mounting rear shocks?

this is something I've been pondering for a little while.

I am mounting my new 5150's through the floor. They will go from the top of the leaf spring plate, to a piece of tube bent up from wheel well to wheel well.

What is the best orientation to mount them in?

I've seen;
mounts parallel to the axle, top and bottom
mounts perpindicular to axle, top and bottom
parallel top perpindicular bottom, and vice versa

Stock 5150 bushings, rig used for rough trails, rocks, slow stuff, off camber... not fast moving, cept for the drive to/from trails.

I see why JeepSpeed rigs would mount them parallel to the axle, especially with heims.
But for rocks, and anything other than JeepSpeed rigs, wouldn't perpindicular be better?

Hoping to do this over the next 2 days so feed back is appreciated.

I have mine through the floor, But check out the jeepspeed section, Tons of info there.

I've checked out all the threads I can find (which is plenty)

my concern is that it seems the orientation of the mounts is better one way then the other for each application.

parallel to the axle works good for JeepSpeed since normally both L/R sides move up/down together

however rock crawling L/R sides will flex up/down opposite of each other... so you'd want the mounts perpindicular so that the bushings can rotate on the bolts, as opposed to compressing.

granted this is my opinion, thats why I started the thread, hoping those in the know could point me, and others in the future, in the right direction.

thanks

-96JeepSpeed- said:

I have mine through the floor, But check out the jeepspeed section, Tons of info there.

Click to expand...

Billy

ok, I do kinda want some feedback, atleast somewhat on topic.

I will be mounting these shocks today/tomorrow. I plan on mounting them perpendicular to the axle... so correct me if I'm wrong... before its semi permanent.

beakie said:

however rock crawling L/R sides will flex up/down opposite of each other... so you'd want the mounts perpindicular so that the bushings can rotate on the bolts, as opposed to compressing.

Click to expand...

I can't think of any scenario when that would not be true, or at least a wash

I mounted the lowers parallel to the axle so that I could make them double shear and I mounted the uppers perpendicular to the axle so that I wouldn't have to rely on the bushing's deflection alone during articulation.
Billy

ok, maybe I am over thinking this one, but I just want to run this past the brains before I make it permanent.

On the leaf plate, I am running the shock mount perpendicular. It will rotate on the bolt during flex, which is better than compressing the bushing.

now for the cross member, mine is much like this one (pic stolen from ROBERTK)


I put more (maybe too much) thought into this and I figure since the leafs will move more for/aft in relation to this stationary bar... maybe I should mount the shocks parallel to the axle at the uppers.
like this pic (again, stolen from ROBERTK)




tomorrow I'll be making this happen. any reasons not too?



the fronts are in, haven't driven the rig since last December other than a short slow jaunt... but looking forward to finally taking it for a drive tomorrow night.

i think its more important to have each end mounted the other way than the other, ie perpendicular at top, and paralel at bottom, that way the shock can move bind-free thruout the travel.


mounting them both the same way = killing bushings