People wheel FJC's and 100/200's, and don't feel limited. Doesn't mean they don't wheel like a board though. (In fact a club member of mine flopped his FJC due to the lack of flex.)
Once you get long travel shocks, you'll never go back. You don't see people running 12"+ travel shocks, then deciding they liked 10" travel shocks better. It's even worse than tire size....
You can wheel just fine with them, there's no question about that. But you'll be lifting tires a
lot more. I've been on a couple runs with 80's with OEM length shocks and a 2.5" lift, and I could watch them lift one or two tires where I'd drive the exact same line and not lift one (and I had much shorter shocks back then than I do now).
The limiting factor in this case
is the shock length. Literally
nothing else will limit you (at least not for the ranges we're talking about). The bushings will happily flex (okay, maybe they're not
happy about it), the arms are plenty long enough, the springs might come loose (easily solved with some zip ties or wire)....there's nothing stopping you from running a 14" travel shock or even longer (droop wise, compressed length is another issue). I've lifted 2 tires off the ground (one front one rear), and that's running 12.5" (front) and 14" (rear) travel shocks, so just a
bit longer than OEM length....the axle would have keep dropping even further.
And keep in mind that since the axle travels in an arc, each inch of droop isn't one for one to each inch of travel on the shock. In other words, 1" additional travel in the shock gives you more than 1" additional droop. So a 12" travel shock over a 10" travel shock doesn't sound like much....until you realize that it gives you a bunch more axle travel than 2".
Now, all that being said once the springs are loose in the buckets, and additional droop is not nearly the help that it is if they're not (at that point you lose the majority of your traction). But it will still help with the teeter-totter problem (which is how my friend flopped his FJC).
