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Suspension advice for limited up travel

JohnX

JohnX

Sarge
NAXJA Member
Location
Williams AZ
Want to get some better feel over bumps. Mj bottoms out over anything worse than a speedbump. This is due mostly to limited up travel in the front. I have inch travel shocks up front, but only 4"" of up travel. Considering air bumps to soften the blows. Opinions welcome.
 
JohnX said:
Want to get some better feel over bumps. Mj bottoms out over anything worse than a speedbump. This is due mostly to limited up travel in the front. I have inch travel shocks up front, but only 4"" of up travel. Considering air bumps to soften the blows. Opinions welcome.
Click to expand...
Prothane front bumpstops work well. It was Goatman's experience that lead me to them
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=985677&highlight=prothane
http://www.jegs.com/p/Prothane/Prothane-Coil-Spring-Inserts/762178/10002/-1
I run these on the rear. They have been narrowed to soften them up.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwade/4404568201/in/set-72157623386411798
http://www.jegs.com/i/Energy-Suspension/355/9-9109G/10002/-1?parentProductId=
Once adjusted, I stopped feeling the suspension bottom at either the front or rear. A lot cheaper than air bumps and easier to install.
 
That was my original intention, after wheeling this weekend I decided it wouldn't be enough. I guess I better give it a try before I spend craploads of money on air bumps. Thanks for the links.
 
John, you cannot imagine how well the Prothanes work.

Catch me offline for more details on what we learned with 4643's Prothanes.
 
muddypunk said:
lazyxj what did that rear bump come from ? I need to get bigger rear bumps
Click to expand...

I took a little time to find the ones I actually installed, it has been a few years.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PTP-19-1311-BL/
The bolt holes (slots) fits the stock bump-stop studs.

At first, the rear bump-stops were too stiff so I cut the sides at an angle until they compressed they way I wanted them to. The 5100 shocks have an exposed shaft so I used small zip-ties, on the shafts, to test for travel. A hard hits leaves 1/2" of the shaft unused, to protect the shock. Did the same on the front shocks.

The front Prothanes received a similar treatment to get full travel while using the bump-stops to their full advantage. Start long and trim until they fit correctly.
A piece of 1-1/4" UHMW plastic rod, placed inside the Prothanes, provides a positive stop in case of a super-hard hit. Trim the rod to fit. Once again, a 1/2" of the shock's shaft remains after hard hits. So far, so good.
My XJ's Prothanes are short to accommodate the small 4" lift. Bigger lifts use longer Prothanes so buy the longer ones and trim to fit.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwade/4342416721/in/set-72157623386411798
Dropping the front shock's lower-mounts allows 5" of up-travel out of the 10" 5150s.
Air bumps are the ultimate but the Prothanes are very nice and a lot cheaper and easier to install.
 
After getting sick of underperforming bumpstops I did my homework and ordered up a set of Prothanes this week. I have about 5" of up travel available but was only giving myself about 3" of usuable compression the way I had my extended poly bumpstops and pucks setup because I didn't know what the hell I was doing (still don't really).

Been meaning to talk to Cal about it but I read through a bunch of his and Goatman's posts and did some measuring and think I have it figured out.

Looking forward to the results of a progressive bump and getting that travel back.
 
I only have a few inches of up travel and I rarely bottom
Out. Then again I have really stiff shocks. Do you have stock bumps? They're actually pretty damn progressive. I think I have about 5" of up travel before the bump is fully compressed and I rarely hit that. Do you have poly bumps? Those are almost like hitting a plastic bumpstop. The diramoter of urathane everyone uses is shitty.
 
Currently I have 10" 5125 shocks in the front, these will be giving way to some resi shocks when money permits. I currently have about 4 inches of up travel before I contact the stock bumps, however, I have to limit that to 4 inches of up travel on my hardest hits...bump compression included. I have a 2 inch bump spacer on the bottom I will be removing and replacing with 4" of prothane bumps as described above. So effectively I should have 2 inches of free travel, and 2 more inches of bump compression with some kind of positive stop at that point.

I'll let you guys know how it goes in a few weeks.
 
so does brown dog. if you go that route, you will also need to raise the rad fan shroud, re-set pinion angle and possibly raise the hood.
 
If you get motor mounts an inch taller on an xj, your bell housing will hit the firewall. Ask me how i know.

If you cant squeeze more than 4 inches of travel due to clearance issues, then get yourself some progressive bumpstops and maybe some stiffer springs and shocks. Stock rigs have less uptravel than that and ride just fine. I used to run less on my rockcrawler on 37s and it was perfectly fine if i kept all fours on the ground.
 
If worse comes to worse I will be moving the axle forward an inch, as well as moving the engine over to the left two inches. Between those two things I should gain two inches of travel before contacting the pan. However, I am going to start with the prothanes for now.
 
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