Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I am redoing my radius arms. Too expensive to get ones from your end of the world and thought seeing as there are quite a few of new ideas I'd give it a bash as well. I want to combine drop boxes with longer radius arms. I want to move the mounting point to behind the gearbox crossmember, this increases the length by about 350mm. My question is this. How much up and down travel should I allow for the front suspension if I have shocks with 10" stroke. Should it be 6" up and 4 down? Currently with these shocks installed there is 2" of uptravel left from stock. If I lift by 4" this gives me the 6" up and 4 down without having to move shock mounting points. This should make the 37's fit. I will also be moving the axle forward by a yet to be decided amount, maybe around 30mm.

OK, maybe different approach.

Is it OK if I set the suspension up so that the shocks travel 6" up and 4" down?

4 more inches in the coils won't give you 4 inches of upwards travel it will probably give you less cause the coils will be a thicker wire and you will get coil bind a lot earlier in the stroke.

If you move the front axle forward the 37s will fit on the front but you will have to trim a little off the guards and extend your bumpstops on the rear. I would go 5 inches up and down if you insist on keeping the same shocks. Mine are longer shocks and I have set it up with 5 inches of up travel and a longer down travel and it's fine.

Can't you adjust how much travel it would have by adjusting air pressure to your airsprings........Or are you strictly speaking of setting up shocks only????

Cheers, Dano.

PS. Hello from OZ.

I can set the level with the air springs almost anywhere in the 10"stroke. I am looking for a good position for general setup and then I will set the castor up at that same position. The biggest problem I have founbd with the air setup that is so easily adjustable is that you need to pay a lot more attention to the castor. I suppose a 5 link would be better as it would keep the castor more or less correct through the suspension sycle.

If a 50/50 setup is better I'll set the castor up for that. Just thought it makes sense to have a bit more on the upward than the downward. Any mor esuggestions as to the ratio between up and down stroke?

Just depends on what you are driving. For high speed stuff you want a bit more up travel, but for crawling you don't need much up travel.

I reckon then for Hig Speed stuff a 60% up and 40% down would be good and then set up the castor at 2 degrees for this situation. If I then drop the susspension 1" I get a 50/0 ratio but my castor increases a bit which I suppose isn't that bad when crawling. Or is it?

I have heard of people running over 10deg of castor with no problems, so i would advise setting castor at 2deg at the highest setting you will run, and let the rest take care of its self.

Thanks, it seems better to rather overdo the castor than not. I must say, I have found that too little castor can be quite scary.