Up-travel: What's the big deal?

One thing I can say after putting mine together as well as might be, is that if you pay attention to the details, things almost seem to fall together into a 50/50 split. Currie and Savvy stuff are pretty well designed for it.
 
I guess I was trying to ask, was does the vehicle (Jeep, buggy, monster truck, whatever) become unstable with too much up travel, is there a point it's just too soft? Watching trophy trucks drive on the street is a good example, they are a total mess. Massive amounts of body roll.

I totally get that you get diminishing returns on the amount of work needed to make it happen.
 
kmas0n said:
I guess I was trying to ask, was does the vehicle (Jeep, buggy, monster truck, whatever) become unstable with too much up travel, is there a point it's just too soft? Watching trophy trucks drive on the street is a good example, they are a total mess. Massive amounts of body roll.

I totally get that you get diminishing returns on the amount of work needed to make it happen.
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Shock valving is going to play a role in how the particular travel bias behaves.
 
toximus said:
You need some down travel so the suspension can travel down from under the Jeep when coming across things like pot holes. Or else the Jeep will "fall" instead of the suspension traveling down.
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I'm almost certain I experience this exact issue with 5" up, 2.5" down in the rear of mine. It was a little more balanced before I installed the SYE, but the lower shock mount got farther from the upper mount at ride height by rotating my pinion up.

I did some really mild wheeling this weekend on a dirt road with scattered embedded rocks and water erosion causing ruts across the road. The front axle would glide right over them at pretty decent speed but as soon as a rear wheel would drop into the same rut, the Jeep would try to toss me out the window when the shock topped out, not allowing the spring to do it's job (supporting the vehicle) and the whole chassis dropped into the hole.
 
freedom_in_4low said:
I'm almost certain I experience this exact issue with 5" up, 2.5" down in the rear of mine. It was a little more balanced before I installed the SYE, but the lower shock mount got farther from the upper mount at ride height by rotating my pinion up.

I did some really mild wheeling this weekend on a dirt road with scattered embedded rocks and water erosion causing ruts across the road. The front axle would glide right over them at pretty decent speed but as soon as a rear wheel would drop into the same rut, the Jeep would try to toss me out the window when the shock topped out, not allowing the spring to do it's job (supporting the vehicle) and the whole chassis dropped into the hole.
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That's because the answer that has been missed so far is it is trying to yank the axle off the ground.
 
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X2. The opposite of bottoming out is yanking the axle off the ground.
 
mrblaine said:
That's because the answer that has been missed so far is it is trying to yank the axle off the ground.
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jjvw said:
X2. The opposite of bottoming out is yanking the axle off the ground.
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I actually learned about this way before I was into Jeeps....about 10 years ago I had a Harley-Davidson Sportster that was one of the flavors with a low riding rear suspension. The ride was garbage on the rural Oklahoma roads I was running at the time, so I started tinkering around with the rear suspension. My first iteration was just taller springs from another Sportster model but it took out most of the downtravel and rode just as bad, possibly worse, than what I started with. In the end I ended up with the springs from one type of Sportster combined with the shocks from another to get the ride height where I wanted and balanced in the shock travel.
 
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@jjvw

I run 2" OME Springs, that gave me around 3" front lift.

I installed Ranchos RS55128 front. I have 5.7" up travel and 2.3" down travel.

If I replace them with RS55239 front, I will have 4.3" up travel and 5.1" down travel.

First has more up travel, second one is closer to 50/50. Which Should I prefer?

Ideally, which would be the "perfect" shock travel for a 3" lift? 9" or 10"?
 
TJim said:
@jjvw

I run 2" OME Springs, that gave me around 3" front lift.

I installed Ranchos RS55128 front. I have 5.7" up travel and 2.3" down travel.

If I replace them with RS55239 front, I will have 4.3" up travel and 5.1" down travel.

First has more up travel, second one is closer to 50/50. Which Should I prefer?

Ideally, which would be the "perfect" shock travel for a 3" lift? 9" or 10"?
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I would lean towards the longer shock and consider a small spacer.

The perfect shock is the one that first provides the best ride and followed by the most travel split in half.
 
jjvw said:
I would lean towards the longer shock and consider a small spacer.
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Why would you consider a spacer?

By small you mean 10mm? 3/4"?

EDIT: Nevermind, I understand why you suggest a spacer. In order to move towards 50 50 more
 
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TJim said:
Why would you consider a spacer?

By small you mean 10mm? 3/4"?

EDIT: Nevermind, I understand why you suggest a spacer. In order to move towards 50 50 more
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Don't forget... The longer travel shock will have a longer body and may require more bump stop. The spacer can help with that too.
 
Mike_H said:
Don't forget... The longer travel shock will have a longer body and may require more bump stop. The spacer can help with that too.
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I will need some bump stop extensions for sure for RS55239. About 1.5". For RS55128 I didn't need any.

The only problem with a 3/4" spacer would be that I would have almost 3.75" lift on front. I only run 31" tires. I wanted a 2-2.5". haha

BTW, adding just enough bumpstop so the shock does not fully compress, will not limit at all my shock travel. (Or very little). Am I right?
 
TJim said:
...

BTW, adding just enough bumpstop so the shock does not fully compress, will not limit at all my shock travel. (Or very little). Am I right?
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As I've said before, make the shock the limit to travel. The bump stops get lengthened to make the jounces slow down the last bit of travel.
 
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jjvw said:
As I've said before, make the shock the limit to travel. The bump stops get lengthened to make the jounces slow down the last bit of travel.
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Thanks, I will take some more detailed measurements tomorrow and do a bit more research on shocks to take full advantage of my available articulation. I will maybe come back with some more questions!
 
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