Long Travel BS Thread

last time I ran this same trail, and yes it could have changed from time and other vehicles I could barely maintain 20-30, this time I was 40-50.
Granted they are small to medium whoops/bumps but baby steps.

Full tank of gas, mentioned items plus 3 ton floor jack, 6 gallon fuel tank and loaded big icechest plus my fat ass.
https://youtu.be/5IeeXQvpeH0?si=9YVkQjoUmNMxIIHx

 

Not too bad but the rear does look like it’s stiff and causing bucking.

 

it is, under chassis camera shows im smacking the bump pretty good, im out of the bump zone so I have lost much of my control, time for an additional leaf.

 

I want to mark that whoop section on my gps but can't find the trail for shit I'm in the right area but G-earth isn't detailed enough lol care to share coordinates you can PM if you like

 

Was gonna say looks like a fun trail

 

On valving notes and my dumb ass. I once heard with leaf spring truck rule of thumb is 'max compression, no rebound'. I valved my buddies truck and had that reversed; little compression (10-12's), all rebound (15's). The truck rode so bad he didn't want to drive it. I finally got to revalving after realizing my mistake. Went to 12/15 compression with flutter and 10 rebound...what a massive improvement. I can't wait to drive it in the desert now.

 

Another valving note. My daughters 5th gen 4Run with mild travel, we got the rear Fox's from Marketplace for a Tacoma. Been fighting this floaty, bouncy feeling all along. Thinking it could be track bar angle, sway bar angle. Nope. 3rd re-valve from light compression and rebound to a much heavier 12/15 over 12/15 and her truck is much better too.

 

For grins I tossed a rate plate in the coilovers on our mid travel truck because I was having success using them in mine. Such a wild difference. I think we’re 12’s and 15’s on rebound with 4 .015’s on the compression side leading into a plate. All bleeds wide open.

My Lt truck is a weird animal in comparison to lots of valve specs I see working in here for SUA. I’m really heavy on the rebound side of things and it works super well. But the rear of this thing is insane soft too.

 

Some valving questions I've wondered

Is a rate plate just thrown straight on the last shim or is there any small spacer used?

so instead of shims leading to a spacer to a top out washer, can the spacer be removed and top out washer be used as a rate plate or should you put a rate plate in then a spacer and top out washer?

And when people say 12/15 comp with a flutter is there any sort of common notation as to what is where, and what the flutter is (or even just order without a flutter)? Like a 12 flutter and 15s out the back? then 15/12 would be the opposite?

Then on a flutter, do people play with the thickness or even diameter of the shim much? or usually just throw in the smallest .008 or .01

 

I did rate plates on my fronts, you can use a spacer shim of varying thickness after the last small shim to tune when the rate plate comes into play.

A top out washer could be used as a rate plate with the right spacing shim.

You would see F15/12 if it was a flutter on the comp, vice versa for rebound (who does that) and two Fs for both. You can vary the shims dia and thickness for flutters too and even have more than one flutter if you so desire.

 

Rate plate valving is basically a flow restriction type valving. You can control it via shim thickness and over all stack height of the shims. Wider the gap between the piston and plate the more flow. Less gap, opposite.

Flutter is usually placed on top of either the largest or second largest shim. But I don’t think there’s any rules to it.

All a flutter is doing is creating a soft zone at initial crack of the shim. Flutters can be controlled by both thickness and diameter.

 

Did you end at the same result we did. And that’s nearly everything you hit feels exactly the same? The front of the mid travel truck is insanely impressive with the plates. It sure took some playing though. Even .005 changes in stack height made a notable difference.

 

Everything that isn't slow crawling feels the same, I have two bleeds open on those shocks so slow stuff is still pretty complaint and squishy.

 

We ended with all 3 out, but exactly what you describe as well. Truthfully I think it works 10x better than it did with a flutter.

 

Is this with your current MT setup with a single 2.5?

 

Yup last time I had them open I machined down the internal spacer to effectively make them extended travel. Well now they match ADS's definition of extended which is the longest bolt-on coilover I've seen for 1st gens at least. I also changed around the stack to remove the flutters (they were too much with the bleeds open) and gave the rate plate a shot. I could probably tweak it some still but so far I'm liking it.

 

Nice. I've been pretty happy with the valving that accutune has setup on mine, but it could definitely benefit from some bypasses and hydro bumps. I've seen some 1st gens with MT dual shock setups like that which seem to work really well.

 

Share the videos here if you can. A visual of what you're describing would help a lot

Edit: commented too soon. And i agree on too much compression. Your front wheel goes up fast on some of those hits towards the end, then the back not nearly as much or as quick of movement

 

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the last couple of years, off road companies have been doing a lot of April fools products that i'd legit buy

 

Jason Heard is always doing something new and cool. Never seen a bump setup like this for trailing arms. I imagine it must be pure beef on that forward pivot.