atomicmecha

You know... i can't find anyplace that tells what lenght shocks go with what kit. I've found a table for my old S10 blazer outlining what lenghts are good for each inch worth of lift and such.

I've also found a few sites where when shopping for shocks on a TJ or other jeep, it asks you for your lift height then shows the correct shocks. Why not for the JK?


so help me and others out, lets compile something that tells everyone the ideal shock lenght for "X" inchs of lift and what will also work. I don't even know the compressed and expanded lenghts for the stock shocks.

so to start this off, does anyone know what the stock lenght measurements are? and what is the best lenght shock to get with the 2.5" budget boost?

2climbbig

Unfortunately it really depends on the specific lift. You can have two different 3" lift from two different companies and have two different shock lengths as a result of two different spring rates...

Just to add additional confusion to the mix, some lifts will limit shock length because they don't want to provide you with a larger bump stop if any at all.

So as an example, a rusty 3.25 inch lift provides you with a shock that is 25" long. The fact is you can use a 28" shock and still have tension in the spring. They don't offer you that size shock because they would then have to offer you a bump stop.

Super lift has a 4 inch lift and offers you a 26 inch shock. I can't say with absolute certainty, but I bet you could use a 28 inch shock as well.

BaltChief

4 wheelDrive hardware's catolog has a chart with all different size lifts and what shock to use for the JK

atomicmecha

guess that explains the 27 pages of shocks on quadratec.com for the 07-08 jk.


ok... so lets say i have the TFBB... could i use shocks that are 17.42" / 30.46" front and 17.32" / 29.83" in the rear giving ~13" worth of travel? or is that too much? i see that most shocks are either 8" of travel or 10" of travel. They just all seem to veary in what the compressed and extended lenghts are. but i want as much travel as possible to give as much flex as possible.

i know that one of the biggest limiting factors of flex regardless of lift brand is the shocks and how far they can extend vs how much they can compress. so, with the bump stops in place, i shouldn't have to worry about over compressing the spring even if the shock doesnt hit bottom. but what about full extension? i don't think the spring will fall out, atleast not after i found out how hard they are to remove when installing my lift. right?


so is 13" of travel to much for a 2.5" lift? would those shocks work?

2climbbig

Down travel is more important than up travel. In fact, if you can limit your uptravel, you reduce the probability of roll over in certain situations. If you look at some of the buggy's out there, they will only have 2 inches of up travel and 10+ inches of down travel.

Few things you have to think about when pick out a shock length. First, when fully compressed, how big do my bump stops need to be to prevent my shock from bottoming out (a bad thing)... Second when sitting level, how much up travel do I have. I personally recommend 4 inches. As a daily driver, you want some up travel (and hence the confusion).

Once you get that, then look to see how much down travel that will offer you. If your spring is loose, then reduce your shock lenght. If you still have tension you should be good.

In the end, its a question of performance vs comfort. the greater articulation you want, the more often you will bottom out on the road.

atomicmecha

ah, that makes sense. i'm slowly learning all of this. shocks aren't an imidiate thing right now since the stock ones still have some lift left in them, but i do want to get a set later that will allow me the most possible flex while still having a nice ride. Its going to be a while before i go bigger then the 2.5 and 32's i have now in lift, but i want to make the most of it.

I've read a few pages explaining wheel travel and how it works in relation to the shock. I read that to find the lenghts, I need to jack each end of my jeep up again and drop the axle to its lowest with no shocks or springs, and measure from the center to the ground, then raise the axle all the way up to the bump stops and measure again. this should be my wheel travel. and while i'm doing all that, i need to measure the distance between mount locations of the shocks at the lowest and highest to get my shock travel lenght.

i'm thinking i could save all that time and just get a shock that is:

A)2" longer at 'compressed' lenght to eleminate the need for the the 2.5 inch adapters
B)get a shock with (A) above and have an 'extended' lenght that's more then the stock 8" of travel.

i think that with shocks like that, i will still have the same ride height, and no bottoming out, while having longer drop. The stock shocks with the adapters on them lower them 2.5" anyway, so getting a shock with a compressed length of 16" would be the same as the stock 14" plus the 2.5. Like said above, the drop is more important.

so with everything above... with a 2.5" lift... ideal shocks would be something like these?

front - 14.02"/21.93"(stock) 16.56"/28.75"(new) shock travel = 12.19(new) 7.91(stock) == 4.28" more travel
rear - 14.69"/22.56"(stock) 15.94"/27.01"(new) shock travel = 11.07(new) 7.87(stock) == 3.20" more travel

am i right? wrong? hot? cold? close, but no cigar?

atomicmecha

god... i can't spell worth a damn... just realized the title of the thread.

2climbbig

Can't tell if you have accounted for increase in bump stops... if you have.. then you are golded.

atomicmecha

i think i did... i picked a set of shocks which had a compressed lenght that was between 2 and 2.5" more then the stock ones. like the old fronts would compress to 14.02 and now the new ones will compress to 16.56. its cutting it close, i know. the rears are fine, since i could only find one that was about an inch longer when compress. guess i need to find a different set of the fronts to avoid fully compressing the shocks which i was told is bad.

2climbbig

1 inch is fine. The reason why you don't want your shock bottoming out is that it could rip the shock mount off the axle if you bottom out hard enough. The bump stops to compress, but 1 inch should be enought. When you go offroading. muddy up the piston rod on the shock and you can see how much it compresses after you are done by looking at the clean line.