Anyone with 12" up front

[casual]

So it seems I should get 12" shocks, even if its just for having more oil & keepin them cooler. & not chase travel #'s. I never thought about what else I would have to mess with so ya i guess 10" of travel with 12" shocks?

 

[crazyjim]

So it seems alot of people have 12's up front. But does that mean you guys have 12" of travel (or more), or just bigger shocks?
Im gonna run 16" shocks in th rear, through the floor. I just need to figure the front out. I'll need more down travel(droop) because I'm keeping 4wd & I don't wanna crush the oil pan.

What would be the most travel you could get up front, without doing coilovers or beams?
Its a dezert truck so high speed dirt roads & wash boards. It will see air time (trussed D30 already built) & whoopdy doos.
Jim as I've said before your rig is the tits. I just wanna see how much I can improve the front suspension.

I know the challenges we have to make everything live a long life at 10". With a track bar, I think 11-12 is really pushing it. Saying that, I know how insanely fast we can go with 10".

This. I had this exact conversation with quite a few people in my thread, and the general consensus from people in the know was stay with less total overall travel numbers, in order to gain better up travel.

 

[crazyjim]

Nice to know, Jim. I'm in the market for new shocks all the way around, it's time to upgrade to a tuned setup instead of off-the-shelf valving.

Got contact info for Joel?

Yea not a problem! Joel is "RandomThoughtsRace" here on , just shoot him a PM!

 

[crazyjim]

So it seems I should get 12" shocks, even if its just for having more oil & keepin them cooler. & not chase travel #'s. I never thought about what else I would have to mess with so ya i guess 10" of travel with 12" shocks?

It depends, are you running a 2.0 or a 2.5? If a 2.5 stay with a 10" and have a longer reservoir installed. If a 2.0, go ahead with a 12" shortbody.

 

[slappomatt]

I currently have 9.5" 2.0's on the front and 8.5" 2.0's on the rear. getting about 9" all the way around. I have to say for being pretty basic setup with decent valving it works pretty well. I am thinking about putting some 62" deavers and an 8.8 in the rear with some 14-16" shocks and see where it goes from there.

 

[tcm glx]

FIrst off, Listen to Jim and Grimm. Both have spent quite a bit of time looking for the appropriate combos that will yield the most travel.

Next, listen to Chris here...

..... one of the biggest mistakes I see is guys chasing travel numbers as a measure of how good their car is. I've seen cars with 16" + travel that handle like crap and, like DieselSJ said, Jeepspeeds with 10" of travel up front go really, really fast.
.

\


Don't chase a number... .in most cases, people end up spending a ton of money for not much more performance.

I will also tell you this, Jim at one point was running around in his SHort Arm XJ with maybe 9" of travel with his 11" Fox 2.0's, and he could probably run as fast as anyone would ever have the balls to drive a non caged XJ....

Moral of the story...... a number is just bragging rights. 9" of controlled suspension travel is 1000x better than 12" of non controlled. The bigger question should be going after the appropriate valving and cooling of the shocks!

 

[DieselSJ]

It depends, are you running a 2.0 or a 2.5? If a 2.5 stay with a 10" and have a longer reservoir installed. If a 2.0, go ahead with a 12" shortbody.

^^^^ What he said ^^^^

 

[GrimmJeeper]

FIrst off, Listen to Jim and Grimm...

whoa whoa whoa don't go that far, lol. My XJ is still undriveable after it's first trip back into the dirt :explosion

 

[I Beamed Jeep]

FIrst off, Listen to Jim and Grimm. Both have spent quite a bit of time looking for the appropriate combos that will yield the most travel.

Next, listen to Chris here...\


Don't chase a number... .in most cases, people end up spending a ton of money for not much more performance.

I will also tell you this, Jim at one point was running around in his SHort Arm XJ with maybe 9" of travel with his 11" Fox 2.0's, and he could probably run as fast as anyone would ever have the balls to drive a non caged XJ....

Moral of the story...... a number is just bragging rights. 9" of controlled suspension travel is 1000x better than 12" of non controlled. The bigger question should be going after the appropriate valving and cooling of the shocks!

So what your saying is you can valve 10in of travel to work right but you can't valve 12 in of travel to work right???

 

[tcm glx]

No, what I am saying is be more worried about the valving!

 

[crazyjim]

So what your saying is you can valve 10in of travel to work right but you can't valve 12 in of travel to work right???

No, what he's saying is don't chase travel numbers, chase valving numbers... And with a roughly 5" lift, relocated lower mount, and a stout top mount, you CAN NOT run a 12" 2.5 and perform as well as a 10" 2.5. You won't have the up travel, which is realistically what our Jeeps need. Unless you beam them...

 

[srimes]

please tell me I'm not the only one who thought this was a craigslist personal ad at first glance... :smootch:

 

[I Beamed Jeep]

O ok cause I was going to say I would rather have 12 in of controlled travel rather than 10 in of uncontrolled travel lol. Will see how my buddy's comes out he has a 10 in shock slightly modified and we have a measured 12 of travel with custom steering also & lucky for him his brother in law is a shock guy we will definitely put the time in to making it work. & yes I've been telling him for awhile to get the digital camera out and give a build thread.

 

[ctxjlimited]

man I sure wish I had 12" up front.

 

[chris_amrein]

Another option is to go through the fender into the engine compartment with the 12" shock. The OP said he's not racing it and the problem with the 12" x 2.5" shock is limiting up travel without having to run 8" of lift. If 1700 Jeepspeed allowed 12" of travel and shocks through the fender, I'd say every car would be built that way, but because of the rules everyone runs the 10" shocks inside the fender.

 

[badron]

Hell dud if you can't get it done with less then 12 then you just can't get it done.

 

[Cache96]

I have a 12" up front with a decent amount of uptravel (5 1/2) i did lower the lower mount and made a custom upper mount.
It works great for what i use it for, i havent really fully tuned the suspension up front but the way it rides now i love it.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

man I sure wish I had 12" up front.

sig'd! :wow:

 

[GrimmJeeper]

Fenderwells? we don't need no stinking fenderwells!

 

[chris_amrein]

See that's what I'm talking about! Grimm I think this forum needs you to post a build thread...