This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Looks are deceiving. The bracket is 1/4” carbon steel, the hangers that hold the leaf spring on are only 3/16” thick. I assure you this will not bend. The space above where the gusset stops is were the metal bends back. @wngrog would need a built LS engine, and a lot of beer to bend this thing! He’s not building a rock bouncer!
- Thread starter
- #444
I agree. Also, I still have the stock bumps but even smashing the dunes I never fully compressed the springs to hit either the shock bumps or the stock bumps. It must run out of shackle or something.
MOTOV8R
SILVER Star
That 1/4 plate will bend, it needs a rib on the backside or the sides on the front need to go up further. The moment of inertia for flat stock is terrible.
whitey45
SILVER Star
It will bend, I would have run the lower gussets all the way up and tie into the upper box. Otherwise looks great.
I have dibs it bends on the first test drive. One could almost bend that by hand. Just the tension on the shock with bend that over a few good bumps. I was hoping to see a spine on the backside of it as well and was hoping it had one there, just not seen in the photos.
I understand your concerns with the bracket. If you can bend that 1/4 plate bracket by hand I’d really like to see it... I will go back and rework the bracket so all of the welder/engineers on this page will be able to sleep tonight.
I don’t have an opinion or knowledge enough to argue but please don’t stop posting pics though. I enjoy seeing the fabrication skills.
- Thread starter
- #451
Thanks for the input guys. Justin will fix it all up good.
I’m not trying to debate or criticize your work just trying to further my own knowledge. I believe my original questions/concerns centered around if you took the potential shock loading the two attachment points for those shocks will see if used as a bump stop on a 5000 lb vehicle into account when you came up with this mounting option?
I’m not familiar with the pirate single shear debate so please forgive my ignorance. When I’m referring to the lower shock mount bolt in single shear my concern isn’t that the bolt will shear as much as the small tab it’s welded to will bend putting the shock shaft into a bind compounding the problem.
Again please don’t take these comments as criticism, this is just friendly conversation between a couple guys enjoying our hobby bouncing ideas around.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #453
I’m not sure if the shocks are being used as bumps to be honest. They are designed to handle some load but I’m sure they would not take a constant pounding from jumps and whoops.
Once I get it back I’ll make sure it all gets flexed fully and make sure the shocks are not taking the full load.
Once I get it back I’ll make sure it all gets flexed fully and make sure the shocks are not taking the full load.
Agree and I’m guessing you’re not planning on taking this pig on the racecourse so jumps and high speed whoops should be kept to a minimum.
We have similar front suspensions (cruiser outfitters OME 55 lift spring) and similar front weight, I have King bumps in the front on mine and they take a beating on fast fire road rips or anytime I’m following @fj55-100 at a pig party.
I would cut those oversized bumps off the shocks, make spacers for the factory bumps and leave the Shaw Fab Co. shock mount alone. They look clean and should be more than strong enough for just the forces your shock valving will generate.
- Thread starter
- #455
I’d actually be shocked (see what I did there?) that these springs will flatten out enough to bottom anything out.
When I installed the Iron Man Pro Foam I took it and fully stuffed the drivers side to make sure the MUCH larger shock body did not whack the drag link.
You can’t see it in this photo but there was about 2” of room from the OEM bump to the axle. Also, the upper shock shaft had 1” showing before the rubber bump.
The thing limiting my uptravel at this point is that springs have reached full flat length.
It’s no ramp champ!
When I installed the Iron Man Pro Foam I took it and fully stuffed the drivers side to make sure the MUCH larger shock body did not whack the drag link.
You can’t see it in this photo but there was about 2” of room from the OEM bump to the axle. Also, the upper shock shaft had 1” showing before the rubber bump.
The thing limiting my uptravel at this point is that springs have reached full flat length.
It’s no ramp champ!
firefighterjed
SILVER Star
I’m a rookie, just thinking thru this, but full flat springs won’t stop the upward travel. On your stuff test I think you just ran out of gravity. Add some inertia to the equation and there will be more upward travel. I think I would want to know for sure what’s going to hit first when you truly max out the suspension..
Please do not do anything with them and prove us wrong. It is easy to bend a 2-3" wide 1/4 plate steel with a 12" lever. Put a piece in a vice and see what happens. The stock mounts where thinner but had bracing on either side to make it stronger.
Nolan, I understand that flexing the suspension does not get it close to bottoming out. Take a ditch or bump at 10-15 mph and see what happens. Physics do a lot of weird things at speed. The faster the shock tries to move the harder it is to push and the more resistance it has to push on the mounts.
I want to make sure you do not mess up your shocks.
Rob
- Thread starter
- #458
I agree. The bumps were at the top of the shocks when I was smashing this dune But it really felt smooth doing it. Never felt anything jarring.
- Thread starter
- #459
If I do bumps, I would do Timbren. These things are pretty pimp and no issues with packaging.
www.etrailer.com
Those Cruiser rubbers are old and rotten. I’m not gonna fool with them at all.
Timbren Active Off-Road Bumpstops - Front Suspension - 2,000 lbs Timbren Vehicle Suspension TABSTOFL
Lowest Prices for the best vehicle suspension from Timbren. Timbren Active Off-Road Bumpstops - Front Suspension - 2,000 lbs part number TABSTOFLC1 c
www.etrailer.com
Those Cruiser rubbers are old and rotten. I’m not gonna fool with them at all.
Last edited:
I’m not trying to be argumentative and I’m not implying you’re building a rock bouncer but I’ve seen your hill climb video and know you will use the skinny pedal on occasion.
You are correct it’s not possible to flatten out your springs by flexing on a dirt mound, but if we add some kinetic energy into the equation everything changes. Just to pick some real world fire road bashing numbers 35MPH = 31FPS, 5000LBS traveling @ 31FPS can generate 202103 foot pounds of kinetic energy give or take. Not to get too enginerdy but we should agree it is conceivable that your springs could flatten out more in real world driving than possible parked on a dirt mound.
If we agree that 35 miles an hour is a reasonable speed to drive on a dirt backroad and we also agree that backroads have unavoidable potholes then I would say a bump stop designed to make contact with a sturdy suspension component with some form of energy absorption would be a benefit.
Last edited:
