Need some coilover sizing help.

[mofoco1]

OK I came across some unexpected funding and am thinking of buying my front coilovers for the swap. Need a bit of info from those who have gone in the same direction as I am heading. Suspension is as follows 22" eye to eye mounting with full weight on the shock. I have a 302 AT PS AC Extra coolers 8pt cage 30gl rear tank only and a heavy front bumper and 8274m . This to exemplify weight of the truck. Suspension is only 1" over stock, but the coil tower is getting chopped off and new hoop installed, I have a 3" bodylift I took into account with the overall static height of the truck with hoops extending as far as they could. Would a 12" or 14" CO work or would those be too long? I want dual rates as well so what do you think for a daily driver that will see light towing, a bit of dune play, and very mild trail running. Any suggestion would be appreciated, as I have been offered a few different routes(shocks for sale), but I don't want to send away for them, and end up with something I am not happy with. I know I can order new, but without knowing how they behave + I do not have endless funds to try and fail till I find the right ones. I would appreciate any input...Mo

 

[fungus]

I'm working my way through this very issue right now as I just ended up with some Sway-A-Way 14" remote res shocks for a steal. What I would do (due to your location) is hit a truck scale. Weigh the front & back of your rig then call Poly Performance in SLO. Great guys more than willing to help and carry a few different brands. With your axle weights they should be able to get you in the ball park as far as what shocks to use and spring rates. If the rates are off they'll swap the springs out at no charge as you get the ride height dialed in as long as you don't beat them all up. I think with my setup I'm going with a 14" 250# spring over 14" 350# spring to start me off. Hoping that gets me in the ballpark for around 5" of lift at ride height. I'll have to play with my mounting to get them in under the inner fenders without hacking them all to hell and running an engine xbrace.

 

[mofoco1]

where did you score your sway a way from. Wondering if they are the ones I was after and got sold a day before I got to contact him. Anyway I would love to know if your lengths will work for you, keep me appraised. So you had 5" of SL and 0" BL? what is the eye to eye length between your attachment bolt. Mine is 22" if I want to keep them under the fenders. Still debating whether I want to go into the engine bay, if I do I will use a removable cross brace.

 

[fungus]

I scored the pair BNIB for $550 from a guy here in Honolulu so I'd be surprised if they were the ones you were looking at.

I don't have anything mocked up yet. I'm building a completely new chassis frame up. My current rig has 3.5" susp lift and 2" body lift that I've been taking some measurements on. New chassis will have full width axles, 5.5" suspension lift and 2" body lift.

With 3.5"/2" lifts I've got 27" between the top of the axle tube and the inner fender. Add 2" to that for 5.5" lift is 29". My shocks are 21" fully compressed and 35.5" extended. Should be able to fit them in with about 4-5" of uptravel planned & around 9" of downtravel.

I'll probably end up building a plate to screw into the stock lower coil mount holes on my Duff arms and C caps and weld a lower mount to it. Upper mount I'll build from plate to fit inside the inner fenders maximizing the space inplace of the stock coil bucket. I'm targeting about 6" of shaft showing for a total of 4.5-5.0" total lift in the front & 5.5" leafs in the rear. I like a little front rake so it sits more level when loaded down with camping gear and tools for a run.

 

[mofoco1]

Sounds like it's getting dialed in. No the ones I missed out were here in CA. I just can't fathom finding anything on the Islands, pretty lucky. I have 3.5" front coils now. I want to lower it so that it will be only 1"+ over stock. Mines a luber in the pic. I am keeping the stock radius arms for now as I wanted the stock swaybars to stay. I got the 79 Bronco arms so it has the larger pattern. I am going to drill out and retap for even larger bolts. I will make up a bracket with some nice thick ears and gusset them real good. Upper will be a nice thick wall 2"(overkill probably) tubing dom or cromoly if I can source it out.

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[gravy]

I run 14 travel front and back. My front mounts poke thru the wheel wells- the rears use Wild horses cut outs. Check out my build threads in my sig. 22" mounting is to short for 14s and 12s might be a little tight- check the collapsed lengths of the brand you want to run. Ideally for a street truck the shock should be in the middle of its travel at ride height or close.

 

[mofoco1]

Gravy thanks for chiming in. I was thinking that the 14s might be to big to stay under. Looking at the 10s though since I want dual rates it seems like those may be too short. 12s sounds like they might be the ticket, I really only will practically use 4"-6" of up travel and this wont be a trailer dedicated rig so droop needs to only be minimal. I am not totally opposed to going into the engine bay, but that just complicates things that much more. I will take a look at your exa.and see if it might suit my needs.

 

[gravy]

A 10 travel make work best and you can run a single coil to keep things simple. Let me know if you have any questions I may be able to help with

 

[mofoco1]

Thanks I appreciated it. I was leaning towards the duals for a bit more comfort.