Outer Limits 4x4 Board

When buying shocks do they need to be any exact length to exactly fit your current car suspension height or will any length do as long as its short enough to fit on your car when on flat ground and will extend a fair way.

As on the rancho specs website it has exact model numbers for each model of car so would it matter if i got a set designed for another size car?


What are some good brands for a suzuki which will prolly have extended schackles and body lift first then swap for spoa later on??, apparantly rancho are to stiff (does this really matter?) bilstein are another one i can get locally. What are some more rommended brands??? Is a good price to pay say ~$150 each for a mid quality one???

Thanks!!!

be carefull when choosing shocks that are too long as they will bottom out before suspension will and can cause them to bend or snap. As for rancho's being to stiff - i run them in the front of my sierra and they are better than any other ive used. They are very stiff when set to hard but i never run mine harder than 3 but usually leave them as soft thay can be.

try procomp shocks about $120 each i think
ive got ranchos on the front they were lucky too last 12 months

I have put 2.5 king springs under my 92 soft top and the original shocks topped out.So with a few measurements from the old shocks i now have a set of OME rear pajero in the rear and my old rear prado shocks in the front.You need to fit bushes to go down to 15mm but OME has all these.It actually rides ok a little bit firm but I havent had time to see how it is in the bush.I gained about 100mm from the ground to the edge of the flair for the rear and about 80mm at the front .So you tell me if thats 2.5 inches!!! abit more I think.

as long as your bumpstops stop the bump before the shocks do, you're prolly gunna be alright.
take some measurements, then go shopping.
consider making new bumpstops if you cant get the right size shocks.
easier to ghetto fab some new bumpstops imho.

Awesome guys!!! (and girls..)


Just a quick question, where do you measure from? From the very top of the bolt to the very bottom of the hole and from tip to tip on the other type of shock or soewhere in the middle???


Thanks!!!

Im almost ready to get some, YAY

Do you guys specifically got ones for sierras of ones that fit other 4x4s?

As there are some cheap ranchos flating around but they come off land cruisers, how hard is it to change over bolt and screw sizes if needed???? Im pretty sure the bolt holes and screw diameters are different :(

Please

G'day derelict frog

Shocks can be a pretty complex issue.

IMHO the requirements for a shock will change greatly depending on your car setup and experience. Personal preference also plays a substantial role.

The sierras I have been involved in setting up have had ranchos and OME shocks fitted.

The ranchos that I have used on sierra projects have all been much longer than stock and have used custom mounts.

Likewise, the OME's I am working with on sierras are N76 part no's, which are very long, requiring bushings and custom mounts.

If you only have extended shackles and stock bumpstops, then it is not really possible to fit a shock much longer than stock. For this type of application, I would recommend stock application OME (old man emu) These are stiffly valved enough to prevent the suspension bottoming too readily.

For a SPOA application, generally, you will be trying to increase overall sheel travel, so any shock that will fit on standard mounts will be far too long compressed to fit in standard mounts.

Bear in mind too that large diameter shocks such as Rancho's will hit the axle tube on the rear with extended shackles when the axle wraps under power.

Softly valved shocks will only work in you have sufficient wheel travel to prevent the car bottoming heavily and soft enough spring rates to provide a nice compliant ride. I don't think you would liek the result with stock springs longer shackles and soft shocks.

I agree that it is easy to lower bumpstops, but with stock springs/low lift you will have a lot of bottoming.

Yes, you can go shopping armed with some measurements, but the results will be pretty hit and miss. there will be lots of people here who will swear by XXX and diss XXXX.

I have run ranchos (RS9000's) on my 2.5 tonne G wagen for 5 years. I have not had a failure. Short shock life will often be caused by poor mount/suspension design that places large side loads on the shocks. howeverm I don't think they are all that high quality, but more importantly for a sierra application, they are generally too stiff for a longer than stock application, even the generic soft vlaved versions such as (9)9012. I have no experience with the ranchos for stock sierra fitment, but I thick that they would be a waste of money for a 5" travel application.

Oh and the front shocks must have at least 1" more compression than the measurement from the bumpstop to the axle, as the shock is outside of the bumpstop on articulation, the axle moves (slightly) more @ the shock than at the bumpstop.

Generally, when you measure for a shock, you muct allow 1" more compression than you measure to allow for a hard bottom that heavily distorts the bumpstops.

I hope the helps,

steve.

How do you do custom mounts, make your own or buy them?

Is an easy way to do them just replace the standard one higher upa nd stronger??

So if your redoing custom mounts like that ^^^ puting shocks on designed for another vechile wont hurt? (as long as you get all the bolt and nut sizes right.



Got pics handy of ranchos on a sierra????



I can get a set of 4 RS9000 for $250 but they are for landcruisers, see any major issues here??

Thanks for that, that was great!!

Another thing that is worth doing is to talk to heaps of siera owners and look at their rigs. See what they run and even better ride in there zooks. You will soon get a picture of what you like, dont like and what is best for you situation. As Steve said, Shocks are a very personal preference area. I ran RS5000 on my rig when it was setup spua, and was pretty happy with them. Now i have gone spoa, and am aiming for lots of wheel travel, i have had to modify mounts and change shocks. Still not decided what i want at the moment, will be sorting them out in the next fortnight. Good luck with it.
Layto....

I have been saving lots of pics but most people seem to have random generic brands thats impossible to tell what they are.

Thanks for the info anyway, im prolly going to order ranchos 5000's new and see how they go, as anything would be better than stock shocks with 300,000+ kms on them lol and i may as well get a well know brand they most people seem to like.

I would hesitate to recommend RS5000's. They are generally quite firmly valved ( equivalent to position 5 on a 9 position RS9000) and if they are over length they (and an "odd" fitment) then it seems pretty pointless to spend some money and do some amount of custom work to fit something that isn't right. I think you need to spend some time with other suzuki owners and get a feel for what works in your area and for the driving you are doing.

A couple of other things: I am not a massive fan of the way that Rancho's are marketed in australia, especially 9000's. Because ranchos are not valved for lots of our fitments, they are generally sold on an "if it fits, it will be OK because you can adjust it" basis THIS IS COMPLETELY INCORRECT. Rancho woll not release valving information for their shocks and for many applications the valving for 9000's will not be correct.

I wanted to dyno test the 9000's that were recommended for my application to ensure they were going to be right. As it turned out, they were far too soft to be safe, but the Rancho dist. took no responsibility for this, saying that if I dynoed the shock I owned it. Too bad.

As I have said, be careful with "off application" shocks- you are very much on your own, and there is no substitute for going for a drive in some elses car set up the way you are thinking and seeeing if it is what you are looking for.

As for extending shock mounts, pretty much any way you try and do this will entail some degree of welding and fabrication. If you are still running sierra springs on stock mount locations, I really believe that the stock mounts are suitable. droop the axle with the chassis on jack stands - I would be surprised if there was more and 1-1.5" of spring droop past the shock length - is it really worth $$$ worth of custom bootyfab (as it seems that you will need to pay for it) plus shocks with unknown valving (i.e possibly too stiff) to pick up 1.5" of travel @ full droop? to me, it just doesn't seem to make much sense.

As I said at the outset, I would buy 4 OME shocks for a sierra application and run them. I thyink that by the sound of your setup, they would be the best move.

Steve.

Know any online shops that sell OME then???



Know anything about Desert Fox shocks.




Oh and every suzuki i know down here is still on stock shocks so driving them wont help much.


Thanks for the great info so far!!!

OME's should be very easy to get. I think that ARB have some sort of
1-800 Number to find out the nearest dealer. there will be someone surprisingly close to you.- ARB have resellers everywhere.

Generally, they are around $120-$130 each.

try a google search for ARB and take it from there.

TJM to ARB don't they, they have some XGS shocks, these are rebadged bilsteans i think..., any good if i cant get OME

(i always think everyones talking about OEM computer parts when they say that lol, as i build pcs)