Valving vs length dilemma

So I am at a crossroads:

I am thinking of going for a shorter travel shock (similar to stock 8" taco numbers) with triple bypass valving, but also have been floating the idea of a shock relocate to fit 12 or 14's from someone like archive/BAMF.

The longer shocks would give you more travel/flex ability, but the bypasses would get a more managable bit of tuning (plus the bling factor).

My driving habits are more "spirited driving through the desert" more so than "flexy rock crawling" so I have it in my head that the bypass damping would be better, but then a friend of mine made a very relevant point that "travel is travel" and valving is pretty easy.

Thoughts?

 

Why not 12" or 14" shocks with remote resis in the rear with clickers to adjust dampening on the fly?

 

You want the travel. You won't have very good control or ride quality if you're constantly lifting tires off the ground because the stroke is so short. Why do you think desert runners have LONG travel?

 

True. But I'm not driving spirited enough to get my EAF taco off the ground. It's more the effect within the existing stroke. Of course longer shocks would allow the impulse to be extended alowing a smoother ride and you get the extra travel. I may have just answered my own question.

I'm not willing to cut the bed or run wheel spacers, otherwise I'd just go triple 16's and call it a day

 

Stroke dependent damping would not seem very helpful to someone who wants to play with changing Suspension travel. Those parameters would be set around the designed travel. I don’t think there is anything wrong at all with good velocity dependent damping anyhow.