Gearhead rear shock relocation question.

[kincer]

For those running the gearhead shock relocation kit, how is performance compared to original shock location?

Sent from the RAZR's edge

[kincer]

Anyone?

Sent from the RAZR's edge

[JetBlast]

I plan on buying this kit. A lot of people just drill holes into their chassis and relocate their rear shocks. Gives the rear end more pivot on objects. Cant go wrong with a kit like this but you need to consider what your rig does regularly. If you like to drive on rocks, it would work just fine. If you do a lot of trailing, it could potentially turn into a waste of money.

[kincer]

Reason I'm asking this is, I've already basically got this setup and what I'm wondering is will the stock setup work better or are they about the same? I got the truck with this setup and have tweaked on it ever since.

[TacoCrawler]

my son copied that (made his own)
In comparison to my stock honcho articulation...
his tends to flop over more often then mine.

due to the / \ shock positioning.

He is thinking about relocating the shocks to the side..
canted forward.

My son did this...
simply to fit/clear the bed of a Mojave Hilux body.

It works fairly well IMO...
The rear axle does articulate somewhat more...
but the trade off is a slightly less stable/predictable vehicle.

[kincer]

That answers one of my questions lol, yes mine is more unstable than others that I've had with stock shock mounting. I'm gonna try some 80mm shocks before I change it, I don't want to cut the bed up yet if I don't have to.

[racin707]

Try some stiffer springs and/or heavier oil, I made my own set up of the kit and the side hilling was atrocious, while the articulation looks awesome in photos it more just hinders performance, you can try touring car shocks mounting then in the stock location on the axle and to the frame rail on the truck....just my .02

[TacoCrawler]

Originally Posted by kincer

That answers one of my questions lol, yes mine is more unstable than others that I've had with stock shock mounting. I'm gonna try some 80mm shocks before I change it, I don't want to cut the bed up yet if I don't have to.

If you could widen the / \ to / \ it would offer more stability.
(primarily at the top of the shock mounting)...
only problem... the shock body can then hit the frame if too much.
Narrower shock bodies here... will help some.

I'm not real familiar with the kit you have...
But my son drilled four mounting holes on his upper mounting bracket...
and uses the wider mounting points,
His shocks are set at a lesser angle, just before the shock body's might hit the frame rail(s).
(it's very close... I'll call it a touch)

Your ride height will also effect your stability...
too tall and it will flop more.
some static droop at the shocks would help a some.

[kincer]

That is the biggest problem, sidehilling is terrible, one time it'll go and won't flop over, then the next time you can take the same line and and over it goes. I'm gonna try some 80mm shocks with some heavy oil in the rear, the truck does sit too high so that's definitely part of the problem.

Sent from the RAZR's edge

[Saipan670]

I've searched around for the same feedback around forums but never really got a clear one so I went ahead anyways and bought the relocation kit mainly to prepare for the Hilux body I was gonna put in. After the install, it lifted the rear higher than I expected with the stock axial shocks on my scx10. It greatly improved articulation definitely. Performance wise it was horrible! Well for steep incline climbing definitely took an impact. The left rear end would dip real bad and the front right end would lift off the ground from torque twist and would cause my dingo to flip over backwards. All this on my first run at Lone Mountain in Las Vegas and was so disgusted I switched to the stock shock location and it climbed the path with no sweat AT ALL!!!! As for trailing I can't say because I have yet to try. I did relocate them to the rear recently and did some testing and tuning to see if I could improve the stability. What I did was increase the preload on the rear left shock and it did make a slight difference on how much rear would drop and the front wanting to lift on climb but it raised the rear even higher so it looked stupid. Maybe an 80mm shock with oil and stiffer springs would help from compressing so much also without lifting the rear end. I will be getting some rc4wd white scale shocks for the front and 80mm for the rear for a scale look for my scx10 hilux.

[kincer]

Everything you said is how mine was, I just couldn't comp with it in class 2, the thing would've been killer in class 1 but I already had a rig for that, I ended up trading it for a Honcho and am gonna comp with that in class 2.

[kincer]

I think with patience,time and a set of 80mm shocks it could made to work well, every change I made with springs made a difference, some good and some bad, I did get it to the point where doing a straight up hill climb was really good, and sidehilling was decent, but I could never get it to stop lifting the right front, maybe some 70wt oil in just the left rear with just slight preload, alot of the things I wanted to try but don't have the time or patience.

[Saipan670]

Originally Posted by kincer

I think with patience,time and a set of 80mm shocks it could made to work well, every change I made with springs made a difference, some good and some bad, I did get it to the point where doing a straight up hill climb was really good, and sidehilling was decent, but I could never get it to stop lifting the right front, maybe some 70wt oil in just the left rear with just slight preload, alot of the things I wanted to try but don't have the time or patience.

True that. I really do want to keep the rear shock setup on my Hilux for a scale look but I also don't want it hurt performance in a big way like it did. Trial and error but yeah i don't have much patience either.