3.5" lift - what length shocks are you running?

I'm helping a friend prepare to lift their jeep, and am unsure which shocks to order.

The lift is an RE 6130 3.5" lift. The jeep is not a crawler type rig, it will be used for camping and expedition type wheeling. It will get bilstein 5100 series shocks - I don't know if I should be looking at 8.5" travel shocks at 13.5ish compressed, or 9.5" travel shocks at 14.8 ish compressed.

What length shocks are you guys running with this lift, and how much uptravel do they have? I'm less concerned with having a lot of droop, and more with letting her take a couple of good hits loaded down with a lot of gear - but I don't want to go shorter on the shocks and find she has a bunch of unusable uptravel.

I use the OME long-travel with my RE 3.5 springs. I don't have a whole lot of heavy armor parts so I am over 4" of actual lift with those. RE specifies their own shocks and you can do some looking to figure out what kind of travel they feel comfortable with (or are willing to warranty if need be). I also put my pos on a friend's RTI ramp and measured travel with the shocks disconnected

FRONT
no shocks 17" x 25.5"
RE 3.5 specs 16" x 26"
OME 60052L 15.4" x 26.7" (I measured 16" x 27.25" eye-to-eye)

REAR
no shocks 17" x 21.75"
RE 3.5 specs 15" x 24"
OME 60053L 14.4" x 24.5" (I measured 15" x 25")

ehall said:

I use the OME long-travel with my RE 3.5 springs. I don't have a whole lot of heavy armor parts so I am over 4" of actual lift with those. RE specifies their own shocks and you can do some looking to figure out what kind of travel they feel comfortable with (or are willing to warranty if need be). I also put my pos on a friend's RTI ramp and measured travel with the shocks disconnected

FRONT
no shocks 17" x 25.5"
RE 3.5 specs 16" x 26"
OME 60052L 15.4" x 26.7" (I measured 16" x 27.25" eye-to-eye)

REAR
no shocks 17" x 21.75"
RE 3.5 specs 15" x 24"
OME 60053L 14.4" x 24.5" (I measured 15" x 25")

Click to expand...

How much uptravel do you have from ride height, and are you bottoming the shock or the RE bumpstop?

the OME shocks have more compression than the springs (on the ramp anyway), 1+ inch in the front and 2+ inch in the rear. I'm not bottoming it out but I'm not jumping it either

I don't have the RE bumpstops, I only bought their springs and did the rest piecemeal

EDIT: sorry let me clarify (dogs were being fussy and I got distracted). I was still using stock bumpstops at the time. I disconnected the shocks and drove up the ramp until one of the tires came off the ground. The springs were not fully compressed and the bumpstops were not in play, but the tension was enough that one of the wheels came off the ground so I figured that was as far as it would go in normal driving. The OME LT have some slack beyond that. I did not look at Bilstein or anything else

FYI 6130 is a 4.5" lift.

I am running the RE 3.5" springs. the shocks I am running are the RE monotubes they designed to run with the 3.5" or 3.5" lift, they are 10.5" travel, 16.5" compressed I believe. I have 4" of uptravel and 6" of downtravel with my limit straps.

I'd say get the longer shocks, he will eventually want more if you go with the short ones, I wish I had sprung for some short bodied 12" travel instead of the 10.5"s

EDIT:

my shocks do droop enough to almost unseat the coil, if it weren't for the straps, they would by about a half inch before the shocks bottom out. but I do wish I had about 2 more inches of up-travel in the shocks, plenty of room with everything else.

but if you are doing the 4.5, the spring rates are different, so I have no idea what would happen.