Hmmmmm

[Chevy1925]

Took the rig out this past Saturday to meet my samurai group for a wheelin trip. Since my Sami is down, I had no trailer on the back of the limo so I got to play around some. Coilovers and rear mini pack are fricken amazing. Have about 5-6k on them and no issues! Frame mount is holding up well, even after my play session and some jumping this weekend. Next time my buddy is gunna have his camera ready for some action shots

 

[adeso]

I really want to do this

 

[adeso]

I can't this year, but thinking next winter I'm going to do a lot of engine, trans, turbo and fuel. And I need to do lots of suspension work to put it to the ground. And maybe cut some weight.
But I'm going to run 10s with a CCLB lifted DD. Drive it off the track and tow a dozer to a jobsite

 

[Chevy1925]

Those coilovers I'm running would not be the way to go then. Unless you feel like changing shim stacks all the time

 

[adeso]

I'm ok with about 4 hours of prep for the track. Cut weight and change some stuff up. but she has to be a DD and be able to hook to a tandem dual trailer

 

[trevrosborough]

so what was the final set up of the front end springs have the settled?? and will they still work for an 8 inch kit??

 

[snowman]

Sub

 

[mackthehack]

James, do you have more feed back on your set up?

 

[Chevy1925]

yup! shocks are weeping some oil. have about 7000 miles on them and it seems them weeping oil isnt uncommon. Ill swap to some foxes or kings at some point down the road but the stock shock tower on the frame is holding up just fine, no issues with the spherical bearings in the shocks, no sagging issues, no bent lower shock mounts or stretching bolts. just keep driving her and enjoying the smooth mall romping over speed bumps and curbs

 

[mackthehack]

Shoulda went fox or king huh? I almost went with foa's. The Limo is a curb killer

 

[Chevy1925]

For the price, I couldn't pass them up at the time, plus there was some so much good and bad surrounding FOA, i figured I'd try them my self. I'll probably just order son seals, swap them and see how long that lasts. I might up the compression valving some too. As smooth as it is on road, it's just a tad too soft off road. Little stiffer will be perfect.

 

[mackthehack]

For the price, I couldn't pass them up at the time, plus there was some so much good and bad surrounding FOA, i figured I'd try them my self. I'll probably just order son seals, swap them and see how long that lasts. I might up the compression valving some too. As smooth as it is on road, it's just a tad too soft off road. Little stiffer will be perfect.

:thumb:

 

[Chase87]

update

For the price, I couldn't pass them up at the time, plus there was some so much good and bad surrounding FOA, i figured I'd try them my self. I'll probably just order son seals, swap them and see how long that lasts. I might up the compression valving some too. As smooth as it is on road, it's just a tad too soft off road. Little stiffer will be perfect.

I know this is an old thread but an update after a year of running your setup would be nice.

Are you still running the FOA's? I'm considering this as i have a 6" fabtech lmm should I go with FOX? I wont be taking it off road all the time just want something that can hit a curb or speed bump and not throw me all over the truck.

 

[Chevy1925]

I know this is an old thread but an update after a year of running your setup would be nice.

Are you still running the FOA's? I'm considering this as i have a 6" fabtech lmm should I go with FOX? I wont be taking it off road all the time just want something that can hit a curb or speed bump and not throw me all over the truck.

i would never run FOAs again or recommend them to anyone. they helped me out on the collar but never could get an email or call back on why the POSs are leaking or if they could take care of them.

your 6" fabtech lift wont work with these particular sized shocks. im am currently working on some stuff right now that will be offered to the public you might be interested in. But until i become a vender, thats as far as i will go with the details.

overall though, no way in hell id keep a truck on torsion bars. what a difference in ride and front end control. the spherical bearings are holding up great with 10k on them. that was my big worry as well as the frame shock mount but all is good and only better stuff to come!

 

[Chase87]

update

what valving did you end up on. I saw you were talking about adding more compression. also it looks like you removed your overload spring on the rear and added the mini stack. how did this do when you towed your trailer?

what travel shock did you use on your setup. currently the shock i was looking at getting if i wasn't running a coil over was 23.05" long to 12.5" compressed. my truck calls for a 15" shock compressed.

 

[Chevy1925]

what valving did you end up on. I saw you were talking about adding more compression. also it looks like you removed your overload spring on the rear and added the mini stack. how did this do when you towed your trailer?

what travel shock did you use on your setup. currently the shock i was looking at getting if i wasn't running a coil over was 23.05" long to 12.5" compressed. my truck calls for a 15" shock compressed.

the rear tows well with the mini pack. it sags a decent amount but i expected that.

that info isnt enough for me to tell you what shock you need to run. you need to find the compressed and extended lengths of the suspension as well

 

[Chase87]

I will look at those lengths, but I don't have the new uca's yet and they are supposed to allow 2" for droop travel so that would change the extended length. I am looking at the kyriptonite u a do u think I would have clearance issues with those or the cognito boxed arms?

 

[Ridin'GMC]

I will look at those lengths, but I don't have the new uca's yet and they are supposed to allow 2" for droop travel so that would change the extended length. I am looking at the kyriptonite u a do u think I would have clearance issues with those or the cognito boxed arms?

I'm on the same page as well. I originally considered using the kryptonite UCA and the soon to be coming LCA with the coil over shocks. However after some inspections and measurements, it seem to be better to find someone (or yourself if you have the skills) to build a set of UCA and LCA to 2" longer over stock and move it 1" forward to clear the 37" tires better away from the wheel wells on full travel. Also 2" longer over stock will work better on a 6" lift compared to the 8" lift James has to run the same length shocks while gaining more wheel travel (not sure how much, never got that far). The difficult part is to find the right spring to make it an all around DD for towing and street wise manner.

Down side is the CV shaft will have to be custom made and will be pretty expensive. I plan to use ball joints over uniball for longevity, New England is not ball joint friendly that's for sure.

 

[Chase87]

Riding GMC i would love to make custom longer upper and lower control arms but since my truck is a dd i think the fab work would be very difficult and time consuming putting the truck back to stock every day to drive it to work.

chevy1925:
i took some measurements of my truck (07.5 chevy 2500 4x4 with Fabtech 6" old style knuckle lift where the front wheels are pushed out about 1.5" on each side)

with the factory lower control arm mount not an extended one like in a leveling kit and factory upper and lower control arm i got;

22 7/8" fully extended
18 1/4" fully compressed, with bump stop removed and lower control arm about 1/8" from the bump stop bracket (simulating a factory bump stop installed).

i then raised the tire two inches of the ground and measured 21 5/8"
this means if i was using an upper control arm that gave 2" extra droop travel that the fully extended shock length would be 1 1/4" longer then the factory extended length making the extended length with uca's 24 1/8"
this also tells me that the tire travel is 1.6 times the shock travel so;
with factory arms the shock travel is 4 5/8" and wheel travel is 7.4"
with UCA the shock travel is 5 7/8" and wheel travel is 9.4"

more travel may be achieved with bump stop moved and drop stop removed but i'm not sure of the tie rod and axle angles.

i looked at fox 2.5 coil over shocks with remote resi's;
8" travel is 24.45" extended and 16.44" compressed
6" travel is 19.45" extended and 10.44" compressed

to run any of these you would have to use a eyelet to stud mount shock conversion and they typically make the shock 2" longer. this means the 8" travel shock would be almost in range when compressed if i made a special eyelet to stud converter that was .19" shorter than the typical 2" ones. this could be done but would be just playing with the line if the truck was ever completely compressed.
however the 6" travel shock with this conversion mount, i would have 2.675" to make up some how with a longer conversion mount or extended lower mount, and i would be flirting with the line of complete travel of the shock, making everything needing to be perfect.

i think the 8" travel shock is my better option and leaves more room for improvement in the future. i'm going to look at other companies shocks and see what other sizes there are. i really wish i didn't hear the negative feedback on the FOA's as they are really affordable about half what the fox shocks are. i wonder if they have made any changes over the last year to improve seal leaking, if you look up their reviews there are a lot of mixed opinions. is there any other shocks out there that are affordable but still quality?

Chase

 

[Chase87]

what valving did you go with or do you suggest chevy1925?