karstic said:
I just re-read that old
thread........a
very good read with lots of good info if you have the time. I never got any info off the Jeepspeed forum, they mostly talk about races and stuff, not tech. Even when I asked a question there was not a response.
Here's some update on what's happening with my rig. When I first put in the Sway-a-Way shocks the rig was very comfy on the trail, I could really haul ass down a rocky trail, but it would sway a good deal when moving quickly. It also swayed much more than I was comfortable with on the highway (with no sway bar). Since then the rear shocks were re-valved stiffer and stiffer front coils were installed, and now it is much more stable. It's stable on the highway without a front sway bar and doesn't sway much on the trail.
Paul did the R&D on these shocks, and one of the things that SAW did to get the shocks to react quickly on the rocks like Paul was after was to put in a disc called a
stand off , which is a small disc under the valve stack that allows oil to move much more freely at slow speeds, but it still works close to the same at high (shock) speeds. We took out that stand off disc in the rear shocks and left the valving the same and for me it now works like I want. I like the sportier feel, and the softer sway control on the highway is gone, plus it just feels stiffer with better control. For stiffer front coils, I took out the RE 4.5" ZJ coils and went with Skyjacker 8" coils with one coil removed. It's been discussed and generally accepted that the Skyjacker coils are the stiffest of the production coils, and by removing one coil they are even stiffer (plus providing the lift amount that I need). I really like that coil, by far my favorite of the ones that I've run.
On the last trip to Johnson Valley the rig handled at speed the best that it has so far, and there was little rear end bucking, and it was real stable on the trail. I want to try it with the stand off disc removed from the front shocks, which may give me exactly what I want for high speed but it's pretty good for trail and high speed now so it may be a little stiff for the trail. I also have one of my front SAW's leaking and it needs to be rebuilt, so I'm not sure if I'm going to stay with them in the front. Jes, CRASH, and Dave T all run Bilstein 7100's in the front with 275/78 valving and seem to like it, so I'm considering just going that route. Any comments about them, guys?
I should make a comment about some of us and our experinces with the go fast stuff. The real pre-runner guys here run proper tire pressure. We crawler guys that like to quasi-race to and from the trail are doing so at trail pressure, which makes going fast both more challenging and easier. Steering control and stability are much less with soft tires, plus speed and acceleration is harder because the soft tires rob tons of power (hence some of us getting strokers), and the soft tires make us more careful hitting sharper ruts and drop offs because the tire can collapse.........but the big soft tires really soak up the bumps and whoops making the shocks and suspension feel softer than they really are.