Any bad ramifications running one/or no rear shocks on the street?

Since my right rear upper mount is gone I am tired of hearing the shock thud thud thud on the underside of the Jeep. I am also afraid it might slide out if I hit a big enough hole, etc. So I was thinking of just taking it off. This will be for street use only no flexing, etc. :eyes:

I've done that before twice, first when my axle shock mount decided to fall off, and then a second time later on when the shock fell off from the top mount. I didn't have any problem with this. I noticed it handled a little different, like the back was a bit more bouncy, but other than that I had no problems and nothing bad happened.

on my last xj i broke both shock mounts off the rear and ran no shocks until i could fix it. if i repeatedly pushed the brake pedal at the right time i could get the rear wheels to hop off the ground, probably not good for it.

no nothing bad will happen, it will put more wear on your leafs in the long term, but if you are just waiting a week to fix something the only thing that is gonna suck is the ride

Ride and tire wear. Springs keep the vehicle up, shocks keep the tires down.

Shocks only dampen the spring movement, which means with no shocks the ride will bounce more and the suspension is likely to travel a little more than normal.

After I bought this XJ, I ran for 3 weeks with out realizing the right rear shock was bouncing off the axle. Guess I should have looked harder when I bought it.

Well, I'm glad I'm not in Birmingham if you are going to do this. Yes, I am sure that it is driveable and there won't be any problems if you do this for a little while, but I strongly suspect that your handling, esp in a panic stop situation, will be very adversely affected.

Running without shocks leads to some funky handling characteristics, particularly during emergency maneuvers. I wouldn't do it for longer than an emergency trail break ride home.

I just did it while I was waiting to have my mounts moved. It is really floaty but other than that it was OK for a temporary thing.

Glen

I did it for 2 days after I snapped the upper shock mount bolts. HATED IT! I think is is because my rear leafs are pretty soft and flexy, but I bounced EVERYWHERE! And potholes made the whole rear end shift.

I left my single shock off for a while because it broke right before I went up to college, and I left my Jeep at home, so I didn't have time, the need, or even the Jeep around to fix it. I didn't drive it too much, and there was nothing wrong, even when attempting emergency manuevers (I tried a few on my street to see how it handled, and it was just fine). Now, if it were two rear shocks, I would be more concerned, or your front coils.

fuzzydog said:

Well, I'm glad I'm not in Birmingham if you are going to do this. Yes, I am sure that it is driveable and there won't be any problems if you do this for a little while, but I strongly suspect that your handling, esp in a panic stop situation, will be very adversely affected.

Click to expand...

You are making it seem like the car is going to fall apart or spring over.(It won't) If you are stoping, the force goes to the front of the vehicle, and more on the front tires, so one missing shock isn't going to make a difference. Stopping and accelerating, I couldn't tell that I had a shock missing (I drove halfway through the trail and back onto the road for a while until I got to the gas station I stop at after this particular trail to air up, and discovered that the bracket had fallen off there) The only time I really felt it was when going over bumps.

Take the front shocks off too and it will be really fun.

I ran with no front shocks for a while, with no swaybars, it wasnt bad at all.

A friend of mine ran no shocks, no swaybars, and a bent main leaf on the rear of his suzuki samuri, somtimes in front wheel drive (he breaks rear ds cause of axlewrap) and somtimes in rwd with a locker. it isnt that scary, if he can do that for a few monthes with like an 80 inch wheelbase, im sure you will be fine!

I don't recommend it but I had to run with no rear shocks for 3 days until I could fix the uppper mounts. It was bouncy as hell and the taking turns and braking did feel a bit different. But it did help settle my aal's pretty quick.