Reaching out to those doing their own shock tuning?

[CrazyCooter]

You have clayton diesel springs in the rear and still think they are borderline soft? What length? Are they soft for you for general driving, or only when loaded/towing? Thinking of going with the HD when they are released?

I've got the 2.5 clayton diesel and think they are plenty stiff for normal to full-payload loads. Soft when towing, but I think I've got my load distributing hitch putting too much tongue wt. on since I lifted... so need to adjust that first.

I have 3.5 diesel fronts and standard 2.5's with .75" spacer in the rear. The air bags seems to balance things when I'm loaded up, so hesitate to put the HD's out back. I just feel the rear is a little softer than the front when I'm unloaded. Putting the lighter springs in the sway bar links has helped the balance a lot though. Leave it as is for now and see how it goes.

The HD's are released and in stock! Getting a set for a client that runs WAY heavy. By specs they are about 10% heavier than the standard springs in the middle rate.

I'm a little concerned that rebound might be hard to tune with the rear HD's without a bypass shock in the mix?

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[Knox]

Thanks so much for two nights of reading and the tuning advice. I have the gas JT with same shocks and 37” tires, and the Clayton 3.5 springs, so I think your damping will yield much better results for me than stock and I have everything on order to do it myself: Vise, softjaw, spanner, nitrogen fill kit, oil, and shims. You mentioned the bleed shim and I didn’t follow that well. My shocks were tuned by accutune, and like another poster mentioned being much softer than stock. I feel like my rear end is going to catapult over the front end on a specific whoop on the highway at 70 that I drive daily. Thank you Cooter

 

[CrazyCooter]

Thanks so much for two nights of reading and the tuning advice. I have the gas JT with same shocks and 37” tires, and the Clayton 3.5 springs, so I think your damping will yield much better results for me than stock and I have everything on order to do it myself: Vise, softjaw, spanner, nitrogen fill kit, oil, and shims. You mentioned the bleed shim and I didn’t follow that well. My shocks were tuned by accutune, and like another poster mentioned being much softer than stock. I feel like my rear end is going to catapult over the front end on a specific whoop on the highway at 70 that I drive daily. Thank you Cooter

Way cool! Glad you will be getting some use out of the efforts.

Pretty sure you will like the rear valving as is, but you might want to go a tad lighter on the front compression. Pretty sure that last tune I shared was from when I was running the gas front springs, so rebound might be close. If its too firm, lower the pressure 50 psi and try that till you open them up the next time.

I did all of this with the IFP bottomed and 200psi FYI.

Don't sweat the bleed shims yet. You might think it's fine as is. No matter what, you will note a dramatic difference.

Did you get any 7w Fox oil? You will need a couple of oz to do this.

I'm not sure what Ryan is doing with the valving on these shocks......could be that where he is located? People just drive whoops all day with unloaded with super light springs installed?

 

[Knox]

For now I’m just doing the rear rebound, because it actually seems dangerous now. For compression, I’m fairly comfortable with low speed 5 clicks in, and high speed 1 click in. 30 PSI in the tires.
I have a gallon of Fox JM92, which I think is 5W. (I also have an unused gallon of King 7W.) Accutune sells only RockJock 279/335 springs for these trucks. An unloaded vehicle does stay in the 279 rate for a fair bit of travel. So I’d they’re out in the Southern California sand driving whoops in an empty truck, that could explain something. I guess I didn’t know they drove the gladiator at all. There’s a lot of bed hanging behind the axle. It’s like a school bus.
Accutune has their 3 tunes, but they don’t really describe what they mean. Is an off road tune for hauling ass, or for rock climbing. They don’t say. and for a road tune, gosh, you hear so many conflicting things. Road tunes are soft to ride like a Cadillac. Road tunes are firm for high speed handling. Nobody is on the same sheet.
I’d like the initial damping to soak of chatter, and ramp up from there.
Thanks again.

 

[kgc]

This is with the soft accutune damping, before I revalued the rear similar toyour (8th?) revision. Yes, I think the rear hopping along with a slight lift of the throttle prompted the wash out to the right. The truck rides much better now. I’ll try to get out to this wash for some more video with the updated calving when I get back to AZ.

 

[CrazyCooter]

For now I’m just doing the rear rebound, because it actually seems dangerous now. For compression, I’m fairly comfortable with low speed 5 clicks in, and high speed 1 click in. 30 PSI in the tires.
I have a gallon of Fox JM92, which I think is 5W. (I also have an unused gallon of King 7W.) Accutune sells only RockJock 279/335 springs for these trucks. An unloaded vehicle does stay in the 279 rate for a fair bit of travel. So I’d they’re out in the Southern California sand driving whoops in an empty truck, that could explain something. I guess I didn’t know they drove the gladiator at all. There’s a lot of bed hanging behind the axle. It’s like a school bus.
Accutune has their 3 tunes, but they don’t really describe what they mean. Is an off road tune for hauling ass, or for rock climbing. They don’t say. and for a road tune, gosh, you hear so many conflicting things. Road tunes are soft to ride like a Cadillac. Road tunes are firm for high speed handling. Nobody is on the same sheet.
I’d like the initial damping to soak of chatter, and ramp up from there.
Thanks again.

Yes, a "good" ride is a very subjective thing. I always first ask people what they do or don't like about the way a vehicle rides or drives so I don't put my ideas in their head. Then I can give them what they want.

With so many tuners telling you "We have what you want"......how could they really know what I want. Most people are happy with knowing they purchased "XYZ Suspension" and wouldn't know the difference anyway. I was ready to send my stuff to Accutune before I started this journey.....glad I didn't because it would have taken a few tries to get it close enough for me.

I have an aquantance who says he wants the soft 70s Cadillac ride, but he looks like someone has been beating him up after getting out of his Jeep when we drive long off road stretches. He also thinks I drive reckless fast and can't understand how I can go so long in a day without being fatigued.

 

[Knox]

here’s my rebound stack. They went with the second lightest Fox lists (#35) and made it softer by adding one flutter shim to the already light shim. I ordered #70 and #85 kits, two each.
I am a bit confused about that compression bleed shim. It looks like it could be set in place in any orientation, and thus altering the result. What keeps it from turning?

 

[Knox]

the pistons were in upside down. It’s obvious by the marks on this shim that it was on this side of the piston. But this Is the small diameter side. So with the large diameter side facing the smaller rebound shim, I had no rebound damping. 100% open.

This is the first rebound shim sitting on the compression side of the piston. So no rebound.

 

[Knox]

Cooter, what torque value did you use for the shaft nut?

 

[CrazyCooter]

here’s my rebound stack. They went with the second lightest Fox lists (#35) and made it softer by adding one flutter shim to the already light shim. I ordered #70 and #85 kits, two each.
I am a bit confused about that compression bleed shim. It looks like it could be set in place in any orientation, and thus altering the result. What keeps it from turning?

Wow! Thats way lighter than the stack that Fox ships with combined with the flutter........

The bleed goes on the comp side....

 

[bleda2002]

I have 3.5 diesel fronts and standard 2.5's with .75" spacer in the rear. The air bags seems to balance things when I'm loaded up, so hesitate to put the HD's out back. I just feel the rear is a little softer than the front when I'm unloaded. Putting the lighter springs in the sway bar links has helped the balance a lot though. Leave it as is for now and see how it goes.

The HD's are released and in stock! Getting a set for a client that runs WAY heavy. By specs they are about 10% heavier than the standard springs in the middle rate.

I'm a little concerned that rebound might be hard to tune with the rear HD's without a bypass shock in the mix?

Any side shots, I've been thinking of doing exactly the same thing as I'd like a little stiffer upfront.

 

[Knox]

Thanks. They had it installed on the compression stack as they should, they just had the rebound side of the piston facing the compressor stack. Can you share that document? Perhaps in an IM?

 

[CrazyCooter]

Thanks. Can you share that document?

According to Fox, there are no documents, exploded views, or repair manuals...........Nothing they will share with us! This was just a pic the rep send me with some part numbers.

 

[CrazyCooter]

Cooter, what torque value did you use for the shaft nut?

1/2-20 is 64ftlb, but I was able to loosen with a 6" ratchet.....that's what I used to tighten.

 

[CrazyCooter]

the pistons were in upside down. It’s obvious by the marks on this shim that it was on this side of the piston. But this Is the small diameter side. So with the large diameter side facing the smaller rebound shim, I had no rebound damping. 100% open.

This is the first rebound shim sitting on the compression side of the piston. So no rebound.

Wtf.......that's one hell of a bleed right there.

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