Bilsteins Here We Come

[Bikeman]

Someone talked me into those adapters way back when I had my blue 60. It was a dumb move in that it shortened the shock travel significantly.

The 80's have a wee bit more travel. There are guys with my size lift that are maxing out 14" travel shocks and losing a coil at the same time.

 

[Bikeman]

I ordered the fronts today, 255/70 valving, 7100 with reservoirs, 10" standard body.

I am currently working on the rear lower mount. I need to find a piece of tube .75" or 19mm I.D. to fit over the factory mount. I will then weld on a "U" to that to accept a .5" bolt for the heim ends of the shock eyes.

 

[Bikeman]

Well 4WP dropped the ball. It has been almost 2 weeks and they screwed up 3 times. I should have known better to go with them. I will try eshocks.com tomorrow.

 

[Nay]

I ordered the fronts today, 255/70 valving, 7100 with reservoirs, 10" standard body.

I am currently working on the rear lower mount. I need to find a piece of tube .75" or 19mm I.D. to fit over the factory mount. I will then weld on a "U" to that to accept a .5" bolt for the heim ends of the shock eyes.

That's a good easy solution for raising the rear shock mount slightly and adapting for the 1/2" eye. I have you considered just cutting and welding on a new grade 8 1/2" bolt? You'll achieve some clearance since you are raising the mount either way.

High Country 4x4 sells Bilstein, you could check with them.

 

[Nay]

Someone talked me into those adapters way back when I had my blue 60. It was a dumb move in that it shortened the shock travel significantly.

Eye adapters can't shorten your shock travel, it's the same shock. They will compress the shock 3" if you have them on both ends. In effect, what you are doing is spacing down shock travel just as if you were using a much longer shock with a longer compressed length, but you don't acquire the additional droop. You do need enough lift to make this work so you don't end up with too little up travel, though.

On the 80 I favor this approach, because the front end isn't very flexible, and ending up very long travel only on one end may unbalance the suspension and will increase tire fitment problems on an 80 because adding droop on the corner will increase the angle of the tire into the wheel well, which is exactly where 80's have rubbing problems on the inner frame and wheel well.

 

[Bikeman]

I just scored 2-Fox 2.0 resi's, 10" travel, NIB for $140 ea shipped. I am glad I found a nitro source to charge them. Same dimensions as the 7100's, non-short body. I like the steel-braided hoses better than what comes stock on the billies.

Now to find a good deal on a second pair.

 

[FJBen]

where did ya score that deal? what is the valving on those?

 

[Bikeman]

I got them off fleabay from Rough Country. The valving is for heavy-duty single-shock applications, but I can easily valve them to whatever.

 

[Nay]

I just scored 2-Fox 2.0 resi's, 10" travel, NIB for $140 ea shipped. I am glad I found a nitro source to charge them. Same dimensions as the 7100's, non-short body. I like the steel-braided hoses better than what comes stock on the billies.

Now to find a good deal on a second pair.

Nice score

 

[Bikeman]

I finally received the fronts, Fox 2.0 10" travel, 26" extended, 30 compression, 70 rebound:

With eye adapters, Pro Crap brand, copared lengths to "L" shocks:

Mounted, with a simple resi mount, uncomplicated:

OMG!!!! What a difference in the ride! No more harshness, no more shocks with too much compression damping. Tested them on dirt roads an shoulders. The Spooky night run will be perfect to test 'em. I wish I had the rears. Rears to follow in November.

 

[Bikeman]

I still can't believe the ride. No more harshness from shocks that have too much compression damping.

I ordered the rears today from Downsouth Motorsports in CA. The guy I spoke with is going to do a 35/80 valving and change the 1/2" heims to polys, 3/4" for the rear lowers, and a 1/2" seamless bushing in a 5/8" poly for the upper, so the road grime won't kill them. With just the upper adapters for eyes, they will be a bolt-in affair.

I will prolly change the fronts to poly bushings if the road grime starts killing the lower heim.

What's really cool, is that he can take a Fox shock that was designed for a vehicle-specific application, i.e., stud mounts, and valve them so they would directly bolt on without any adapters. Way cool.

 

[Nay]

Awesome that you can order up your valving and custom poly bushings, going to be a sweet setup

 

[Bikeman]

I got the rears today, oh what a difference in the ride. No harshness from OME. On the wheeling trip this last weekend, there is a huge night and day difference. I will mount the resi where it is out of the way of the LCA:

 

[Hulk]

Hmmm. It would be interesting to drive your 80 around the block. What springs are you running to get 5.5" of lift?

 

[Uncle Ben]

Hmmm. It would be interesting to drive your 80 around the block. What springs are you running to get 5.5" of lift?

Gray springs = Christo's 6" would be my guess....

 

[Bikeman]

4" coils with 1" spacers. I thought the 6" coils could give too much lift. I got an extra .5" out of the rears.

 

[Hulk]

OK, so you're set up fairly similar to my 80 (w/o the spacers). Do you notice the difference in ride at 40 mph? Does it require hwy speed?

 

[Bikeman]

Ther is an absolutely huge difference in the ride at all speeds, more so at speeds less than highway, like driving around town.

All the chatter and choppiness from the concrete roads in the Ranch are barely noticable now, if non-existant.

 

[Tch2fly]

All the chatter and choppiness from the concrete roads in the Ranch are barely noticable now, if non-existant.

If that is the case I'm getting a set for the Prius and the Tacoma

 

[Nay]

All the chatter and choppiness from the concrete roads in the Ranch are barely noticable now, if non-existant.

Highlands Ranch has choppy roads? I had never noticed