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Help me pick out shocks for my 4" short arm lift

2K views 35 replies 9 participants last post by  Trevlaw 
#1 ·
I called up Savvy this morning to ask about their tuned fox shocks and the women I talked to said that their 12" eye to eye shocks work with the 4" short arm lift. Has anyone had experience with these? Since I'm eventually going to midarm and raised towers front and outboard rear I'd like to buy once now if I can reuse later, but based on what I know I'm not positive that's correct unless savvy and fox is doing some magic now?

What do you guys recommend?

I have an LJ.
 
#3 ·
I figured as much. I don't think she knew what she was talking about. She's going to be giving me a call back with the compressed lengths. I'm sorry to say but I expected more from Savvy when asking what their shock options are for my Jeep. I got the feeling everything was read from the website and each answer was started with "I think". I was hoping for answers and they don't publish their lengths or mounting options so I'm not sure what I need (in addition to many pictures and descriptions not being exactly correct on many of their products). When I asked what shock they recommend for 4" of short arm lift, she asked what shocks I wanted, the 3" 4" or 12"??? :/
 
#5 ·
Technically I have the brackets for front and rear. I'm trying to remember why I was waiting though... I'm waiting on the rears to outboard until I mid-arm so I can get the location and angle correct. I'll probably do the rears with Blaine sometime. For the fronts though is there any reason to wait? Is it possible that there will be too much droop on the short arms with such a long shock and without straps?
 
#7 ·
Your best bet is going to be to wait and see if Blaine weighs in here.
But...
Your uptravel is going to be limited to where you have to bump stop to keep things from hitting.
Your downtravel is going to be limited by the unloaded spring length.
I don't see why anything very important is going to change when you go from short to mid arms in regards to your shocks?
 
#8 ·
@mrblaine, do you mind sharing your opinion here?

I've already budgeted that I'm going to need to buy shocks twice, once for short arm (cheaper shocks) and again for mid arm (the shocks I actually want long term). I'm fine with that even though it's wasteful if it gets me the best shocks for the long term since I can't do all of these mods right now. But if you have any cool ideas I'm game.
 
#9 ·
Why not just to the Front tower extension now? Just add bump stops as needed. I ran extended shock towers at almost 12" of travel on 3.5" MC coils and short arm. Would have worked the same if went with Mid arm setup (I cut my lower CA mounts so the arm didn't contact mount at full droop).

Buying 12" travel shocks now on a stock setup would be silly. You would have very little uptravel that's for sure. You could always extend them the cheap and easy way now by cutting a hole in the existing mount (enough for the body of shock to go through) and add a simple bracket to the top of stock Tower , welded to existing tower for now to use the longer shock (could modify bracket for Eye to Eye instead of Stem) .Then use the actual brackets to replace the Towers later...
 

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#10 ·
TJnBC I might go with that idea except eyes. I'll take a look at if my air box or anything else is in the way. Unfortunately I don't have any more time this year for major mods and dealing with fitment. 1) If I do Poly towers in the front do I use the full length or what's the correct length for the best shock? 2) Can I drive 5 miles on back roads without front shocks (I should know this, but I've never done it)?

3) Is this the best front shock if I use the Poly towers in the front? 4) If I meet up with a shock tuner someday (Wayne) is this a good shock for them to tune? http://shop.savvyoffroad.com/Fox-Reservoir-12-Travel-Shocks-FOX-R12.htm

5) And then these and the stock mounting locations for the rear until I outboard? http://shop.savvyoffroad.com/FOX-Rear-Shock-for-TJ-LJ-4-5-lift-FOX-TJR4.htm

Winter is closing in quickly here and everyone is starting to mount their plows so I'm getting nervous about adding one more thing to my to-do list before winter (I haven't even mowed the lawn all summer) but this is sounding worth it if I can get my welder scheduled and the shocks here (it sounds like they might be 3 months out...). 6) If somebody can send me all of the specs for the shocks and welding the towers I'd be able to schedule my welder before the shocks come in.

Edit: or maybe I should have the hack method TJnBC showed welded in with my best estimate now and then next summer weld in the better brackets once I have the shocks?
 
#12 ·
As far as where to weld in the towers, you determine that based on which shocks you pick, what travel you want, etc. There is no generic answer to where to weld them.

To pick shocks for once ready to do tower work go to Fox's site. Go into their section on racing shocks. Pick the ones you want based on lengths/travel. Savvy or any other Fox vendor will then get them for you, although don't be surprised, like you acknowledged, if there is a delay in getting them. They don't carry a lot of inventory and depending on time of year and what else they have going on (e.g. December/January leading in to KOH) it can take longer than you'd expect.

Trying to weld in the towers before you have the shocks will almost certainly be a disaster. You will be tacking things, mounting shocks, cycling axles, adjusting, repeating, adjusting, repeating, etc. to do it right. The towers can't be done in isolation.
 
#11 ·
The method I used...I used for years and new owner still running it. I do admit , it IS a bit of a hack , but a decent hack. I wasn't prepared to replace the Towers with new extended , pre -built towers. So this was an easy fix (took about 4 hours total)

I would purchase the shocks you intend to use when / if you do the Shock towers right. Just be sure to use match the NEW Shock towers height, you intend to use later, with the "hack" brackets you will use in the short term. Then the shocks will fit either setup.

As for running without shocks. For sure go ahead. It may feel a bit sloppy but it is totally fine. Especially for such a short distance.

What shocks are you getting that are 3 months out? That seems like an excessive lead time.
 
#16 ·
What did you use in the rear?

I would go with the Fox 985-24-109 11" travel shocks in the front. That is what I used based on Blaine's recommendation.
As stated, you don't want to try to put the towers on before you have the shocks.
You want to adjust your bump stops with no shock or spring in place and then place your towers so the shock is just before bottoming out when your suspension is at full bump.
Remember that full bump includes any compression of your bumps if they are compressible.
Why didn't you go with 12"? Pros and cons? Approximately how much higher is your tower now? I need to figure out how much to move.

I think if I buy a welder and tack it in place at home where I can cycle my welder guy can finish it nicely. Do the fenders need to come off for the welding?
 
#15 ·
I would go with the Fox 985-24-109 11" travel shocks in the front. That is what I used based on Blaine's recommendation.
As stated, you don't want to try to put the towers on before you have the shocks.
You want to adjust your bump stops with no shock or spring in place and then place your towers so the shock is just before bottoming out when your suspension is at full bump.
Remember that full bump includes any compression of your bumps if they are compressible.
 
#17 ·
Simply because Blaine told me that the most useful travel I was going to get in the front with the 4" Currie springs was 11".
And he was right. With the bumps bottomed out the shock is almost bottomed out and at full droop the spring is just barely loose in there.
I did not remove any fenders.
 
#21 ·
To provide some context. I have MC fenders and a 1.25"BL. The airbox can not go any higher right now due to the grill brace (I actually have to remove the brace to change the filter). Even if you're on stock fenders due to the position of the grill support I doubt yours is any higher than mine. I don't mind finding a home for things but I would like to know what to expect. Can you measure how high your tower is from the frame?

Simplest reason is when Fox goes from 11" of travel to 12", they add a 1" internal spacer to the shaft which adds 1" + the 2" of compressed length that a 1" longer shock normally has. With an 11 you already have to move the end of the shock lower on the axle tube until the bolt is about even with the top of the LCA mount. The rest has to go somewhere which is usually up.
That makes sense. If I had the room to mount the 12" travel shock 3" higher is the extra inch of travel worth it in your opinion? What is the reason behind moving the shock mount lower on the axle?

I would go with the Fox 985-24-109 11" travel shocks in the front.
Are you using these out of the box, or did you have a tune put on them?
 
#24 ·
The OEM lower mount is for a bar pin. That won't work with the Fox shocks.

My lower mount is just a tad lower than the factory mount was.
 
#27 ·
Here's a couple pics of my towers. They arent the prettiest as I put myself into a time crunch to make them and I cut each individual piece to fit(not the best idea), but they aren't permanent. Coilovers will replace them eventually. The lower mounts are just two tabs off the LCA mount

For the rears I'm trying to copy the poly towers and make them complete towers first, then I'll cut up what I don't need when I put them in, I think that'll come out a lot cleaner.

4" Currie springs up front and 13" fox shocks.
 

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#30 ·
Here's a couple pics of my towers. They arent the prettiest as I put myself into a time crunch to make them and I cut each individual piece to fit(not the best idea), but they aren't permanent. Coilovers will replace them eventually. The lower mounts are just two tabs off the LCA mount

For the rears I'm trying to copy the poly towers and make them complete towers first, then I'll cut up what I don't need when I put them in, I think that'll come out a lot cleaner.

4" Currie springs up front and 13" fox shocks.
Forgot to mention, 6" up and 7" down, tires and fenders being my limiting factor
 
#29 ·
Toximus, I recently completed extending the front and rear towers with Fox Race Series 2.0 11" in front and 12" out back using poly towers. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the front until I realized ride height will be the biggest factor to selecting the right size shock. Blaine, Biffgnar and TJnBC all had great info and examples but I did not understand why I could not extend the front towers like 3-4" (because there is room) and run 12" or 14" shocks until I took into account ride height.

From what I have gathered 50/50 or 60/40 up/down travel is really what you want to get the best performance out of a shock. You do not want to run a shock that has an extended length of 35" and collapsed length of 21" if your ride height is at 25". Then...factor in correct bumpstop and you quickly realize some of the limiting factors and your correct shock length.

The 11" in front really is the best choice when on Currie 4" springs. I must have measured extended and collapsed lengths 30 times and cycled the suspension a dozen times until I finally burned in the brackets and ordered the shocks.
 
#31 ·
Thank you for the info guys. I decided that this is going to be a good future project for me. One that I am excited to do. But in the meantime I would like to go wheeling again so I order Savvy's tuned Fox shocks for a 4" lift. I think I'll be more than happy with those until I have the time and weather to extend the fronts. If it was the beginning of summer right now I probably would have taken it on. Saving this thread!
 
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