ford shock towers

[Mace]

When you get into the rocks and have the entire weight of the truck forcing that side of the axle down it will make it articulate more.

The flip side, you have built your mounts for a 14" travel shock. You currently have 4" of uptravel. Can you use 6" of uptravel before something hits?

 

[EWheeler]

Mace, I am going to post a series of pictures, and can you please analyze and let me know how I can improve on my front suspension set up? My front shocks limit up travel so that I don't have too much negative arching of my front springs. The last inch of shock travel is inverting them I would guess? Maybe this should be the job of bumpstops, but I don't do any high speed stuff so I just haven't spent the money yet. Did I weld my towers too low? What else do you see wrong from a functionality standpoint?

 

[EWheeler]

Some more

 

[EWheeler]

When you get into the rocks and have the entire weight of the truck forcing that side of the axle down it will make it articulate more.

The flip side, you have built your mounts for a 14" travel shock. You currently have 4" of uptravel. Can you use 6" of uptravel before something hits?

No, I can't use nor do I want 6" of uptravel. My thought was using the bumps to limit the uptravel instead of bottoming out as I do now, even though it is not at high speed.

 

[bustanutley]

Flat spring do not care if they go negative. Run your axles into the frame.

 

['74 UA FJ]

Flat spring do not care if they go negative. Run your axles into the frame.

Confucius say, Flat spring was arched spring that go negative often. Flat spring that go negative often will soon be negative spring.

 

[Mace]

I agree with the Punnisher. With the cut on your fenders you can have a lot more articulation than that.

And, if you have less lift you can set your rig up for a lower ride height with more droop.

Flat springs work great for a long time before they die.

 

[EWheeler]

What say ye then, cut tower off and raise them a couple of inches and keep the 14's?

 

[bustanutley]

here is a random shot of my truck fairly torqued someone randomly grabbed.

 

[chicago]

those are 11 inchers in the rear and 14" im the front. i limited the front to about 12" because the front dshaft looks like it is binding at about 12". these pics were before i put straps on. front 3 link. rear radius arm

Thats HOT!

 

['74 UA FJ]

here is a random shot of my truck fairly torqued someone randomly grabbed.

How negative do your springs go? Is the center bottom of the spring 4 inches higher than eyes, or what?

 

[bustanutley]

How negative do your springs go? Is the center bottom of the spring 4 inches higher than eyes, or what?

Something like that in the back, the front is limited by the tie rod, so, more like 2". The next revision to the front will involve low steer and further lowered truck. I have never measured however, the springs show no ill effects after years and years of wheeling. Letting the springs droop out too much and then putting the power down is much harder on stuff.

 

['74 UA FJ]

Something like that in the back, the front is limited by the tie rod, so, more like 2". The next revision to the front will involve low steer and further lowered truck. I have never measured however, the springs show no ill effects after years and years of wheeling. Letting the springs droop out too much and then putting the power down is much harder on stuff.

You ain't afraid of the rocks with low steer? Are you going to mount your cylinder to the high steer arm on top with tie rod on the bottom?

 

[bustanutley]

I haven't decided which axle I am going to be using so it remains to be seen. I have a friend that is setup this way with a yota axle, and with a BIG tie rod has not had issues. He bent a stock arm after hitting a stump at speed.

 

[matchan420]

With 14' shocks is it possible to achieve 6 inches of up travel minus the bump stops and 8 inches of down travel, this sounds ideal. Also, looking at Ewheeler's set up, it seems he isnt getting much droop or uptravel in the rear, shock problem, outboarded spring problem? Does anyone else have info on plus' and minus' of running fj55 springs in the rear. Add a leaf a good or bad idea? I can play with this stuff, but you guys have more experience and maybe the downlow?

Thanks.

 

[Mace]

It all depends on what you want to do with the rig. More uptravel is you want to go faster. More droop for crawling.

55 springs work very well in the rear of a 40.
There is not a single reason to outboard the springs in the rear unless you have custom axles with a seriously offset pumpkin.

 

['74 UA FJ]

What can be done to increase down travel on a leaf spring suspension except using longer, softer springs and having more un-sprung weight(and obviously reducing friction of moving parts)?

 

[bustanutley]

What can be done to increase down travel on a leaf spring suspension except using longer, softer springs and having more un-sprung weight(and obviously reducing friction of moving parts)?

It mostly has to do with proper shackle angle and length. Too much downtravel is bad juju, uptravel is king.

 

['74 UA FJ]

Lol. That's not what mace said.

 

[Mace]

I said it depends on what you want to do with the suspension. There is no single answer.