Raised shock mounts

[baldilocks]

Are you going to cut the fenders or what's your plan? This would all be easier if I just cut the fenders. Lol instead I'm going to raise the truck higher, goo off-roading and either roll or feel too uneasy about how high the truck is and tippy it feels and decide to lower it and cut the fenders. That's how I see my future anyway.
Will probably have MT 2" cool spacers for sale soon. Lol
But maybe I'll enjoy the extra rock slider and bumper clearances.

I will bump stop mine as necessary and maybe some minor trimming. Travel can be moved downward by installing longer travel springs and shocks like those available from Slinky or Dobinson or whoever else.

Unfortunately the 80 has more weight up high than a 4Runner which can be lifted higher before a feeling of instability sets in.

I think a big part of your challenge is your wheels being 9" wide with a -38mm offset and a fairly wide tire. I won't have as much trouble with the stock 16x8 and a SS TrXus which has a rather narrow tread for a 12.5 wide tire. I also plan to run a 1" wheel spacer. This set up worked for one,long term , Mud member whom I have confered with.

 

[mudgudgeon]

I'm building some rear upper shock mounts now to address that problem and get about an inch more uptravel. Here's where they're at currently.

Designed to for an eye instead of a stud so there's more shock options. Busy next few days but it should be done in a week when I can get back to them.

View attachment 1449028

I did similar front and rear on my 105series. I put a holesaw through the original shock mount top plate, added a bit of tube, then welded the disc cut from the original back onto the top of the tube.
I raised front and rear mounts by 60mm (2 3/8") with no clearance issues under the floor in the rear.
this lets you run a 3-4" lift with standard bumpstops without bottoming out the shocks. the raised top mount gives you more up travel without bottoming out the shock. the longer shock also gives more down travel than your average shock for a 3-4" lift. I have shocks made for a 5" lift with 2" spring lift (I know, its not "hardcore" but works really well), the 5" shock length seems to work well.

I also run no front sway bar, but still have a rear sway bar to help make the front end work more. the rear is heaps softer. I have drilled out the radius arm bushes to soften their flex.
my rear suspension will bind up before the shocks run out of travel because the sway bar links aren't long enough. If I modded the sway bay links, the rear would travel more.

I had some good pics of this, but photobucket seems to have eaten them! grrr

 

[Kevin8086]

I did similar front and rear on my 105series. I put a holesaw through the original shock mount top plate, added a bit of tube, then welded the disc cut from the original back onto the top of the tube.
I raised front and rear mounts by 60mm (2 3/8") with no clearance issues under the floor in the rear.
this lets you run a 3-4" lift with standard bumpstops without bottoming out the shocks. the raised top mount gives you more up travel without bottoming out the shock. the longer shock also gives more down travel than your average shock for a 3-4" lift. I have shocks made for a 5" lift with 2" spring lift (I know, its not "hardcore" but works really well), the 5" shock length seems to work well.

I also run no front sway bar, but still have a rear sway bar to help make the front end work more. the rear is heaps softer. I have drilled out the radius arm bushes to soften their flex.
my rear suspension will bind up before the shocks run out of travel because the sway bar links aren't long enough. If I modded the sway bay links, the rear would travel more.

I had some good pics of this, but photobucket seems to have eaten them! grrr

I have to run bump stops to keep the 37s from hitting the body and inner fenders without cutting. I'll eventually cut if I need to but I'm doing what I can for now to not cut anything.
I don't do any high speed anything other than the highway. Off-roading for me is more crawling type stuff.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Yeah, fair enough. your 80 looks badass with 37s stuffed in the wheel wells

 

[rc51kid]

I went round and round with similar questions but from a different direction recently. I wanted to run 33" with 2" lift. My springs are long so i felt i could run a long shock with out dropping spring. Since the tires wont rub i will run OEM bump stops. But a lot of manufacturers dont want to give their shock dimensions, strange i know.

I had a legitimate time crunch before a trip and NEEDED new shocks ASAP. The Metaltech and Radflo came through and built them in a hurry. Less than 10 days for delivery. Icon was a several month wait. The guys at Radflo were AMAZING to deal with!. It was a considerable expense so i will be keeping them for some time. I ended up with shocks about the same length as OME L shocks. Not really as long as i would have wanted but not really bad for a 2" lift. If in future i go to 35" and i will have to add longer bump stops in the rear to avoid rubbing. If i do that i will lower the top shock mount and these shocks will be near ideal for a 2" lift. So in the end these wont be ideal but should be very good.

I dont really know the point of my post, just kind of rambling. But i think in general most people could go longer on shocks. In my mind tire size dictated bump stops to avoid rubbing. Then suspension binding ultimately limits downward travel. but more realistically spring free length does. Most people pick a spring to get the lift they want, Spring free length then is whatever it is. Shocks extended and compressed length should then be chosen to match the factors mentioned above.

 

[wtmtnterror]

I'm kind of in the same boat right now, running OME 5" coils on 37s and L shocks. The front needs about 2" more shock while the rear is stuffed into the fender. I have 2" bump stop extensions and it's not enough to stop the travel in back.

@GW Nugget what shocks are you on that are 2" longer?
I looked at Fox but didn't see anything longer that was drop in.
Some recent pictures for reference...

 

[chap79]

I'm kind of in the same boat right now, running OME 5" coils on 37s and L shocks. The front needs about 2" more shock while the rear is stuffed into the fender. I have 2" bump stop extensions and it's not enough to stop the travel in back.

@GW Nugget what shocks are you on that are 2" longer?
I looked at Fox but didn't see anything longer that was drop in.
Some recent pictures for reference...

View attachment 1450089

View attachment 1450090

View attachment 1450091

With the rear you can space the rear shocks down to fit your needs with the Fox shocks. I have the 3-5" lift rear shocks on my rig and they do not unseat with a OME 4" lift spring. They "just" reach full extension at full drop. Also with my setup 3" bump stop extensions in the rear take care is rubbing with a 37" tire.

It you ran the it and spaced it down to maximize your travel you'd probably be fine.

 

[GW Nugget]

I'm kind of in the same boat right now, running OME 5" coils on 37s and L shocks. The front needs about 2" more shock while the rear is stuffed into the fender. I have 2" bump stop extensions and it's not enough to stop the travel in back.

@GW Nugget what shocks are you on that are 2" longer?
I looked at Fox but didn't see anything longer that was drop in.
Some recent pictures for reference...

View attachment 1450089

View attachment 1450090

View attachment 1450091

The rears are OME Ls no exstension.
Front are AutoCraft spec Icon 56511 stage 1 2.0 for the 75mm Slinky. The other is Doetsch Techs SS812.

 

[chap79]

The rears are OME Ls no exstension.
Front are AutoCraft spec Icon 56511 stage 1 2.0 for the 75mm Slinky. The other is Doetsch Techs SS812.

How did you like the Doetsch Techs? I thought they were better than ProComps but not as responsive/firm as OMEs.

 

[Kevin8086]

So today I decided to cut the inner fender and hammer the lip on the outer fender since the tire was rubbing pretty early. Was still about an inch away from my 2" bump stops up front. Rear seems to have plenty of travel and the front isn't bad ramping the front up but when I ramped the rear up the front hit inner fender waaayyyyy too early so I just said effff it and cut the inner fender. Will hopefully finish up tomorrow and retry the ramps.
I extended lower shock mount by doubling up the shock bushing and just using a random small rubber bushing on the bottom. Seems like this will all work out. Will see tomorrow

 

[mudgudgeon]

Why space shock mounts down? I'm missing something here.

I understand spacing bump stops for clearance for 37s.

My logic for raising shock mounts is an increase in the possible maximum open shock length, which frees up more down travel.
Raised shock mounts makes room for the longer closed length of a long shock without reducing up travel and without bottoming out the shock.

My rig is low and stable (2" lift) with travel equivalent of your off the shelf 4-5" lift or better. It just needs a better quality shock under it.

Front

Rear

Looks like I skipped the rattle can stage!

 

[Kevin8086]

I don't know how y'all are stuffing 37s and not rubbing. Mine wants to rub a lot of places. How do you do 2" and fit 37s with no cutting or rubbing

 

[Kevin8086]

Why space shock mounts down? I'm missing something here.

I understand spacing bump stops for clearance for 37s.

My logic for raising shock mounts is an increase in the possible maximum open shock length, which frees up more down travel.
Raised shock mounts makes room for the longer closed length of a long shock without reducing up travel and without bottoming out the shock.

My rig is low and stable (2" lift) with travel equivalent of your off the shelf 4-5" lift or better. It just needs a better quality shock under it.

Front
View attachment 1450105

Rear
View attachment 1450106 View attachment 1450107

Looks like I skipped the rattle can stage!

Gil what I understand, you can only go up so far due to clearances so when adding additional length to your bumostop you change the shock mount to pick up down travel from the uptravel that was lost.

 

[mudgudgeon]

I don't know how y'all are stuffing 37s and not rubbing. Mine wants to rub a lot of places. How do you do 2" and fit 37s with no cutting or rubbing

mine is a 105series live axle (essentially the same chassis and suspension as 80series).
with 2" lift and 35's, I had to break out the grinder and FBH for clearance

 

[mudgudgeon]

Gil what I understand, you can only go up so far due to clearances so when adding additional length to your bumostop you change the shock mount to pick up down travel from the uptravel that was lost.

hmmmm. raising shock mounts by 60mm (2 3/8") let me run a shock with a 60mm longer closed length. that also equates to approx 120mm (~5") longer open length, thats 5" of additional travel than would be possible using the standard shock mounts without bump stops.

even with extended bump stops to limit up travel, keeping the existing shock mount location (not spacing it down) you still gain from being able to run a longer shock no?
spacing the top shock mount down limits your potential total travel

 

[Kevin8086]

hmmmm. raising shock mounts by 60mm (2 3/8") let me run a shock with a 60mm longer closed length. that also equates to approx 120mm (~5") longer open length, thats 5" of additional travel than would be possible using the standard shock mounts without bump stops.

even with extended bump stops to limit up travel, keeping the existing shock mount location (not spacing it down) you still gain from being able to run a longer shock no?
spacing the top shock mount down limits your potential total travel

35s were no big deal. Everything fit and cleared with no rubbing anywhere. Not so with 37s. I also don't think I can flex very much more due to things binding up. A longer shock on stock mount won't help due to binding issues. The OME Ls seem to work pretty well for what I use the truck for. There may be better out there but I enjoy just driving the truck and wheeling as much as I can when I have free time instead of working on the truck in my free time trying to figure out if there's something better. The truck just plain flat out works.

 

[baldilocks]

35s were no big deal. Everything fit and cleared with no rubbing anywhere. Not so with 37s. I also don't think I can flex very much more due to things binding up. A longer shock on stock mount won't help due to binding issues. The OME Ls seem to work pretty well for what I use the truck for. There may be better out there but I enjoy just driving the truck and wheeling as much as I can when I have free time instead of working on the truck in my free time trying to figure out if there's something better. The truck just plain flat out works.

Exactly!! Couldn't have said this better myself.

 

[VuickB6]

I don't know how y'all are stuffing 37s and not rubbing. Mine wants to rub a lot of places. How do you do 2" and fit 37s with no cutting or rubbing

Not sure on the 2" lift but a 4" lift clears my 37s great. Just a tad bit of rubbing on the rear bumper when they're stuffed in there.

 

[mudgudgeon]

I enjoy just driving the truck and wheeling as much as I can when I have free time instead of working on the truck in my free time trying to figure out if there's something better. The truck just plain flat out works.

Can't argue with that

 

[GW Nugget]

How did you like the Doetsch Techs? I thought they were better than ProComps but not as responsive/firm as OMEs.

I went from the Doetsch Techs to the Ls & really liked them, the DTS are good but need to be much firmer to prevent sway. Also the DT shocks are none charged. The L shocks are a great shock for the money... I just wanted a longer shock.