I use every bit of a 14 " shock. 4" up and 10 down. and 12 in the rear. running stock springs with shackle reversal and a soa fliped springs. my biggest diffrence from other setups is that i took the bend out of the towers and made them straight.
ford shock towers (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter matchan420
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You said for rocks, you want down travel. Bustanutley said uptravel is king, and from what I've seen, he wheels in the rocks mainly. Personally, I think it is good to have both because more uptravel on one side usually makes for more down travel on the opposite side. But what do I know.
Equal amounts of both is ideal, building that low is tough. Sitting on your bump stops because you want to fit the biggest shocks possible to make your ramp queen truck have as much droop as possible is dumb. If you run out of droop carrying a tire will still get you up an obstacle. Furthermore, letting springs droop out to much with out a wrap control devise will give you serious wrap problems.
In generalities yes. of COURSE you are going to want to have up travel and droop. how much of each varies depending on what you want to do with a rig.
6 to 7" of uptravel is not needed on a pure rock rig and you know it. And, by setting your suspension up this way you are increasing the center of gravity. Whether or no that is a problem again depends on the rig. Carrying a tire also is not as stable as having that tire touching something. A simple center strap can limit the total droop while not limiting articulation at all.
Yes, sitting on the bumpstops to make your rig a ramp queen is dumb. But so is setting up your suspension so it is not optimized for the wheeling you actually end up doing.
For cruisers, 4 to 5" of uptravel is fine for a rock rig. That's a hands worth of shaft showing on your shock. If you are going to go fast in the rocks, then you will want more uptravel to take the big hits.
Also, as was asked earlier, It is a very good thing to make sure that your suspension limits out before the shock either bottoms out, or overextends. That is if you want your shocks to last a while.
So, a 14" travel shock would be better limited to 13" of travel (or so)..
- Thread starter
- #45
You guys have a plethora of information!
My rig is being built to be a crawler and a weekend driver. I intend to run the Rubicon in the fall and play in Utah all summer so thanks for all the info. Maybe now I can make a good choice on shocks on my first purchase.
Now I want to find a cheap h41 to put in front of my orion case...
My rig is being built to be a crawler and a weekend driver. I intend to run the Rubicon in the fall and play in Utah all summer so thanks for all the info. Maybe now I can make a good choice on shocks on my first purchase.
Now I want to find a cheap h41 to put in front of my orion case...
canadian bum
SILVER Star
Some good info in here that I will put to good use on my 45.
Josie'sLandCruiser
Stop calling it a "FJ."
Hi All:
Yes, thanks Mace and Nutley for sharing your knowledge and experience with us!
Regards,
Alan
Yes, thanks Mace and Nutley for sharing your knowledge and experience with us!
Regards,
Alan
Does anyone know how much taller the Ford shock mount is than the stock 'yota?
Thanks, B.
Thanks, B.
A lot depends on how high it is mounted on the frame, but it is about 2 1/2" longer than the stock mount.
Don
Thanks Don.
That would be perfect. My shocks are about an inch too long and the stock shock towers are a little tweaked, so Fords would be a perfect fix.
Appreciated,
B.
That would be perfect. My shocks are about an inch too long and the stock shock towers are a little tweaked, so Fords would be a perfect fix.
Appreciated,
B.
Wow talk about reviving an old thread...lots of good info throughout this thread too but I still have a couple questions on my build.
I picked up seats for my 1970 FJ40 at the swap meet and all of sudden I opened the whole can of worms, gutted the wiring and plumbing, took the body off the frame and I am preparing to box in the frame and go full SOA.
Truck had a shackle reversal (not straight, replacing), and power steering when I bought it. I put a 4" spring under on her and dropped in a full roller Gen1 SBC thats .042 over (357CID) with a 268 cam, monster cast iron heads with 64 cc chambers. A Toyota 4 speed and transfer case behind an Advanced Adapters bellhousing and Centerforce clutch. I also found a LockRight and stuffed in the back (getting worn out now).
My SOA plans, followed up with questions, and please drop some knowledge on me!
OME FJ40 springs up front (I will most likely remove 2 leafs until the thing settles out)
OME FJ60 springs out back (same with removing leafs if needed)
MAF extended shock towers up front.
New greasable shackles and pins...unsure of what length?
I know that I wont know my exact shock and bump stop length until I get it all together and flex it out with the fork lift. I'm toying with the idea of cutting some room in the back of the tub and fabricating a cross over shock mount tube that is just under flush with the inner wheel wells, I would then make a tunnel to cover them inside. Is this total overkill? Will I just mash the rear fenders trying to get that much shock in there (fenders are already trimmed to the max in the rear)?
I am sticking with my 40 series axles at first (cut and turned of course) and then building up a set of 60's and fabricating in mounts for a future Marlin Toybox. I plan on running a 37x12.5 tire once my 35's are smoked. Axle gearing is decent with the motor torque for road driving, toybox with help a second low low range.
Please school me on this rear shock extension issue. I have built lots of cars and bikes but this is my first serious 4x4 project. I have owned the truck for about 5 years now and only drive it on the weekend around the back roads, occasionally on the hwy for 2-3 hours for an event and a lot of trails.
PM me if you are open to a phone call and have experience with building 40's in various configurations.
Cheers,
D
I picked up seats for my 1970 FJ40 at the swap meet and all of sudden I opened the whole can of worms, gutted the wiring and plumbing, took the body off the frame and I am preparing to box in the frame and go full SOA.
Truck had a shackle reversal (not straight, replacing), and power steering when I bought it. I put a 4" spring under on her and dropped in a full roller Gen1 SBC thats .042 over (357CID) with a 268 cam, monster cast iron heads with 64 cc chambers. A Toyota 4 speed and transfer case behind an Advanced Adapters bellhousing and Centerforce clutch. I also found a LockRight and stuffed in the back (getting worn out now).
My SOA plans, followed up with questions, and please drop some knowledge on me!
OME FJ40 springs up front (I will most likely remove 2 leafs until the thing settles out)
OME FJ60 springs out back (same with removing leafs if needed)
MAF extended shock towers up front.
New greasable shackles and pins...unsure of what length?
I know that I wont know my exact shock and bump stop length until I get it all together and flex it out with the fork lift. I'm toying with the idea of cutting some room in the back of the tub and fabricating a cross over shock mount tube that is just under flush with the inner wheel wells, I would then make a tunnel to cover them inside. Is this total overkill? Will I just mash the rear fenders trying to get that much shock in there (fenders are already trimmed to the max in the rear)?
I am sticking with my 40 series axles at first (cut and turned of course) and then building up a set of 60's and fabricating in mounts for a future Marlin Toybox. I plan on running a 37x12.5 tire once my 35's are smoked. Axle gearing is decent with the motor torque for road driving, toybox with help a second low low range.
Please school me on this rear shock extension issue. I have built lots of cars and bikes but this is my first serious 4x4 project. I have owned the truck for about 5 years now and only drive it on the weekend around the back roads, occasionally on the hwy for 2-3 hours for an event and a lot of trails.
PM me if you are open to a phone call and have experience with building 40's in various configurations.
Cheers,
D
The toybox is no longer in production. Marlin stopped making them about 10 years ago. I am not sure what you mean about rear shock extension issue. As far as going soa, I would not use stock axles, why do it twice? I used a fj80 axle in the back and love it. If you use 4plus products housing spacer on each side of a fj60 housing it would give you a front axle width to match a fj80 rear axle. Then you would have a rear full floater with discs.
I do like the axle idea with a 60 up front, I'll probably stick with a 60 in rear as well.
As far as the toybox goes, I spoke with Marlin last week and they said they were in re-desigb but should be available in December.
Are you planning OME lift springs? Using any sort of lift spring on soa gets pretty tall and tippy. You would want to widen the stance with wider axles if you go that route. As @White Stripe suggested, a widened 60 axle up front and an FZJ80 FF rear would be a great choice.
I had no idea he was going to make the toy box again. My concern though would be using it behind a v8. Would it hold up?
I've spoken with several people who have used the OME "lift" springs and I have seen two SOA set ups with them. Once they settle out they look and perform great with a heavy load.
I looked into the FJ80 axles and they are much wider than I want to be at this point. The stock 60 series ones would work well and I found a decent set for $600 totally complete with 4.10 gearing, ( I'll do seals/bearings and Aussie lockers in em).
When running a 60 axle up front will I need to widen my front spring hangers? Looks like Ruffstuff has a SOA kit specially designed to run 60 series axles under a 40.
If you widen the 60 front axle on the short side, you may be able to get away without out boarding the springs. Tough to say, depends how much you widen the axle by.
I'd like to run the 60 axle at stock width both front and rear. I don't mind outboarding the springs because I have the truck stripped to the frame right now.
If I outboard the springs and use taller shock towers up front should I still try to keep the shocks at the current angle or widen them on the axle end a little? Or is it better to move the shock towers out as well?
The ruffstuff kit is supposed to allow you to use bolts rather than ubolts I think on the FJ60 axle so you don't have to outboard the leafs. As far as changing the shock angle by a few degrees, it won't matter either way too much. As long as the suspension will cycle and the shock doesn't hit anything your good.
When using FJ60 springs in the rear do I need to relocate my spring hanger further forward or just let the extra spring length swing my shackle out?