Long Travel BS Thread

Yup, exactly what @desertjunkie760 said.

For reference my rears are valved at 15c/8r. Then the tuning of bypasses comes into play. The beauty of bypasses is they are quick and easy to adjust. Grab a notepad, drive the truck, document your changes, and see what makes things better or worse.

 

Definitely not too little weight. But leafs do like weight out back. I actually felt a difference between my spare being at the front vs back of the bed. I don’t know much about the SAW’s but if everything is all the way open and it is still harsh then I would open them up to see what valving is inside

 

I'll move the spare to the back of the bed and see how it feels over the weekend. I don't remember exactly how I valved them last, but it's either 10/12 or 12/10 and I want to say 2 free bleeds open. They are older SAWs but I believe the piston design is similar to King's race piston.

 

Wait, what shocks are they?

Edit: I found your problem. "They are older SAWs"

 

Joking aside, you shouldn't have two bleeds open on a bypass AND your tubes open. You've got something else going on. Check the valving but my guess is the issue goes beyond that.

 

Sway-A-Way gen. 1s, not with a brass piston though.

 

Open up all the free bleeds. Shouldn’t have any plugged with your setup

 

I'll rip them apart and document what they have and take some pictures of the pistons. When I installed the SUA I followed DMZ's instructions and everything cycles smoothly. It drives good but not good enough.

I'll try do that when I open them up to inspect them.

What speeds where you hitting on that video? I'm going to see if some friends are up to try and get some exterior footage of mine. There's a whooped out section I know I can take like 40-45ish in my truck.

 

Yeah at least let us know what’s going on when you open them up.

I was doing 45-50 maybe in the video. Whatever it was it was the absolute perfect speed to keep the tires on the ground and showcase the suspension working

 

My 2004 tundra abs is 68" wms

https://www.amazon.com/Face-lift-Ti...t=&hvlocphy=9031507&hvtargid=pla-938914423396

 

All this bypass talk is getting me pumped to start turning tubes when mine come in next month. Been a long 6 months drooling lol.

 

On a principle level shocks just turn kinetic energy from the truck and suspension moving into heat that dissipates out the shock oil. That's the main reason you don't see big shocks on small trucks because the shocks absorb more heat than the truck has enough weight to make with reasonable valving or without thrashing the truck to get there.
That and the nitrogen pressure adds up, with 4.0s it's like 85 lbs pressure on the piston alone per 100psi of nitrogen (maybe per sq in idk don't quote me), gets tough on the leaves as they cycle with how few need to be run. -Take that with a grain of salt i dunno shit practically about shock tuning yet just paying attention so far. I got that bit from a post on Odrmse's ig where he was running big 4.0s on a silverado with like 2 leaves in the rear for some reason

 

+you could probably get a decent tune just by paying attention to this alone. Go have fun like usual and if your shocks are cold they're too stiff or big and not doing enough work. If they're hot they're too small or soft and doing too much work. Obviously there's a lot more to it in detail but it's a good fundamental base to go from if you're lost or wayy off

 

Way to throw some thermodynamics into this It’s all energy accounting

 

I'm not sure I agree with statement but what do I know. My truck feel like it's beating the crap out of me in the small stuff. I kept opening tubes, lightening the valving, opening bleed holes and nothing seemed to help. I finally thought I went so far on the soft end of compression I better start going the other way and the truck finally got a little better. When I got the shock it had double stack 15's on compression in the largest shim. I got all the way down to single 8 but am back to 15 (single). Front bypasses I never opened up to know what the valving is but was all the way out on compression and started going back. So with my compressions almost back in the 'closed' end of things it's still harsh. But, If I get up on the wheel and start hammering the truck it does well. That's not my driving style though with no cage and my wife in the truck.

 

It’s a test in a way. The general concept of the bypass tube is to create bleed past the main piston. You have multiple tubes that create multiple zones allowing you to ramp up the dampening depending on where the piston is in the travel. There can be multiple reasons for harshness but you have to start somewhere.

You can also have too much valving on the main piston that will create a “wall” when you hit the bump zone, which may have been the case for you but it’s hard to say being every setup is different.

 

I thought I was measuring wrong, thanks for the confirmation. So weird that it’s longer

 

Your axle is 68” wms to wms - as in the outside of the drums? I’m having a hard time believing that abs axles are wider than non abs axles as the front track width of the trucks are going to be identical since you can use the same cv’s.

Can you take a picture of your tape measure and where you’re measuring it from? I had an abs axle and it was narrower than my dead nuts 68” wms to wms 9” axle.

 

Okay crap...just measured and realized I didn’t have the axles pushed all the way in so the studs were in the axle flange...I must’ve seen somewhere on here that they were longer and poisoned my brain...haha
My bad

 

So, question for the masses. Frame boxing -- yes or no? I see arguments on both sides of it. I'm not planning on cutting/notching my frame to fit shocks or the axle, but I do want some more strength because I have a lot of weight (RTT/armor/swingouts). I'm looking at the dmz frame boxing kit -- obviously it only does the rear part of the frame and not the whole frame, but any amount of additional frame support is appealing. I've got BAMF hangers, and will probably throw a crossbar in-between those as well for some stiffness.

Am I just overthinking things? I don't jump my truck or anything, but I'm looking to protect my depreciating asset as much as possible.

Front JDF kit (LCA Pivots/skid, 2.25 LT) is getting installed as we speak.