Shocks?

[warchild228]

Alright guys i need some help. one of my buddys bought some shocks off of ebay. they arent going to work for his project car. so he said he would sell them to me for 40 dollars. now they are a lot longer than a normal 4" shock and they also have a piggyback reservoir on them. they are a bit stiff too. what i need to know is what size shocks people are running and if i should get these shocks. they will be going on a clodbuster going to be turned into a rock crawler with a tube frame on it soon. and also what weight shock oil should i use? thanks

[v33]

i would build the chassis first and see if you can use them. im not really in the position to suggest anything since i am new myself, but i've got 2 trucks with 4" big bores and dont see how longer shock may be of any benefit, all i see are more work making higher shock mounts. i could be wrong though.

[Trailerguy]

I bought a used truck that had 6" long piggybacks on it. They are way to tall for normal crawler. If you look at the pics. most guys use a 4" shock that is mounted to the main part of the chassis and to the link arms pretty close to the chassis. This allows for a lot of flex with a short shock. The problem is that with the shock mounted so close to the link pivot point, it is less effective, so you end up using a stiffer spring on the shock. With longer shocks you can mount them closer to the axle itself and the shock really becomes more useful or effective. Since the spring is stiff, you can mount the lower part of the shock to the axle, or as close as possible, and then mount the upper part of the shock back at an angle. This will counter the effect of the stiffer spring. I mounted mine on the lower link arms as close to the axle as possible and as straight up and down as possible. Because they are long I get great flex (about 75 to 80 degrees) and the trucks suspension response is really good even at higher speeds. I do a lot of (to say the least) 1:1 crawling and you can ask anyone that 1:1 crawls, your shocks are best when used as straight up and down as possible and mount as close to the axle as possible and as close to the tires as possible.

[v33]

im still not sold to the idea of longer shocks ... i guess it would really depend on how you build and drive it. suspension response at higher speeds isnt a factor since we crawl, right?

maybe, i just dont like the shocks protruding past the body, if i did i would have built a buggy instead.

[Trailerguy]

Originally Posted by v33

im still not sold to the idea of longer shocks ... i guess it would really depend on how you build and drive it. suspension response at higher speeds isnt a factor since we crawl, right?

maybe, i just dont like the shocks protruding past the body, if i did i would have built a buggy instead.

Your right, for crawling the reponse is not all that important. If I had shorter shocks I would use them. All I'm saying is that you don't have to spend the money on shocks right-a-way if you have the really long ones. There are some advantages to them. Having smaller shocks that are tucked under the body is nice because if/when you roll the truck will have a better chance of ending up back on its tires. The tall shock towers keep mine from doing a complete roll over most the time.