shocks lengths

[tailpipes]

Done heaps of searches for this cannot find anything. Wounding what length shock to run front & rear? Using 4" flexy coils super flex arm & long arm kit with no body lift. I would love to be able to use these arm to there full poetical so if anyone is using this same set up i would like to hear what you have done thanks.

[azzad]

Cant you remove whatever shocks you have and do some testing and measuring to find the lengths that might work best for your particular setup?

Dazza

[HeathGQ]

ring Superior directly. Ask them what shocks they have been using. Was reading the blog on www.superiorengineering.com.au abut the super flex arm when I ordered a tie rod end.

Which by the way was received in 2 days with a stubby cooler and a big Sup sticker.

[GQ4B]

Talk to Shane from www.suspensionstuff.com.au

I already have super flex arms fitted and just recently purchased from him 6" Dobinson flexy coils and the adjustable Boss shocks. The front shocks measure 685mm extended pin to pin and the rears are 824mm eye to eye.

So far so go. The rears do stay captive, but we welded in some Superior drop out cones just in case. The fronts are fine. Flex is much better than my previous setup of 45mm big bore tough dogs adjustables and 6" heavy duty dobinson coils.

[tailpipes]

So is there no one out there that is running long arm kit & super flex arm in a 4" lift ? I have talked to Shane at SS and he helped me out with figures from BOSS & procomp but they still limit the travel of these arms. Just want ideas on what other people are running and would prefer to buy shocks first and fit it all in one hit rather then installing coils and arms then measuring for the shocks.

[GQ4B]

If the figures you got still limit the travel of the arms, then what is the "full potential" of your arms and how did you come to that conclusion? I would have thought you could always fit a longer shock to gain more flex, raising coil towers and making sure you extend bump stops accordingly. Am happy to be told otherwise!

[Suspension Stuff]

There are very soft 4" flexy coils but we haven't sold them for nearly a year because they were just too soft in my opinion.

I replaced these items with 5" and 6" front and rear flexy coils and 2 and 3" lift rear flexy coils and in the past few months brought out rear 4" flexy coils.

Some people will get a lot more flex then usual if they are willing to move shock mounts and drop out cones.

I have customers running 3" lift flexy coils on the rear and 32" (820mm) shocks. Because the compressed length is so long and you have to space out the bump stops so much you can be hitting the bump stops a little too often off road meaning the ride isn't ideal. In this situation, the shock mounts really should be moved.

Shane

[Suspension Stuff]

I would also like to add that Outerlimits is by far the best 4WD forum in Australia because if I said the above in other forums I would get a pm saying that it is against forum rules.

Shane

[MyGQ]

I would love to be a test pilot for some 7" flexy's

[Suspension Stuff]

I would love to be a test pilot for some 7" flexy's

I don't care about 7" flexy people

[tailpipes]

It would of been a year ago since i bought the coils off you shane, when you guys just moved into the new factory. When you talk about moving shock mounts is that front and rear and to where? My front mounts can be lifted 2" or so, but i will have some problems with the rear, the brake bias and the exhaust are in the road of the top mounts to be moved inwards together. All springs will be have retainers on them top and bottom.

[lewie]

i too am running 4" flexy kit, drop boxes and would like to get a superior flex arm soon but im not sure if i would get much out of it with the length of the front shocks atm. and worried about the increased flex in the front constantly stuff the bushes in the standard arm on the drivers side??

[Suspension Stuff]

You won't wear out bushes on the drivers side if you have a Superflex arm. Because the bushes have more give (Because they are closer together on the flex arm) you are actually preserving bushes.

We found that you get a lot more flex even with standard length shocks because most Nissans are so stiff in the front end and are only getting half the flex they could get.

Shane

[Suspension Stuff]

I would love to be a test pilot for some 7" flexy's

I wouldn't mind testing the 5 or 6" flexy's again.

Shane

[MyGQ]

7" is good, don't chicks want close to 8"??

[Suspension Stuff]

7" is good, don't chicks want close to 8"??

Not in my experience If it is too big it hurts to get up.

[MyGQ]

heheh good one

well either way King Springs suck thats for sure

too hard

[cspgq]

im running 5 inch flexy coils (i thought were 4 inch) with super flex arms. i started with efs extreme shocks for a patrol but found little improvment. now im running efs extremes for an 80 series cruiser with 2 inch spacers on the shock towers. now i get good travel and get just as far and further than mates of mine with front lockers and standard arms.

[Auto-Craft]

We use either 620mm or 700mm fronts on patrol, but require bump stop spacers for the 700's. Both are made and valved specificly to suit.

We also use a 895mm long front with new mounts, in smooth, or bypass.

On the rear we use either 735mm or 980mm with new top and bottom mounts for those. The 735mm need a 50mm rear bump stop spacer, and they are valved to suit. The others can be smoothie, or bypass on the rear.

We also have coils which stay captive with those and are a 3-4" lift.

To long a shock in the rear, especially if not valved correctly can really play havoc with the vehicle roll centre and make for poor wheel lifting handling.

To long in the front, and the front will get tripped up on steep downills, where the wheel can stop, and the car pivot over it, best to limit front travel, in the centre, and allow it to articulate around the centre limiter.

[BIGDAVET86]

What do the above setups cost with fox shcoks and custom mounts on some it must be a pretty penny a?. Looks like one hell of a sweet setup regardless!!

Cheers
Dave

[tailpipes]

Assassin off road awesome pictures. Do you have any close ups on your relocated top shock mounts?

[Auto-Craft]

Cost wise, the bolt ons work out around $450 ea, and full set up with coils, bump spacers, rods, steering, and smoothies works out around 6k, and triple bypass around 8.5k installed, depending on options, and what the vehile has fitted already.

[Suspension Stuff]

Edit: I was talking about Boss shocks and they turned out to be a problem shock.

[tailpipes]

Assassin offroad thanks for them pics there mad, have you done any wagons with that set up? Again awesome work.

[MyGQ]

For those who don't know the 1058mm and 900mm extended length Boss adjustable are in stock for those who are willing to do the mods to fit them in. They are currently $250 each. 830mm or less Boss Adjustable shocks are $215 each.

Shane

what mods are required to fit them

[Auto-Craft]

Assassin offroad thanks for them pics there mad, have you done any wagons with that set up? Again awesome work.

On a wagon, it needs holes boxed in the floor, which fit under the drawer height normally, just needs the drawers shortened to suit.

If your going to modify shock mounts to fit a shock, might as well fit something you can tune, for all the extra work of making them fit.

Otherwise a 12" stroke shock is all your going to be able to use, unless your running over 6" of lift, but then your not worried about handling either

[tailpipes]

The brake bias does this need to been modded, moved or shocks clear it with mod?

[Suspension Stuff]

Again talking about bad shocks

[Auto-Craft]

Our Boss adjustable 820mm shock has 12.83 inches of travel and most people are quite content in fact stoked about this much travel. If you plan to run longer shocks you are quite keen for max flex.

In a month or 2 we will have 782mm or 12 inch travel shocks available for the 3 inch flexy coils. We have found that if you run longer shocks without changing the mounts you sometimes hit on compression on a bumpy track so you lose some of your ride comfort which the Boss shocks have plenty of. You will find you won't be on setting 1 or 12 but somewhere in between.

For the 4" lift we have to do some more testing on a bumpy track with the 820mm shocks before I can be really sure. If someone was thinking of testing them on a 4" flexy kit, I am willing to swap them for the slightly shorter shocks if it is a bit bumpy.

Shane

So what you refer to as "bumpy" is the shock bottoming out, rather than it using the bump stop as its designed, and transferring all the load into the shock mounts instead ?

Is the shock designed to be a bump stop ?

Is it warranty replaced if it has been bottomed out ?

For a 12" stroke 735mm shock, you need a 50mm rear bump stop spacer, so 780mm would need a 100mm bump spacer in the rear, with a 3" lift this would leave about 100mm [4"] uptravel, and the 820mm would require 140mm of bump stop spacer, meaning only around 60mm uptravel, so the 780mm gains nothing more in travel, only where its placed, and the 820mm gains an extra inch [25mm]

Ideal shock placement would see 1/3 uptravel, and 2/3 down travel normally, but with only 60mm [2 3/8"]up travel on that length meaning only 17% rather than 33% uptravel, and 60mm is about the same up travel as my lowered commodore has.

In the front, 611mm shock req 20mm bump spacer, so 780mm would need a 190mm bump spacer, so up travel would be around 40mm, and the 820mm would need 230mm bump spacer and have almost zero uptravel, without changng the mounts.

Same as rear, if you changethe mounts, reduce the bump stop spacers, you gain 25mm of travel from changingthe mounts and going to 780mm longer, and 40mm extra travel with 820mm shocks.

Once you start changingthe mounts, then the 1000mm rear, and 850mm fronts give you much more usable travel as a 14" stroke, and 10.5" stroke to keep the coils captive, and use the sway bars as well.

1250mm ramp [4'6"] 10 psi in tyres, sway bars connected, so they work full up and down travel with the above shock lengths fitted as triple bypass adjustable shocks.

[Auto-Craft]

The brake bias does this need to been modded, moved or shocks clear it with mod?

Ideal is to keep the spring mount for the bias in the same place at ride height with the lift as it was std.