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Mon Mar 07, 2016 8:35 am

I have a set of 7100 series Bilsteins (non-reservoir) shocks on the front of my sand rail. +4 trailing arms and a +6" width beam with adjusters and stock leaves cut to accommodate the wider beam. With the adjusters set for the lowest spring rate the front end still behaves very stiff, nearly no movement. I want this to be a dual purpose buggy, driven mostly on the road but also taken to the dunes or riding trail without having to re-work the front end every time. Will removing only the top leafs reduce the spring rate enough to soften the ride some, making the on-road experience a little more enjoyable? If removing only the tops doesn't reduce the stiffness enough, will the shocks described above be enough to handle both situations without bottoming out? They are nitrogen charged, but I still worry about even light off road use bottoming out the front end and creating issues. I built this buggy with at least 10" of usable travel in the front and I want to be able to use it from time to time.

Mon Mar 07, 2016 8:48 am

Try it without shocks first and see how stiff it is.... You can adjust rate with removing just some leaves in spring stack ... Removing whole set of leaves may go from to stiff too to soft...

Dale

Mon Mar 07, 2016 10:07 am

The adjusters control ride height, they don't stiffen or loosen the springs.

If you remove springs, cut them, and replace the pieces where the grub screws are.

Mon Mar 07, 2016 11:05 am

I will take the shocks off tonight to see how that helps. If I do decide to reduce the spring rate further by removing leaves, should I keep the number the same between the upper and lower tubes?

Trip, thanks for the correction on the adjusters. Thought they were for spring rate.

Tue Mar 08, 2016 1:43 pm

I never remove leafs, it can lead to a trailing arm falling off. The grub screw in to the leaf pack is the only thing holding the trailing arm on. When I bought the shell for my Baja, it had been lowered. I flat towed it 300 miles home. At around midnight (half way home), I stopped and fueled my tow vehicle. When I pulled out of the gas station, there was a big dip. After going through the dip, I heard a bang, and saw sparks in the mirror. One of the trailing arms had separated from the leaf pack. The PO had removed leaves to lower it, so the grub screw did not have enough material to grip, leading to the trailing arm coming off.

Wed Mar 09, 2016 11:46 pm

You not only need to check if the shocks are too stiff, you also need to check if the arms are too stiff in the bushings. Bushings often need to be reamed after they are installed to ensure the arms rotate freely. You can check by unbolting the shocks, jack up the front end, then take out the bolts that stick out of the adjusters, upper and lower, and the square blocks they go through too. The arms should now move up and down freely. If they don't, then you've found the problem.