springs in series or two resistors in parallel.

A "progressive" spring (assuming there is no coil binding) can be thought of as an infinite number of springs in series. The math gets trickier (calculus), but the result is similar. I won't go into it, except to repeat that the spring constant is not a function of displacement.

Sorry for any mistakes. This is off the top of my head.

 

Who's arguing? I'm just trying to explain basic physics. There's nothing really to debate. I'm sorry if I have evoked some negative feelings by debunking some long believed bro science.

 

Fair enough. I already apologized for helping to drag the thread off the subject. To my defense I was not the one who started the subject nor the only one that kept it going.

I personally do not have any questions about coil springs, so I will not be starting such a thread.

 

First mention of coil springs and lack of understanding how they work in a suspension

 

All the reason to start one, share the wealth with the community.

 

If this sub thread is any indication of how the discussion will go, I’m going to decline. My skin is only so thick; albeit I have been known to voluntarily expose myself to some abuse Lol

 

This is nothing for abuse. Actually it has been very mellow. Check out some other sites, or other parts here. These guys have been very approachable.

 

The “lol” at the end was supposed to indicate my light heartedness. I started a thread on here detailing how I lost a fight with some trees and had to replace/repair the side of my 2020 OR. It was an entertaining thread for some; at my expense.

 

Can someone please take a plasma torch and a sledge hammer to a fender!!!!!!!!!

 

In for the story on this

 

Would you also say that long travel kits are not worth it or are you just saying that an extra 13% of travel is negligible? I guess I'm confused why would you think extra suspension travel doesn't increase performance. I have long thought that more suspension travel is better. They certainly have progressively increased it on dirt bikes over the decades and it makes sense from a basic physics perspective.

The same thought process brought me to this thread. Going from a 30.6" tire to a 32.8" tire doesn't seem like a very big jump (7%); especially for the money and effort involved. For a little more money and effort I can go to 34.8 (13%). 35" might be my sweet spot. Adding 1" of travel to a shock should be cheap, but it isn't; albeit I have found some threads on building custom shocks. (The tire sizes I'm using are the advertised diameter of the tires I am considering.)

And BTW, this is semi-related to the topic, in my mind anyway. I was not considering extended travel shocks until I started considering 35's and realized, via the info in this thread, I might need an aftermarket UCA which coincidently advertises that it is has clearance to allow for an extended length shock. I'm repeating myself, but not everyone has probably read the entire thread.

 

if you want extended travel, then get extended travel...not sure why this has to be so complicated.

last I checked this was America and you can buy what you want.

 

Aftermarket UCAs are required to get the extra bit of droop travel since the stock UCA will hit the spring. As was already stated extended travel shocks are the same as the normal shocks except an internal spacer is removed, you can get a normal fox/king/icon shock and later remove the spacer if you want. Also on the flip side you could get an extended travel shock and put on limit straps until you get aftermarket UCAs

What a mod is worth is dependent on who you ask and how they use their truck. Despite what some think, every mod has a downside as well as an upside, and not all downsides are just the up front cost.

You can run 35s on a stock suspension with the right wheel dimensions without smashing the shit out of your wheel wells.

 

I don't disagree with you, but in the context of this thread the UCA is needed to fit the 35" tires by using its extra adjustability to move the tire forward in the wheel well while keeping the rest of the alignment in spec. The fact that it has the extra clearance around the coilover is just an extra bonus which cannot come to fruition without an extended length shock. At least this is how I have interpreted the info in this thread.

 

Aftermarket UCAs don't move the tire forward unless it's an adjustable one, all fixed aftermarket UCAs actually decrease clearance at the firewall.

 

This is critical to understanding tire clearance and alignments:

 

I'm very unfamiliar with alignments, but learning. What you describe is what I have read elsewhere. Move the wheel forward with the LCA and then bring everything back into alignment using the other adjustments. My understanding was that an aftermarket UCA made this easier (see the posts above in this thread), but I haven't delved into it deep enough to understand why. If I don't need an aftermarket UCA to fit the 35's then all this discussion about UCA's and extended length springs is academic.

 

This is going to fall on deaf ears.

Also add that when you lift the truck you loose caster so you need to gain it back. One of the reasons more caster works is because of the dynamic attributes when turning not just static. You're spot on that it doesn't increase clearance but as you turn the wheel because of all the geometry changes it actually helps with that arc in clearing.

 

If you can understand and remember what's in that post you'll have a better grasp of things than 99% of the people on here and IG.