Long Travel BS Thread

Gotcha. Well if the rear is rising over bumps then I’d say either the compression is too slow or rebound Too fast. You could try opening up the compression tube all the way and closing the rebound. One at a time and try all options. But at least I’m my experience for leaf springs you want rebound as fast as possible. I know my truck I have an 8 stack for rebound and pretty sure I’m running the bypass port all the way open if not close to it.

edit: try to get some video of those adjustments if you can to confirm exactly what the truck is doing

 

you’ll need to figure out what valving is in the shocks to make any real headway. You could start turning tubes but you don’t really have a baseline without knowing the valving.

With a 2 tube bypass you loose a lot of zone control as you can really only adjust for the one zone, but I’d measure how much shaft is exposed at ride height and figure out if they were installed correctly. If the shock is almost in the bump/catch zone at ride height I’d say they are not installed well. Should be sitting at roughly 60/40 of stroke.

my first inclination was to say the opposite regarding rebound. The “hovering” feeling that is common on washboards is often too much rebound.

I agree with you though, he needs to figure out valving. Typically leaf spring trucks require very minimal rebound valving.

 

I only said to slow the rebound based on the statement that the rear end was rising. But again, mystery valving and no video or visual verification to confirm what is happening. Needs to get out there and make some drastic changes to the tubes, grab some visual verification and see what happens.

 

Since you have tubes you can first use them to take butt dyno / gyro readings going over the same kind of terrain at different settings. @snowsk8air2 gave good recommendations for how to experiment but if you’re really into science and you don’t have a lot to do on a trip, you can do the full range with each and get a good idea of their impact on the performance of your shocks.

Even with smoothies better valving can improve your ride. If you bought your shocks new, just call up wherever you bought them and ask if they have specs on the stock they bought (if they weren’t drop shipped) or directly call up King and see if they have a spec for them based on what they were intended for. Worst case scenario, just discharge them, remove them, and buy a micrometer to measure the shim stacks.

Videos help in this.

@jjhitchen of course if someone’s able to afford a link setup and needs it for their purposes they intend to use the vehicle for there’s no contest. Other factors probably in the realm of intended use for the vehicle, visual preference for the vehicle, and budget kind of limit how much someone’s going to benefit from suspension designs. For those operating on an essentially limitless budget there’s no reason not to link a vehicle except if they don’t like the idea of cutting up a truck they may use for stuff it doesn’t really call to link it for. Maybe they like the idea of leaves for some strange reason but who knows haha.

Anyone living with a limited budget would have to portion out their money towards their preferences. Building a recreational prerunner I’d build it with mostly stock components and spend on suspension, cage, and that’s about it. Glamping requires like $11k of custom coffee blends and probably not much money is left to spend on suspension except for a +2 or 3.5 front kit. Building something intended to travel to hell and back you’d have to adjust some of that budget for beefier axle(s), on board air, lockers, comms, battery / electrical redundancies, peanut butter, jelly, and day old bread, and probably fuel capacity. All this comes at a premium so link money could have to be spent elsewhere unless budget allows it.

 

What angles are you getting at full bump and full droop that way?

 

Thanks for the help.

60/40 was my understanding of where it should be, and right now there 5.5" of shaft exposed at ride hight. Which makes me think these aren't quite the right shocks for the application.

Since the shocks are adjustable bypass the next step is definitely some big adjustments to see if we can get dialed in a little closer.

 

10" shock with 5.5" of shaft at ride height sounds fine.

I agree on 1st trying to close the rebound a little and opening up the comp tube, or just opening up the comp tube.

Standard tube placement bypass shock pistons will sit just above the resi port at full extension and just below the rebound tube giving you a small stiffer rebound zone at full droop after the piston passes the rebound tube port.

There will also be a stiffer rebound zone past the rebound tube at full bump to help keep the vehicle planted or from jacking on a full bump hit.

 

Having a 10" shock to me says mid travel rear.
Meaning you won't be blasting over anything super gnar race course-ish
So it should feel smooth on smaller bumps and washboard chatter stuff.
I would open the comp tube all the way if it isn't already and see how it feels.
Especially with only a single tube to bypass the piston.
If that's still not soft enough then it's time to revolve the comp side of the piston.

Fox shocks usually have a decent diameter top-out washer/rate plate that can be used for non-traditional valving stacks with lighter shims, flutter spacers, and manipulation of the shim stack fulcrum height and width if you want to do research to go down the rabbit hole on valving.

I like my truck soft like a couch though so that's the advice I give based on what I like personally.

 

I haven’t got that far yet. But when I try it I’ll let you know lol

 

Yeah, it's the TC mid-travel spring under rear, and trying to keep up with a TC +2 LT front.

Not my truck, not the way I'd have done it.

We're going to try opening the comp tube all the way, and closing the rebound tube all the way. Hopefully that will generate packing in the leaf pack, then we can try to dial in the middle ground. If not then I'll be ripping them open to measure the shims and order new stacks.

 

Give it a shot and see how it changes things. Don’t be afraid to mess with the bypasses and see how it affects things.

And really only a 10” shock on that setup? I thought it was supposed to run a 12”? But like you said, not your work and not how you would have done it. Either way, get out and play with the tubes to see what it does. That leaf pack is notoriously terrible and stiff if I remember correctly as well

 

Yeah, the TC kit was designed and sold to use a 10" shock. I believe its due to zoning reasons but I'm not 100% sure. I've fit a 12" smoothie using that kit before but never installed a bypass on one.

 

Man that makes me not like that kit even more. I really thought it was supposed to run a 12”.

@Arcticelf do what you can for the guy but it’ll never keep up with his front.

 

A 12" smoothie is the other option, and I know how to valve those...

Yeah, I'm really glad I skipped it for my truck, we'll see what can be done.

Or I'll get to install a DMZ kit for him.

 

I didn’t want to jump straight to that suggestion but yeah, DMZ has treated me well over the last few years. If he really doesn’t want to go into the bed I’ve seen it paired with the archive relocation and fitted with 14” shocks as well. That would still be way better than what he has now

 

Get LT they said. Secondaries are fun they said.



Gotta mess with the frame mounted bracket to bend it away from the shock body.

 

you might want to consider doing what I did amigo, rip out all the oe lines hard and soft from that block on top of the frame all the way to the caliper and get a custom line from crown and route it frame - uca - spindle

 

thats what i might end up doing. I saw on IG someone else did similar and looks a lot better and free from the shock.

Remember off hand how long you went?

 

Same.

 

thanks for holding out on me, jerks!