Mark W
Yep, I really don't really care that much I guess.
By putting the shocks in that location, I got 28 inches of straight axle travel from 14 inch travel shocks. It reduced the effectiveness of the shocks to 50%. But two shocks at 50% works out to 100% of a single shock, so...
In actuality I could have used stiffer shocks (Rancho 9012s and 99012s are intended for double shock setups anyway so they are always a bit soft). I will probably be switching to stiffer units as it gets ready to hit the trail again.
Mounting the shocks in that way puts a tremendous strain on the upper links. If you look closely you will that there is only on link (lower) on the rear driver's side. The upper snapped on the way to this trail after about 10 (edit: 100, not 10!) miles of washboard dirt road at road speeds. Fortunately as part of the heavy duty mindset, I used an old fashined parallel four link w/panhard bar approach. Loose any one of the four links at either end and you can continue on.
After this run, I beefed up the upper links a LOT and had no further problems. The current setup uses even heavier duty links all the way around. Since the rig will not see the highspeed dirt washboard dirt road usage that it did when it was still roadable, the links will not see that kind of stress anyway. The trail is a lot gentler since you are not trying to cycle the shots rapidly like you are in a washboard situation.
That is what puts the stress on the link. The shock just won't move that fast so it becomes a fulcrum in the middle of the link and the link winds up snapping in the middle from fatigue as the suspension tries to bend it right there.
Mark...
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her boyfrien who was watching was pretty stoked about it though...
