TheSamba.com :: View topic

Tue Jan 23, 2024 11:37 am

I've read Shocks, Shocks, Shocks completely and still have only a vague idea of what I should be doing, or looking for. Most of the applications in the thread are for Baja bugs, not light weight sand rails.

I have a sand rail that will be run in three situations, dunes with paddle tires, on the street with 31x10.5-15 and on trails, powerlines etc. It's mainly going to be dunes and street. When I say street, we live just a couple miles from our little town and it will be more of a bar hopper type driving around. The dunes will be Silver Lake MI.

I have a ball joint frontend with standard everything up front. I ordered a pair of "oil-filled" front shocks to get my feet wet just to see how it's going to do. As some have said here, their fronts weigh in around 250# empty. Mine about the same.

I have 3x3 rear trailing arms and will retain the long 26"+ torsion bars. I have a clean slate to do any type of mounting I want, or will need. I don't think I need anything in the coil over type shocks. I have just about 8.75" full travel, hard stop to hard stop now. I plan on notching the lower edge of my spring plate to give me around another 1" downward travel. I will then install limit straps to get me back to a soft stop at around the original lower hard stop height. I have a pair of 1" thick urethane upper bump stops I'll mount when all is said and done.

Since I have 8"+ inches of travel, I was thinking of getting 10" stroke shocks that will give me a NON internal stop at each end of the trailing arm travel. Again, limit strap for downward and bump stop for upward travel.

I saw on the Shocks, Shocks, Shocks, that Bilstein had a catalog and I went to the custom area. I found shocks with 14mm shafts, 1/2" eyes, boots and 170/60 valving. They're 26"x16". I'm guessing, couldn't find the glossary, that 170/60 valving will be much softer, for possibly a lighter vehicle, than say their 360/80 valving.

OR, is there just a set of shocks that are the GO-TO shocks for a sand rail without all this "custom" crap??? I'm all for simple and don't have an unlimited budget for FOX etc shocks. I know, I know, $$$$ equal better ride. But it is just a buggy.

Any thoughts or direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dan

Wed Jan 24, 2024 4:45 pm

I dont have a rail, I have a fiberglass buggy. I do have a balljoint front end, and have duned at Glamis maybe 40 to 50 days, ran all over our town, and done mountain trails. For the front, I honestly dont think you need anything but oil filled shocks, worn out ones at that. For the back maybe try KYB silver shocks. I had those in my buggy, and liked them better than the stock replacement Bilsteins I tried. Nice part about these type of shocks is that they are inexpensive, and will last a long time, without needing to be rebuilt.
You were looking for opinions, so now you have one.

Wed Jan 24, 2024 5:43 pm

Since you using a ball joint front suspension with approximately 6in of suspension travel having a lot more suspension travel in the rear that 3x3 rear arms are capable of, is not really ideal.
With the 3x3 rear arms with the right modifications to spring plate stops, 12in of travel is possible if you wanted.
On my Manx buggy I have +1in longer rear trailing arms stock width. I have. 10-1/2in suspension travel using a 8in Fox remote reservoir shock, yes overkill.
The front suspension is a modified Link pin setup using aftermarket spindles and it also has 10-1/2in of travel.

I cut off the lower spring plate aground down casting to were the lower rear spring plate bolt is almost touching spring plate retainer bolt.
I welded a piece of 3/8” flat stock to lower part of casting a drilled 3/8” hole and used a piece of 3/8” aluminum stock cut into a square piece and bolted it to the steel stock for use as a lower stop.
For more upward travel I used my 4-1/2” grinder and reshaped the upper part of shock tower that stops the hits the spring plate.
Since you are not using the stock shock mount cutting allows for more up travel.

For my Chenowth sand car I building it has a 10in long travel front suspension and I did not want to spend the money for FOX shocks for it. I sourced a pair of 10in travel shocks for the rear of a Dodge D50 pickup. They are KYB Excel-G #344379.
I bought it used and it already has FOX 12in coliovers on the rear.