opinion: Ford Shock Towers?

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PabloCruise said:
Dude,

Are you busting on my mad welding skillz?!? Who...Me?

Actually, I have much to learn Grasshopper.
...
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....as do I - there's always a new way to make a mess of welding and every time I think I've found them all up pops a new one.
Hang in there!

Guess I'll go find some of those shock mounts - our trucks are siblings, Pablo, like twins almost and we gotta' treat them equally or one or the other will get cranky. :)
 
fjoakley said:
part number is E5TZ-18183-A I got a quote today of 13.50 each.

I heard you can cut and modify them to be a little straighter so you don't have to cut the fenders....anyon edo this and is that ok? I was thniking of modifying them so they also bolt to the top of the frame like the stock ones by welding on a peice of angle iron.
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If you dont mind me asking, what parts store did you get a quote for $13.50 each?

Fman
 
nuclearlemon said:
you get this for $20!! yep, i'm doing it again.
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Do the Ford towers line up in the same location as the stock mounts? Maybe my perception is off, but from that picture it looks like it is moved forward from where the stock mount would be ???
 
cardinal fang said:
Yep, I would do it again. Only con is cutting the inside of the fender splash gaurd to make them fit. Pro, they bolt up to stock holes in the frame ;p
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Bill, question for you.... how much upward travel does your front shocks have? (inches of shock shaft showing resting on level ground.)
 
My ridiculously heavy duty MAF battery trays bolt to the stock shock towers. Some sort of a bracket would have to be made to the Ford towers to accomodate them.
 
i've got a set of the 4 bolt ones .are they the same dimensions as the 2 bolt . they came in a junk box with a parts cruiser
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I did the same as manny, cut the towers to make them verticle then rewelded. Also, did the two 1/2" bolts grade 8 like treeroot. I didnt cut my frame to get the hardware on the back side, instead I took a small pair of needle nose pliers and put the bolt, lock washer, and regular washer on in that order. once I could get that in, pull the pliers out with your finger on the bolt washer, washer combo. also, I had to cut the washer for the top bolt slightly or it would be to big for the inside of the frame. with the spring over, im 24" eye to eye.

mike
 
fjoakley said:
Is this a ok - good - great mod?

I am thinking of doing it this week end as I try to finish up my project. I like the idea of longer shocks, but want to make sure it is a good thing. Those of you who have do it - would you do it again? would you suggest it? What are the pros & cons? I need your input. I plan on gettin gthem first thing in the morning.

Greg
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How much travel do you have with no shocks attached? Kind of pointless adding longer shocks if you cannot use them.
 
One year later?

I did go ahead and do this with the two bolt kind and no straightening. I bolted them as above and added a reassuring (but crappy) weld tack on both sides of each. It only took trimming maybe 1/2" of fender liner all around.

The two bolt/four bolt thing is only a matter of drilling holes if the number of bolts is a worry - a person could screw up the whole program by using three! :D

Anyway, it makes a good solid mount without taking much additional space. Nice mod!

Brian, I was sorta' looking at those battery trays. I didn't buy a pair, but it looked to me as though they could work with Ford shock towers by just making a new hole in the tray bracket higher up and trimming the lower excess away. not sure of this because the man-a-fre pictures don't help much. (probably on purpose to frustrate home duplication)
 
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Fman said:
Do the Ford towers line up in the same location as the stock mounts? Maybe my perception is off, but from that picture it looks like it is moved forward from where the stock mount would be ???
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Fman,

If this hasn't been answered for you yet.

My shock towers are in the same location as the originals were and used the oem holes. I'm not sure what picture you're refering to, but some guys extend their wheelbase by flipping springs end for end (moves axle forward) which would also necessitate mounting a shock further forward than stock. With stock towers this can be done by reversing the top shock mount bolt so the shock attaches to the front of the tower, and with ford towers mounting them a couple of inches forward of the stock frame location will keep the shock straight.
 
After referring to this thread, I added the F250 shock towers to my 6/77 FJ40 last week. To clarify a few previous posts on this subject, these shock towers do not just "bolt up to existing holes". The two holes in the frame from stock shock towers are horizontal. The two holes in the F250 towers are vertical. If you enlarge the rear-most of the OEM holes and bolt through the lower of the two F250 tower holes, the upper F250 tower hole ends up in the top bend of the frame which does not work. I ended up drilling two new equally spaced 1/2" holes completely through the frame. This was easier on the drivers side as I did not have the battery support to deal with.

An additional benefit of this mod is eliminating the potential rust developing behind the OEM towers. I had some trapped mud behind the passengers side tower and was glad to have caught it when I did. Be sure to clean and paint the frame before bolting up the new F250 towers.

Good luck.
 
What I'm wondering is if they are 'herky' enough to take the weight of the battery and MAF battery tray on a bolt on one side in addition to the stresses of the shock. Looking at the photos, it would appear that if a bolt was inserted from within the shock tower, projecting from the side, it could mate to the tray. I wonder how much clearance there would be to the shock body, since I presume the tower is wide so the main part of the shock is cradled inside it, so as to prevent it from being unsprung weight. Is there enough clearance between a shock body and the tower wall for a bolt head and a washer? Failing that, I suppose a bolt could be welded to the outside of the tower, but I think going through the tower is more reliable.
 
Sounds like shock hoops are better for your application than going through the trouble of making a ford shock tower work. I am using shock hoops but then again I am always working with tube ;p. Plus the shock hoop you can angle any way you want away from the battery tray. I would also think that having the weight of the battery plus the stress of a shock would be too much for the Ford Shock Tower w/o some serious beefing up. Which can be done easily, there are a lot of threads over on Pirate4x4 of guys doing that.

Or the other option is relocating your battery. I have mine sitting under my passenger seat but I am also running on propane rather than gasoline. You could make a sump like Woody did on the driver side and put the battery there.
 
Anyone done this? Do the battery boxes only mount to one side of the shock tower like it seems in the picture?


Brian in Oregon said:
Would it be possible to bolt MAF battery trays up to the Ford shock towers? Theese trays were designed to bolt to the existing OEM towers for support. Has anyone done this? Curious, since I have a left/right set installed in my FJ40.

MAF 4+Plus FJ40 Dual Battery Boxes

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