Rant with a shock question

Alright, here it is. Yesterday putting on my RE 4.5 kit run into a few problems. RE didnt send my quick disco's and they sent me the wrong U-bolts. Got that taken care of. Next, I ordered some SkyJacker shocks from Quadratec. I told them my lift was going to be about 5 inches so I wasnt sure what part number to order. They ordered these two part numbers. SKYJACKER NITRO SHOCK N8025R and SKYJACKER NITRO SHOCK N8028R. So last night almost finished up with the install but when we are putting on the shocks they seem wayy too short. Also, they sent a wrong bushing and the top of the rear shock is just sliding around because they bushing is too big. I guess my question is were those the right shocks for my lift? I called q-tec and they transfered me over to some dude but he didnt asnwer. So I left a message but I am going to call again in a minute. Sorry about the long post but I am just frustrated right now. Thanks for any help.

-Scott



Oh yea, the SJ TC drop lined up like crap too.

Even if those are the right size shocks I personally don't think you'll be happy with them....My Skyjacker lift came with those shocks and after about a month I had to upgrade, they just rode like crap.

Well, I was just on the phone with SJ and Q-tec and they are the right legnth shock. They are 4.25" longer exteneded then stock. I guess with the RE sitting so high till it settles its the right shock. Yea, I had these shocks on my last Jeep. They werent the best but they are fine for me. Just like to say SJ has great customer service also.

Jeepsterboy101 said:

Well, I was just on the phone with SJ and Q-tec and they are the right legnth shock. They are 4.25" longer exteneded then stock. I guess with the RE sitting so high till it settles its the right shock. Yea, I had these shocks on my last Jeep. They werent the best but they are fine for me. Just like to say SJ has great customer service also.

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I'm not too sure if they are the right length shock. How much do you expect your lift to settle? 1"? 2"?? 3"?? How much travel is on the shock? Will you use up all of the up travel and have next to no down travel? or will you end up in a situation where most of your uptravel will not be used and you are suffering on the down travel? The fact that they are saying that it's longer and that it's right doesn't make it so. Best way to determine the length of a shock needed is to flex it up and measure what would be the perfect shock at your max compression and at max droop. You can kind of fudge it with a tape measure after looking at how much room you've got and how much you could use (but that's fudging it). Anyways, you will not find a shock that will give you best of both worlds but you can come close to, and what you've described with your shock sounds like it's going to give you max compression and no droop which is bad (or maybe not bad, but could be improved upon)

Its going to give me max compression but like you said, little droop. This is still my DD so thats fine for now. I plan on going a little bigger once I get my SYE. Since, I have already installed the shocks I dont think I can return them. Haven't diven on them yet, Jeep is still on the lift but yea. Once the lift settles a little I think it will work out. Thanks for the info though. Next time I will just measure it correctly. Thats what being impatient does for ya, messes things up.

Jeepsterboy101 said:

Its going to give me max compression but like you said, little droop.

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That's not good though. Drive over some potholes and see what happens. It will feel as though you're falling off something. I know cause I ended up once with shocks that were too short and they felt REALLY bad on the street.

If you can get the shock swapped, consider getting a slightly longer one and putting in longer bumpstops to prevent bottoming it out.

I have 3 inch bump stops right now. Will that be enough? I dont have the cash to swap the shocks right now and I dont think Q-tec would take them back since they have already been mounted.