Uptravel vs. ride height (1 Viewer)

[Eskimo]

Let's assume you've got your rig as low as you can get it, and you're getting ready to set ride height with 14" travel shocks.

F&R winches would be installed.

25" under the belly and 3-4" of uptravel, or 28" under the belly and 6-7" of up (with the ability to suck it down to 25" for the off-camber stuff)?

 

[scottryana]

I think it depends entirely on how you are going to use your 40. If you are just going to trailer it to the rocks and do nothing but rock crawling then the lower height would be a bonus. If you are going to drive it on the street, through any high speed desert sections, or in the sand it might be nice to have the additional uptravel.

Ryan.

 

[woody]

Mine fits your first option....25" at the skid and 3-4" of up travel at the shocks...for trail/rock use, it's great...it sucks for jumping tho...and with the limit straps, it's too tight for washboards too (outta do winches front and rear, haven't yet tho)

 

[Eskimo]

I think it depends entirely on how you are going to use your 40. If you are just going to trailer it to the rocks and do nothing but rock crawling then the lower height would be a bonus. If you are going to drive it on the street, through any high speed desert sections, or in the sand it might be nice to have the additional uptravel.

Ryan.

Good point. It is a trailered rig, that will see <50 miles of street use a year (I will have wheel brakes on the front axle).

The trails I run are typically Tellico type stuff.. No dune jumping for me. We are going to be holding a rock race type of local event though, and that would be fun to enter..

BUT, most of what I like is low-speed technical stuff, and there's a good bit of off-camber.

Rig will be ~83" outside - outside on Rockwells ( = lots of unsprung weight)

 

[Mace]

If you even think you want to try rock racing, so the 6" of up travel.

BTW, how are you gonna do 83" wide on rockwells?

You narrowing them?

 

[scottryana]

It is an easy solution if you are running coilovers. If you want 3-4" of travel for most of the year, set it up that way, and then if you ever do a Rock race, just spin the coilover adjusters down and raise your ride height for the event.

Ryan.

 

[Wilson]

Coil overs will give you the adjustability, but you can also run air bumps to soften the impacts for the high speed stuff.

 

[Eskimo]

BTW, how are you gonna do 83" wide on rockwells?

You narrowing them?

yeah - narrowed, hubs out, have 17x9 wheels with 6.5" BS (to put the drive flange even with the beadlock ring), and 42" IROK's.

My garage is only 90" wide at the opening, so I needed 'fudge' room.

Good point about the coil-overs.. I was planning air shocks, but this could be a very compelling arguement towards coil-overs, for the simplicity of the adjustment.

Hmm, I should decide that soon, since a guy wants to trade my winch for 4 14" air shocks and a servicing setup..

 

[Mace]

You will have to do a lot of calculations to balance a set of coilovers at those heights..

When you use a CO with very little uptravel you typically need a shorter spring and tender springs. If you just "spun them down" to give yourself another 4" (or so) of ride height you have the potential of locking the springs up during compression.

 

[fj40charles]

I didn't vote... I vote for 28" belly height with 3-6" of uptravel....

If you are not jumping, up travel is not as important as down travel.. You can limit the up travel with bump stops.

 

[scottryana]

Mace,

I know that you probably have more experience than I do with the coilovers, but in my particular application, with the block heights of my springs, sliders, and tender coil, I have about 6" that I can adjust the ride height collar down before I run into spring bind at maximum compression. Every case will be different but in my case a 14"x2.5" coilover with a 14" main, 12" secondary, and a 5" tender I have quite a bit of flexability. Since this is my first set of coilovers maybe my setup isn't ideal, but it was what Polyperformance spec'd me when I called them.

Ryan.

 

[Mace]

Never said it was impossible, just another thing to think about..

I assume you are using 2.5" coils and 2" coilovers correct?
Not a 2.5" coilover?

 

[scottryana]

Mace,

I am using a 2.5" coilover. with 3" ID coils. They are the Fox reservoir coilovers. It is a tight fit, I almost wish I would have used a 2" coilover.

Ryan.

 

[Mark W]

For anything except slow speed crawling, up travel is a lot more important than all the intermet bench racing would have you think. with a compliant suspension any sort of bump at any higher than a wlking speed will bottom out a suspension with only 3-4 inches of up travel. BTDT. Don't eventhink about carrying a load too.

For a rock buggy, I'd be much more willing to go that low.

You *should* be able to get 5-6 inches of up travel and a frame height of 26. Running 49.5s I can do this in a non-buggied '40.


Mark...

 

[CHWTOY]

You *should* be able to get 5-6 inches of up travel and a frame height of 26. Running 49.5s I can do this in a non-buggied '40.


Mark...

Now be fair Mark, you're only running 39.5s on your non-buggied 40 not 49.5s...

But yeah it should be doable.

 

[Mace]

I agree with Mark if you are running leaf springs.. If running coilovers I disagree.

I am running 4 or 5ish (closer to 4) inches of uptravel in my 40 (coilovers) and have no issue going as fast as I want to across the desert. And also across large rocks. It is more about tuning for what you want to do than anything else.

It is not a trophy truck by any means. But it does handle going fast off road better than any leaf sprung 40 I have ridden in. Big hits are just absorbed..

 

[wngrog]

I have 2" of uptravel showing on the shaft on my rear air shocks, and it still flexes fine

It depends on how wide the axles are, where the shocks are on the axle in relation to the body......

If I had it to do over, I would mount the shocks to the axle tube on the bottom and keep the same shock, but have more uptravel for high speed stuff.....

I think for your Cruiser three to 4" of uptravel is plenty. Keep it low.

 

[Mark W]

Now be fair Mark, you're only running 39.5s on your non-buggied 40 not 49.5s...

But yeah it should be doable.

..Oooppps.. Fat fingers this morning I guess.


Mark...

 

[Eskimo]

You *should* be able to get 5-6 inches of up travel and a frame height of 26. Running 39.5s I can do this in a non-buggied '40.

On rockwells?

It depends on how wide the axles are, where the shocks are on the axle in relation to the body......

Good point. I was referring to vertical axle travel.. Not trying to make people factor in shock vs. axle travel..

The shock bottoms will be as far to the knuckles as possible, which will give me ~10-15° angle inwards. I want to make sure I don't go past vertical as the axle moves around.. My old rear axle did this because of packaging constraints, and it sucks.

Mace - you think Scott's 5" tenders are what allow so much ride height adjustment without issues of binding? Man, these coil-overs are getting more and more expensive by the moment.. I was just gonna use air shocks and get out the 'cheap way' Oh well..

 

[Gumby]

Rockwells are a lot of mass to slow down in high speed or jumping any way you look at it.