Seems like there has been a number of questions recently on stock shock length various spring combinations. I bought my cruiser with the 850/830/N73/n74e OME setup, with one of the front shocks blown. I need to replace at least the fronts, so figured I'd post up some measurements as I try to decide if I want to go with longer travel shocks as the replacement.
I've always had a suspicion that with no additional weight there was only a few inches of droop left in the shock which could lead to unsafe handling when cornering and encountering a pothole or somesuch. Leading to a situation where there is not enough down travel available to keep the wheel in contact with the road. There are a few really good posts from a number of years ago. Here's one:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/93169-so-what-point-do-you-need-go-l-shocks-2.html
As a disclaimer, this was done with a yakima tape, so it may not be accurate to the thousandths of a inch (and why the bushing/body measurements are 1/8 off)
OME N73:
Extended Body to body: 24 1/8 inches
Extended Inner bushing to bushing: 26 inches
Extended Upper shield to lower body: 12 3/8 inches
Compressed Body to body: 13 7/8 inches
Compressed Inner busing to bushing: 15 7/8 inches
Compressed Upper shield to lower body: 2 1/4 inches
Where it sits on the car at normal ride height:
Upper shield to lower body: 8 7/8 inches
Bumpstop contact to axle: 4 inches
So, at normal ride height (minus driver, but with 200 lbs of tires in the back) the cruiser has 6 5/8 inches to full compression, and 3.5 inches to full extension That proportion seems a bit off to me.
I also roughly calculate that if I have 4 inches to bumpstop contact, and figure maybe an inch of bumpstop compression (its only 3 inches total, so 33% compression?) that's 5 inches till the axle stops moving upward, but I have over 6 1/2 inches of upward travel.
So I could in theory go to almost a 15.5 inch compressed shock. The OME L's (from slee's website) are at ~15 inches compressed. The longer Procomp 9000's from Ebag's post are 16 1/4, so I'd have to lower bumpstops for that potentially. For reference (thanks to Greetruck!) a stock oem Toyota shock is ~13.5" compressed, 22.5" extended
The option that I am now leaning towards is using a stock length shock, but putting an eye adapter on the bottom to space things down an inch or so. Number of options are also increased going to a eye lower rather than post.
That would put a ~10" travel shock at 5.5 upward, 4.5 downward. Once its loaded a bit more, it would probably rest somewhere in the 50/50 range, instead of the 66/33 % range.
As for brand, not sure if I'll use the OME's again or go to a different one, the OME that blew out was only a little over a year old.
So one question, does anyone have any links to post-eye converters that arn't 25 bucks on the 4wheelparts website?
--Corey
Extended body to body
Compressed body to body
On the cruiser, shield to lower body
Compressed bushing to bushing:
Distance axle to bumpstop
I've always had a suspicion that with no additional weight there was only a few inches of droop left in the shock which could lead to unsafe handling when cornering and encountering a pothole or somesuch. Leading to a situation where there is not enough down travel available to keep the wheel in contact with the road. There are a few really good posts from a number of years ago. Here's one:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/93169-so-what-point-do-you-need-go-l-shocks-2.html
As a disclaimer, this was done with a yakima tape, so it may not be accurate to the thousandths of a inch (and why the bushing/body measurements are 1/8 off)
OME N73:
Extended Body to body: 24 1/8 inches
Extended Inner bushing to bushing: 26 inches
Extended Upper shield to lower body: 12 3/8 inches
Compressed Body to body: 13 7/8 inches
Compressed Inner busing to bushing: 15 7/8 inches
Compressed Upper shield to lower body: 2 1/4 inches
Where it sits on the car at normal ride height:
Upper shield to lower body: 8 7/8 inches
Bumpstop contact to axle: 4 inches
So, at normal ride height (minus driver, but with 200 lbs of tires in the back) the cruiser has 6 5/8 inches to full compression, and 3.5 inches to full extension That proportion seems a bit off to me.
I also roughly calculate that if I have 4 inches to bumpstop contact, and figure maybe an inch of bumpstop compression (its only 3 inches total, so 33% compression?) that's 5 inches till the axle stops moving upward, but I have over 6 1/2 inches of upward travel.
So I could in theory go to almost a 15.5 inch compressed shock. The OME L's (from slee's website) are at ~15 inches compressed. The longer Procomp 9000's from Ebag's post are 16 1/4, so I'd have to lower bumpstops for that potentially. For reference (thanks to Greetruck!) a stock oem Toyota shock is ~13.5" compressed, 22.5" extended
The option that I am now leaning towards is using a stock length shock, but putting an eye adapter on the bottom to space things down an inch or so. Number of options are also increased going to a eye lower rather than post.
That would put a ~10" travel shock at 5.5 upward, 4.5 downward. Once its loaded a bit more, it would probably rest somewhere in the 50/50 range, instead of the 66/33 % range.
As for brand, not sure if I'll use the OME's again or go to a different one, the OME that blew out was only a little over a year old.
So one question, does anyone have any links to post-eye converters that arn't 25 bucks on the 4wheelparts website?
--Corey
Extended body to body
Compressed body to body
On the cruiser, shield to lower body
Compressed bushing to bushing:
Distance axle to bumpstop
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