What stroke Fox shocks? 6" wider beam/Swingaxle sandrail

[c-rad]

Here's my setup so far...

4 seat VW powered sandrail, Glamis Dunes only

FRONT
6" wider beam with through rods, no shock towers (building shock hoops on the chassis)
Rack n Pinion steering
Stock VW type 1 arms, lower arm has shock relocation kit
stock carriers and 2.5" lift spindles

I'll be running Fox air shocks, what length/stroke shock do i need to buy to maximize the available wheel travel? (I'm not attempting to make it long travel, i'd just go a-arm otherwise)

REAR
Running SAW torsion bars/Spring Plates/Long Axles
Disc brakes
Single shock (stock shock mount on bearing carrier cut off)
Kartek rear lower shock brackets (mounted to 3 bolts on spring plate/bearing carrier)
Fabricated upper shock mount

I'll be running Fox emulsion shocks on the rear, what length/stroke do you recommend (stock travel, I think I can get 8"?) Is there a specific Fox shock you recommend?

[dustymojave]

For the front, with stock arms and extended lower shock mounts, the max shock travel needed is 10" Which should allow 10" of wheel travel.

A definite issue though is to cycle the suspension to ensure that the tie rods do not hit the upper and lower frame rails.

My Chenowth has a stock width beam with +2.5x1 arms. It has 10" Fox coilovers. But while in theory, it should easily get 12" of travel, the frame rails interfering with the tie rods limit the wheel travel to just under 10". I could get a little more with a +6 beam, and might go to that later. But the car came this way and there are higher priorities for upgrades than that at this time.

For the swing axle rear (your choice of shock mount is for swing axle, so I'm presuming that's what the car has), you CAN get 9" of travel before the axle joints say that's it. But that produces a lot of droop which leads to serious jacking and thus inverted operation is fairly likely. So I don't recommend more swing axle travel than 8". And I recommend limiting it with positive stops, up and down, not placing responsibility with the shock or even with straps that stretch. So considering the rear shock mount behind the axle by several inches (my Hi Jumper used VERY similar rear shock mounts) your shock should be a 10". You should not be using all of that 10", but 8" shocks are too short. You MIGHT talk to your shock vendor about shocks for the rear of a Class 9 car.
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Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[c-rad]

Dusty, thank you soooo much, now I can begin shopping for 10” shocks. And btw, yes it’s a swingaxle car.

[77charger]

8.5 - 10 inch shocks.I have 2.25 longer arms with 8,5 coil overs.I had torsions up front before so got the 2.25 arms now i wish i had bought the 4 inch longer i have the room between frame rails.
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