rear upper shock mounts, moved up?

anyone have any pics of rear shocks with the upper mounts moved up for more travel?

I'm in the process of designing a leaf pack like Goatman's. stock MJ main leaf(5"longer than stock), and a mixture of others to finish the packs for more travel in the rear. the plan is to net around 5" of lift and fit a 12" travel shock and have about 12" of travel in the rear. right now i have 9" travel shocks with the stock lower mounts and BPEs on the uppers and some bastard* Rustys/stock leaf packs(5"). I'm not sure if the MJ pack combo will net 12" of travel, but i figure more than my current 9". longer shackles will be used as well as relocating the front spring mount.

any thoughts or pics?
Thanks

Relocating the shock mount up will only gain travel if you have unused shock travel right now ie., when flexed and your axle is sitting on the bumpstop you will have an inch or more of shock that isn't compressed yet. Raising the shock mount while moving them out of the way of harm, actually hurts travel as its hard to fit a long travel shock into a smaller area. Look into a shock hoop if you want longer travel shocks.

jjvande said:

anyone have any pics of rear shocks with the upper mounts moved up for more travel?

I'm in the process of designing a leaf pack like Goatman's. stock MJ main leaf(5"longer than stock), and a mixture of others to finish the packs for more travel in the rear. the plan is to net around 5" of lift and fit a 12" travel shock and have about 12" of travel in the rear. right now i have 9" travel shocks with the stock lower mounts and BPEs on the uppers and some bastard* Rustys/stock leaf packs(5"). I'm not sure if the MJ pack combo will net 12" of travel, but i figure more than my current 9". longer shackles will be used as well as relocating the front spring mount.

any thoughts or pics?
Thanks

Click to expand...

You should like those springs.

I think you'll have a real hard time using 12" shocks in the rear. You can do them if you leave the lower shock mounts stock, but it will be very hard if you move the lower mounts up even with the axle. I run 10" shocks in the rear, with a homemade bar pin at the top and the lower mounts even with the axle, a little below the tubing centerline, at 7.5" of lift. To move the upper mounts higher, you'll have to go through the floor. To get longer shocks you'll have to make a hoop and move the top mount inward, which reduces the shock travel eliminating the need for a longer shock, plus it reduces the shock action (shorter shock stroke for the same amount of travel since it's at an angle) and reduces sway control.

If you're careful about shock length, and move the lower mounts, you can get a lot of flex out of 9" shocks in the rear. I ran 9" shocks for a long time. Here's a good flex pic from a while back when I had 9" rear shocks.

Thanks for the info.

Some of the reasons i was thinking of going up into the cab are to keep the roll-damping high in the rear by keeping the shocks as vertical/outward as possible, and to use longer travel shocks. Would you say there's a noticeable loss of roll stability with a shock hoop mounting the shocks at more of an angle? i'd have no gripes about going that way if its not too bad. Articulation is something that i dont really care about as much as sheer vertical travel, but i figure one comes with the other with leaf springs. As for going up into the cab... attach to a roll cage, or rear cage, or fab some pockets for the tops of the shocks out of sheet/plate?

cheers.
-J

Nothing wrong with longer shocks and more travel. I was just pointing out that you can get a lot done with 10" shocks on the back of an XJ, and they're easier to fit. I think you'd notice the difference if the shocks were angled much, but I've never done it. I've always felt that angling the shocks actually defeats the purpose, since once they're angled the shocks don't need to be as long. If you're willing to go inside the cab, and can get springs that will travel enough to take advantage of that much shock travel, more power to you. There's certainly no reason not to do it, except for the extra work.