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Shocks for alifted sierra.

Tech Talk for Suzuki owners.

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Shocks for alifted sierra.

Post by suzuki boy »

This has probably been answered a hundred times before but i searched and couldn't really find much! I have a leafy with about 3 inches of lift and need some new shocks. What lenghth shock would i need? Are there any to stay away from? Is there any point putting adjustables in? THANKS
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Post by christover1 »

The shox need to be long enough for full suspension droop, and short enough not to bottom out on compression, also allowing a bit for sudden or dramatic movements which can stretch or squash even more..

Remove your shox and jack and or squash and measure away.

If you can afford rancho adjustables, they are good, but zooks being light, you don't use all the settings.

Most modern shox are load sensitive and soften at low speed and stiffen at high speed.

I like ARB's OME but not sure if thier newer DAKAR version is as good..

christover
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Post by suzuki boy »

Thanks for the info. I will try this on the week end. Both sides should be the same lenght yeah? Do i need stiffer ones in the back as i have cargo drawes in there or will adjustables be able to be set different? THANKS
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Post by Gwagensteve »

If only I had a dollar.....

Take you car out to a play type area. Disconnect the shocks you have now. Cross the car up on an obstacle until you get a wheel in the air. See how close the axles get to the bumpstops. The front should reach the bumpstop easily, the rear should be easy to get within about 1".

If you can't get the axles to settle onto the bumpstops, then either a) your springs are too stiff or B) they are too tall

You have two options in this case - lower the bumpstops or remove leaves from your springs until the cars sits at a more realistic height

If you space the bumpstops down, then you can fit a usefully longer shock. The limiting factor then will become shackle length and position and free arch of the spring.

If you remove leaves to get the car to settle onto the existing bumpstops, you will find that unless you raise the top shock mount, you can't get a usefully longer shock into the car.

ARB/OME have already have done all this work for you if you don't lower your bumpstops/raise the upper mounts. There is no real way around this- usefully (say, over 1") longer shocks will just not go into the stock spot with the bumpstops in the stock spots.

Chris is right- you need to allow 1" more compression in the shock that than the measurement from mount to mount at full compression.

There are lots of springs available for sierras that are too tall and need to get the springs pulled to get ride height and travel right.

Steve.
[quote="greg"] some say he is a man without happy dreams, or that he sees silver linings on clouds and wonders why they are not platinum... all we know, is he's called the stevie.[/quote]
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Post by Gwagensteve »

If only I had a dollar.....

Take you car out to a play type area. Disconnect the shocks you have now. Cross the car up on an obstacle until you get a wheel in the air. See how close the axles get to the bumpstops. The front should reach the bumpstop easily, the rear should be easy to get within about 1".

If you can't get the axles to settle onto the bumpstops, then either a) your springs are too stiff or B) they are too tall

You have two options in this case - lower the bumpstops or remove leaves from your springs until the cars sits at a more realistic height

If you space the bumpstops down, then you can fit a usefully longer shock. The limiting factor then will become shackle length and position and free arch of the spring.

If you remove leaves to get the car to settle onto the existing bumpstops, you will find that unless you raise the top shock mount, you can't get a usefully longer shock into the car.

ARB/OME have already have done all this work for you if you don't lower your bumpstops/raise the upper mounts. There is no real way around this- usefully (say, over 1") longer shocks will just not go into the stock spot with the bumpstops in the stock spots.

Chris is right- you need to allow 1" more compression in the shock that than the measurement from mount to mount at full compression.

There are lots of springs available for sierras that are too tall and need to get the springs pulled to get ride height and travel right.

Steve.
[quote="greg"] some say he is a man without happy dreams, or that he sees silver linings on clouds and wonders why they are not platinum... all we know, is he's called the stevie.[/quote]
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Post by christover1 »

suzuki boy wrote:Thanks for the info. I will try this on the week end. Both sides should be the same lenght yeah? Do i need stiffer ones in the back as i have cargo drawes in there or will adjustables be able to be set different? THANKS
Both sides will be same, but rear should be very different to front.

The springs hold the weight, mostly, so shouldn't matter?
But adjustables you can play with till ya happy.
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Post by Gwagensteve »

....or not

you can't choose adjustable Rancho's based on fit and assume the valving will be right. On RS9000's the valving is application specific on all but a couple of (very very long) part #'s so if you select a shock that fits from, say, a coil spring application, or something with a big long leaf spring the valving will be way too soft for your application.

I know this because it happened to me and I paid for the shocks I wanted to be dyno'ed.

The result was that I had to run the fronts at 1-2 and the rears all the way up and the valving was still far from correct.

I have seen cars with Ranchos on them with terribly mismatched valving front to rear.

I wouldn't pay $200+ per shock for a 5-6" travel shock in any case. I only chose 9000's for my car because they were longer than I could get from anyone else at the time and I has some control over valving. Since the novelty has worn off I very rarely adjust them.

I build sierras with OME N76 shocks but these are very long and a complete PITA to fit requiring longer shock mounts, holes through the floor at the rear (even with a 2" BL) and lowered bump stops. They have good valving though, are cheap enough and quite durable. They are predominantly required to allow enough travel for rear springs up front.

Steve.
[quote="greg"] some say he is a man without happy dreams, or that he sees silver linings on clouds and wonders why they are not platinum... all we know, is he's called the stevie.[/quote]
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Post by suzuki boy »

About how much are the arb shocks worth?
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Post by muppet_man67 »

they are about 80-100 I think. for a 3 inch lift the front arb shocks may not be long enough, they are desighned for a 40mm spring with standard shackles. most likely you will have to get longer shocks and adjust your bumpstops accordingly. as gwagonsteve said, the best way to get your shock lengths right is to remove the shocks and measure droop and compression. find a shock that fulfills the droop you are getting and adjust your bumpstops acording the uptravel of the shocks that you get. alternatively you can make taller shock mounts.
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Post by suzuki boy »

The taller shock mounts are they the hoops you see up in the wheel arch? How much are they worth?
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Post by mistaboz »

Ive got 2 inch spring lift and 2 inch extended shackles.
Giving me a total of 3 inches lift.
I managed to find the appropriate shocks.
Took a fair bit of hunting around though.
Went for EFS x2 and a company that is somehow related to EFS x2. Cant remember which ones were for front or back.
Didnt have to extend my bumpstops and they are just right for the amount of droop i get.
All measured while ramping the vehicle up, so i did actually have load on the springs.
If you're prepar to spend some time you'll find what you want.

Cheers Paul..
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Post by suzuki boy »

Thanks for that Paul. It has shocks in it already but the guy before me put them in and ive sence done some extended shackles and i think there on there way out so will mesure them up and keep EFS in mind THANKS
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Post by Gwagensteve »

Suzukiboy,

Shock mounts are very much personal preference on the way they are built, however, the very tall "hoop" style of tube shock mount is far too tall and bulky for most sierras. Mine are aonly about 150mm above the chassis rail which is about 100mm over stock but still looks pretty subtle. If you look at the clearance between the tyres and the shock when you are crossed up there is very little room for a taller mount than this, and even with bumpstop spacers and offset rims the tyres usually touch the mount. There's just not a mot of room in a sierra guard.

Steve.
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Post by nicbeer »

Steve,

what i pm'd you the other day about moving the std mount 2" up. will this problem still happen with tires hitting it?

Is it worth moving them <> along the chassis at all whilst i am there.

Nic
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Post by suzuki boy »

Fair enough! I will jack it up and do some measuring on the week end.
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ok

Post by Turbo Tonka »

if this zook is the same zook that was for sale in tamworth a while back it isnt a 3 inch suspension lift ppl,some of thats body so take that into account.unless it has changed since.by the way mate,i wanted to buy it
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Post by suzuki boy »

Nope it wasnt mine! Im in VIC. Didn't get around to jacking it up on the weeek end but hope fully i'l get around to it this week end.
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Post by Gwagensteve »

nicbeer wrote:Steve,

what i pm'd you the other day about moving the std mount 2" up. will this problem still happen with tires hitting it?

Is it worth moving them <> along the chassis at all whilst i am there.

Nic
Sorry Nic, not ignoring you.

To move the top mount front or back you will have to move the bottom mount too, and then as you add steering lock it will get very tight. I don't think I have seen a sierra diffed sierra with custom mounts where the tyres DONT rub on the mounts.

Stock NT's will rid in the mounts with slightly wider then stock tyres. There really is very little room under there. Most people want to offset the rims and this helps a bit, but at the ned of the day, you need to tkeep the top mount as close in to the chassis, and as low as possible.

Steve.
[quote="greg"] some say he is a man without happy dreams, or that he sees silver linings on clouds and wonders why they are not platinum... all we know, is he's called the stevie.[/quote]
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