Measuring travel

[manther]

If you are measuring your travel so that you can decide what shocks to buy; Do you keep your spring plates attached when cycling through the travel? Seems like this could be very difficult as most techniques for ratcheting up a spring plate are usually only to move it up a little bit, not all the way to its max. But then disconnecting the spring plate all together seems like you might get false measurements. Has anyone dialed down the tension on the spring plate to almost nothing so that you get the correct arch but have little resistance?

[twomonkeysayoyo]

just pull the torsion bar?
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Looks like trouble.

[manther]

[twomonkeysayoyo]

I had assumed you were measuring because you had done something to your suspension. If you haven't done something to your suspension just buy a stock shock from Bilstein or KYB or whatnot. If you are planning to do something to your suspension I suspect you will learn all about the inside of that torsion tube, how the torsion bar works, etc...

Has your car been modified? Are you planning on modifying it?
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Looks like trouble.

[manther]

Yeah I'm in the middle of installing a bus trans, 3x3 trailing arms, and 930 cv's.

I want to measure my max travel before ordering nice expensive shocks.

I plan on trimming down my springplate stop first. Until i reach the max angle I am comfortable putting my cv at.

Once I get that straightened out I will measure my travel distance.

And that's where my above question came in.

I've seen plenty of pictures of the inside of the spring plate housing. But haven't actually taken mine apart before. Of course I will be shortly when I trim down my stops and reindex.

[twomonkeysayoyo]

Well, you're going way further than I have, so take this for what it's worth:

You might as well get used to taking the torsion bars out now. Disassemble the whole thing, see how it works, get some measurements and make some plans.
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Looks like trouble.

[manther]

Thanks for the replies. I'm sure your right. Even if the spring plate has a little play in it after removing the torsion bar, I bet it will still hold the trailing arm in place so that it goes through its normal arch.

[Vanapplebomb]

[manther]

Great point. I totally forgot there is a bushing in there. Told ya I haven't cracked one of these open yet.

I have my plan then.

Of course after all this careful measuring and whatnot I bet I end up with 12 in travel fox 2.0's anyway.

I seem to be reading a lot that a 14" shock is overkill.

[WrRider]

I mesured for this with 3x3 with the shock mount near the end and I got around 11 1/2 so I bought 14" fox 2.0s so I didn't max out the shock. I found a good deal on a set of coilovers so I didn't use them there for sell in the clasifides now.

[manther]

[SamT]

I know guys that instead of buying a heim jpint conversion, they just remove the torsion bar and install new poly bushings, and trim the springplates for the travel they need.

[oukno]

I've never heard of anyone doing this.
is it safe?
Will it feel like a sloppy jalopy.

[Failproof]

People have been doing it for years. Started with air shocks,and coil springs w/shocks, then into coilovers. Yes its safe, and it is no more or less sloppy than stock setup. If you have plus size arms that use stock spring plates go for it. If you have to buy the arms anyways, step up in the game to go heim/dual pivot. The weak link using stock spring plates is the spring plate buckling under side load.

[KrAzY-BaJa]

[Failproof]

Longer/bigger shocks are never overkill. As long as they are set up correctly.they would just be. You could use a 8 inch shock, on 3x3's, still pull 12+ inches. But the shock will be the one getting overkilled, again and again!

[Crash Johnson]

If you go with a shock that is too long you will not be using the shock to its best potential. Of course it is only a couple inches worth but in some cases it matters.

With 3x3's and 930's you should cut the stops off anyway and run limit straps and bump stops. They are much more adjustable to fine tune your travel to the CV's. If you are going with coil-overs you won't have torsions anyway.

For checking travel you will want to install your axles and find max droop for your CV's, not the stock stops.

Of course the real question is, if you are spending the money on all of this do you really want to stop at 3x3's?
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Blind Chicken Racing

[manther]

well the money is already spent. I already bought 3x3's. I don't plan to go with coil overs. I plan on doing airbags. At first I will run with torsion bars until the air bag conversion is complete. I've read a bunch that fox 2.0 is more than enough for a light woods buggy like mine. (1200 lbs)

[Crash Johnson]

The 2.5's are nice if you are bashing for a long period of time. Ripping across the desert you would probably want bigger shocks to help with the heat dissipation. For woods running you probably won't even notice your 2.0's getting warm.

With a light woods buggy I would go with the fox air shocks. We run them on most cars these days as they are nicely tunable and fairly cheap. You can get into those for not much more than standard shocks and you won't need the airbags. You can get them with a threaded body so if you need to add springs later you are already set up for it.
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Blind Chicken Racing

[manther]

cool thanks for all the help.