• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

cycling your suspension to determine shock needs

Beej

NAXJA Forum User
I'm sure this has been explained before, but I searched and could not find what i am looking for. I want to change out my shocks, and am going to install bar pin eliminators as well. I have heard many people talk about "cycling your suspension" in order to figure out what length shocks you need. So how do i do that? I have jack stands, and a race jack and a flat garage surface to play with. I was thinking I would undo the shocks from the suspension, and jack up one wheel at a time, measuring from shock mount to shock mount to determine the compressed and extended lengths. Is this going to give me what i am looking for? Should I disconnect my sway bar links when i do it? I am hoping that by using bar pin eliminators, I will open up to more variety in shocks, am I assuming correctly? Any information would be great, thanks.
Beej.
 
Basically you want to get your extended measurements and the compression length usually works out for you.

You want the suspension at full droop without anything like sway bar or existing shocks on. Finding full droop might not be where the suspension droops to. You might need to LIMIT it a little depending on things such as component bind or spring drop out. You don't want anything not to work right just because it can droop to that point. A nice balanced suspension works nice, it doesn't need to be a "Ramp queen".


hinkley
 
The funny thing is that the shocks tend to limit the travel on most rigs. Measure the length at full stuff. Go to a shock chart and get a shock that will collapse that far, then try to get one with the longest extension. Most shocks can only change in length around 12 inches max. Rancho's tech page is a good place to start. If you need more droop, you may need to extend your bump stops so you can get a longer shock to start with. This is the reason people put shock hoops on. The longer the shock, the longer it can extend, but also the longer it is when compressed. Bottoming a shock is a quick way to destroy a shock.
 
Back
Top