Long Travel BS Thread

Came to the realization this morning that I should theoretically be crossing the 1,000 mile mark by end of week.

Started putting it through some baby whoops over the weekend feeling things out and it’s definitely a different animal. First time I’ve had to start double stacking valving shims in the rear. The shock is truly doing the work now.

Starting to get ballsy with the steering and actually let go of the steering wheel through this section at nearly 50mph didn’t budge even a little.

Beginning to look at having the center link/swingers/pitman all done in billet aluminum as I feel there may actually be a savings. The weld time for one of these kits is outrageous so doing anything I can to make it the best possible bang for the buck.

Been working in my “free” time on designing a user friendly SUA kit that follows this same geometry. All will be done on the wife’s relatively unmolested truck to be sure of fitment, wheel base etc.

 

For some reason I thought it wasn’t because of a bumper or something. My mistake!

 

Jesse had told me originally the bumper bracket was interfering somehow but I’m not seeing it.

 

I think he was maybe referring to the shackle mount itself. Looks like the mount will hit the bumper bracket if move back to the next hole.

 

More than likely it. But going rearward is counterproductive anyways.

 

I thought someone had said that in previous posts. It may have been you.

 

How come your rear wheels look are so far forward? Just kidding!!!
Looks great glad you are getting it dialed in.

 

Thanks! But it’s not without headaches of my own either! All an adventure, coupled with lots of lessons.

 

Dumb question, but for the guys runnin rear coilover setups, if you were to make your truck dual purpose and add/remove bed weight here and there, is adding preload to regain some ride height at the expense of down travel, then lowering preload when the rear bed items are off an issue?

 

That’s a tough question to answer. Enough weight removed and you’re talking entirely different spring rates. But your travel is not going to change based on preload unless you add so much the coils bind at bump.

 

Truck is currently setup for when the bed has the 37” spare and that’s about it. I guess would it be terrible to add an inch or 2 of preload for when it’s loaded? I’ve got like 2” of shock shaft showing at loaded ride height. Down the road I’d probably just get a second set of coilovers to swap in with different spring rates, though I assume even that is making some changes to how the truck was initially setup.

The other thing tho is I have no idea what sort of tuning was done on the current shocks/bypasses by the shop that built the truck so it may all not matter that much anyway.

 

changing the preload every time you load or unload the bed sounds like a major pita.

Would a billet swinger really be more cost effective than a weldment? Seems like it would be the other way around for a part that large.

 

yeah I had a similar issue and the main ended up breaking while we were on a surf mission in baja

pre load will only help with like 100lbs beyond that you need to swap out springs. it’s super easy to swap springs, i can do it with only removing the bottom bolt at full droop

 

at full droop on rear coil overs ( limit straps off ) I can do my with my bare hands, super easy

 

Now you may start realizing Brian from Goose-Gear gave up on his Tacoma build and moved onto his Ram.

 

Valving question,

Is it common to have or need double 20s for some of the small shims in the front with a single shock? I could play with some other stuff but it seems like this would get me there easier. I’m decently happy with low shaft speed performance (maybe a little stiff because 2 bleeds are plugged) but if I drop the front 30” from ride height it will get me within 1/2” of full bump at the wheel. Maybe that is normal and I just need to drive it more?

Also, do you expect to not notice bleed holes being open or plugged with higher shaft speeds or is it a more noticeable change at high speed and obviously there will be a bigger change at low shaft speed.

 

Yeah for me I would rather swap springs with either another 50-100 lbs on the main to take up the weight sag. And that’s with how much of a pita jacking the rear of my truck up is…lol. Moving your coil adjuster a lot sounds like a ticket to screwing up the threads unless your meticulous about cleaning and lubing the threads. Plus yes you might end up in coil bind before full bump, but that just depends on your setup.

 

Let’s go dancing.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7h6ZTcNuud/?igsh=MTVrandremZ6czQybQ==

Glad you got things sorted out.

 

Yes. I had some double 20’s in my old setup before the bypass.

Bleed holes are gonna be more noticeable at lower shaft speed as they’ll “hydro lock” at high shaft speed anyways. I ran 2 closed as well.

 

Shockingly, the aluminum needed comes in a bit cheaper than the 4130. Definitely not going to say it’s a substantial savings. But it keeps my one and a half man show rolling with other projects as well.