Rear shock angle

[crazy4mopar]

The time has come to put in the rear shocks on the 9" so.....where do I weld the brackets? Do I mount the brackets on the top of the tube, front or rear.
Where do shocks work best for a trail rig driven on the street.....sometimes
Should I angle the shocks? I have seen them kicked in on the top, I have seen them angled forward, and angled and kicked in....
Thanks for the help

 

[Starboard M]

How much lift do you have? Ive always wanted to put the shock mounts on top of the tube, but I would have to run a very small shock because of how small that area is. A lot of trail riges run them like this: / \ But that is just for the trail and I dont think they do a lot of good on the street. So the best would be on top of the tubes with a / \, but at not quite as steep an angle.

 

[crazy4mopar]

I'm runnin about 6 1/2" of lift

 

[What Rd]

The further you move your shocks from the line along which the axle travels, the less effective the shocks become at dampening the movement. This applies both to tipping them toward each other at the top and tipping them toward the front of the vehicle. The most effective position is directly in line with the movement of the axle, and as far out to the outside ends of the axle as possible. That said, our options are often much more limited than called for by the "ideal". So, angling your shocks in toward each other a bit is ok if you need to to get the length of shock you need in the space available - but realize less is better. Same goes for tipping them forward. There's really little point in mounting them on top of the axle tube - you lose quite a bit of length in exchange for keeping them up and out from in front of the axle tube. I've yet to get hung on the front of my rear axle tube, so I'd rather have the shocks mounted on the front edge of the axle tube.