Reaching out to those doing their own shock tuning?

[jsalbre]

I disagree with you about the short travel being less critical than long travel. It is my opinion that it's MORE critical with less travel since there isn't enough "Fluff zone " to recover from poor damping performance? It needs to be correct or you will be eating bumpstops and bending axles. This is also why I spent the money on air bumps.........Cushion the hits that sneak up on you before it slams and taco's the front axle.

Maybe I should have just gone the coilover route so that I could swap rates at will........ Coilovers are not a trouble free quiet 125K mile solution though. This is how I got to where I'm at now........ I don't have an unlimited budget, but I have a shop full of tools, smarts, years of experience of what I do/don't like, and a reasonable amount of time/$$$ to accomplish this.

I don't think it's less important given the short travel, I'm just saying it's going to be far more difficult given the short travel. With less travel you're going to have to get much stiffer much sooner, even with the air bumps.

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[CrazyCooter]

I don't think it's less important given the short travel, I'm just saying it's going to be far more difficult given the short travel. With less travel you're going to have to get much stiffer much sooner, even with the air bumps.

Yes, to drive hard and fast........it will have to be firm......at least that;'s what she tells me. Luckily I don't require driving fast (not race pace) over rough terrain. I like to be comfortable and make decent time....whatever I can get away with without beating my equipment is fine. If I don't think the pace is acceptable, I'll plan to make changes to meet my goals.

The OE Fox 2.0's were horrible overall, but worked OK on the street and were actually better than the 2.5's were out of the box when I'm aired down and traveling 5 mph or so? How is that possible?

I've added just over 3" total front travel with 1" of that up travel over stock further damped by the air bumps. Once I get the correct springs, I expect to be 1-1.5" taller than now, so I'll have 2-2.5" extra up travel which will surely help.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be revalving the front air bumps too, but that's after shock an spring changes are dialed in.

 

[Mtpisgah]

This has been a great read. I have a Mojave with a JKS 3” lift, steel bumpers, winch, and AluCab canopy camper. When fully decked out for a trip, there is even more weight added with the fridge, food, clothes, and two people.

I was hitting the bump stops too much and the rear was sagging too much with the bumpers and camper installed, so I had it lifted primarily for the stiffer coils. This was during March of 2021 so Covid was already making it hard to get parts. The lift helped but I still had bouncing on the interstate that was not acceptable. I recently has Fox 2.5 Elites installed on the rear thinking that was were the majority of the bouncing was from, and they have helped, but I still get some in the front. So front shocks will be on order soon, probably when I do the re gear.

As soon as Clayton or someone else comes out with a progressive coil to handle this kind of weight, I will be changing to those.

 

[CrazyCooter]

This has been a great read. I have a Mojave with a JKS 3” lift, steel bumpers, winch, and AluCab canopy camper. When fully decked out for a trip, there is even more weight added with the fridge, food, clothes, and two people.

I was hitting the bump stops too much and the rear was sagging too much with the bumpers and camper installed, so I had it lifted primarily for the stiffer coils. This was during March of 2021 so Covid was already making it hard to get parts. The lift helped but I still had bouncing on the interstate that was not acceptable. I recently has Fox 2.5 Elites installed on the rear thinking that was were the majority of the bouncing was from, and they have helped, but I still get some in the front. So front shocks will be on order soon, probably when I do the re gear.

As soon as Clayton or someone else comes out with a progressive coil to handle this kind of weight, I will be changing to those.

Did you see this from Clayton?

 

[81Mojave]

I’m rooting for you from the side lines here!
I noticedyou just mentioned tire pressure, I’m sure you are not obvious to this but I learned a few things I didn’t expect from these SXS guys at Shock Therapy

 

[CrazyCooter]

I’m rooting for you from the side lines here!
I noticedyou just mentioned tire pressure, I’m sure you are not obvious to this but I learned a few things I didn’t expect from these SXS guys at Shock Therapy

I'm a huge fan of Shock Therapy! I agree with almost everything they say and I remember watching this video last year!

Interesting thing about the "tire pressure" part of my story is both tuners I communicated with asked me "What does tire pressure have to do with this?" I thought to myself....duh, the shaft velocity is slower effectively reducing the slow speed valving? Here I am thinking that I'm just some dipshit that can't tune his own shocks and the "Pro tuners" can't visualize what is happening when I air down?

This leads to the "crab pot condition" where those who don't know are discouraging those who could actually fix this! Nearly all of the first posts on this thread were from people who discouraged me from trying to do this myself, when clearly I'm making a difference already on my own!

Not sure if anyone noticed or not, but I edited the thread title to hopefully filter out the useless discouraging posts from those who have not or never will open their shocks and are just looking to increase post count. Im sick of reading through dozens of pages of useless content to get to the core useful info.

 

[CrazyCooter]

This has been a great read. I have a Mojave with a JKS 3” lift, steel bumpers, winch, and AluCab canopy camper. When fully decked out for a trip, there is even more weight added with the fridge, food, clothes, and two people.

I was hitting the bump stops too much and the rear was sagging too much with the bumpers and camper installed, so I had it lifted primarily for the stiffer coils. This was during March of 2021 so Covid was already making it hard to get parts. The lift helped but I still had bouncing on the interstate that was not acceptable. I recently has Fox 2.5 Elites installed on the rear thinking that was were the majority of the bouncing was from, and they have helped, but I still get some in the front. So front shocks will be on order soon, probably when I do the re gear.

As soon as Clayton or someone else comes out with a progressive coil to handle this kind of weight, I will be changing to those.

With your rear bottoming........How much bump extention is installed in the rear and what sized tires are you running?

I found with my rubi on 37s. I only needed 1/2" rear bump extension to keep the tire off the fenders. With stock coils and a 3/4" spacer, they still didn't bind.

Maybe you could increase your bump spacing too?

 

[81Mojave]

That’s good info on the rear bump spacing!
It’s probably one of the fist items to dial in.
(on a side note did we get shorted some up travel being it sounds like we may have more physical space?)

 

[CrazyCooter]

That’s good info on the rear bump spacing!
It’s probably one of the fist items to dial in.
(on a side note did we get shorted some up travel being it sounds like we may have more physical space?)

It all comes down to what the lift kit manufacturer sent in the kit. Pretty much every kit I've seen has you install a 2-3" lower bump spacer.

When I first did my suspension mods, I knew I was going to be waiting for the correct kit for a diesel and not settling. I didn't want to buy anything expensive that couldn't be resold/repurposed. This Jeep had been ordered, so I started buying parts in anticipation. I had already build a couple of client JT/JLs and had an understanding if what the first stage was. The goal was to get my 37's in the fenders, increase ground clearance, and a progressive bumpstop to absorb what the OEM Fox 2.0's couldn't do.

That stage was a front 1.75 spring/shock spacer, rear .75 spring spacer, Metalcloak Durospring front bump(1" taller than stock), home made .5" bump spacer on the rear, and OEM take off rear sway bar links up front. I have since added Evo front 4" JK springs (net 2" lift), Fox Elite 2.5's (3.5-4.5" lift fronts and 2-3" lift rears) and the F/R Fox Race IFP Gen 2 Air Bump Stops set to just miss the fenders at full stuff. This maxes out the front driveline, rear brake hoses, and fender clearance without binding any springs.

Twist her up and see what you can fine tune to gain uptravel and comfort.

 

[Glamisfan]

I think I saw spring rates mentioned earlier. This pic is referring to JL’s, but it gives you an idea of who publishes spring rates. I know Eibach gives them too, I even called them to ask about some.

 

[81Mojave]

We need a separate thread with spring rates, free length, and length at coil bind.
But I have no knowledge base to add right now for the JL/JT world.
I probably won’t be pulling my stock Mojave springs out for a while (maybe doing hydro bumps later).
I’ll poke around the JL sites and see if they have a start…

 

[CrazyCooter]

OK I'm back after a morning test trail run.....0% sand, 10% 1-6" dia rocks, and plenty of ruts up to 1' deep/water bars up to 4' tall. drove 7 miles each way out and back. Amb temp was 70°. Road tire pressure 26psi cold/Off road 16psi warm. Truck is at regular unloaded daily travel weight (Approx 6100lb) Rear seat deleted, Goose gear floor, ARB 50Qt cooler, tools/recovery gear under the Goose floor, Bestop convertable roof, soft tonneau cover, Billie Bars rack, FST 55' RTT (125lb below cab height), factory steel bumper w/ Zeon 10S winch, 20" baja designs light bar, Mopar low height winch bar. Method 313 (25lb) and 37x12.50 Cooper STT Pro's.

Shocks have 9 clicks low speed and 6 clicks high speed adjustment.
My final adjustments landed at F:4 clicks low speed/5 clicks high speed
R:3 clicks low speed/4 clicks High speed

Pretty happy overall with the front until I get the correct springs. With these springs I feel like it could use a little more low speed, but heavier springs will negate that need? I was eventually rolling over 3' water bars at 30 mph with bursts of evil laughter ads I added a couple more clicks after noting how much I was touching down on the air bumps.

The rear still needs work. It's OK on the pavement, but feels like I would like a little more low speed comp/rebound to aid with head bobble. On the bigger on road bumps I could feel the rear bouncing up like a spring board and it was worse off road. I did also note on the bigger off road hits that I was blowing through all the high speed and maxing out the bumps too.

Th plan is to leave the front as is till I get springs and as I still have a little bit more in reserve for hotter weather. The rears need to come apart at least one more time for more low speed comp under the flutter, increased overall rebound, and probably more high speed comp since were nearing the top of the high speed clicker and I don't have a passenger of any camping gear in there.

Hoping to need no low speed clicks in the rear unloaded with no tent and have enough clicks on tap for my heaviest road load with the motorcycle, gas can, and 19' RV behind me.

Something else I wanted to address.....One of the early naysayers with zero shock valving tech mentoned my GAWR's being exceeded. I can say with absolute confidence I'm not over on GAWR with F3400/R3750 available and using a weight dist hitch. We are however over GVWR as most of us who have added useful off road/overland accessories heavier than say a rubber ducky antenna, 30" gold Dayton wire wheels, Skittles/McDonald's full body wrap, underbody/wheel neons, or any of those other lame ass useless city slicker brodozer mods are. At the first sign of an issue, I have a Dana 70 on the shelf I was thinking about building up for the rear.

 

[CrazyCooter]

I think I saw spring rates mentioned earlier. This pic is referring to JL’s, but it gives you an idea of who publishes spring rates. I know Eibach gives them too, I even called them to ask about some.

I'm still wondering what the OEM diesel JT front springs rate at? With that number and Evo's number I could make a choice right now.........So much for that!

 

[Rusty PW]

When you change your springs. You might have to change the valving again. On my track car. I have JRZ 4 way coilovers. Twice I had to send them back to be revalved after a spring change.

 

[CrazyCooter]

Another thing to toss out here............Variable rate antisway bar links. I had a designed a "better" set of these about 10-12 years ago and was planning on building a set for my 1st gen Can Am Maverick rear about 5 years ago, but life and work always got in the way. Story of my life with so many products I see on the market.........Coworkers/friends filled my head with doubts and was just too busy trying to pay the bills until I started the business....Then I was too busy trying to meet demands when you can't find any help that shares the same visions.

Fast forward to now where JKS has a set ready to rock! https://jksmfg.com/collections/glad...sway-bar-link-kit-wrangler-jl-and-gladitor-jt These are for vehicles that don't have the E-disconnect bar and I'd like to see them offer a kit version that is cheaper for us Rubi guys who don't need all of those brackets to disconnect it. One of these might be icing on the cake?

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