Coil over shocks

[mlrailguy]

I've got Fox 12" travel shocks, 14" x 350 lbs main coils and 10" x 250 lbs for the tenders. I don't quite have the ride height I'm wanting and I bottom out on the bottom of the hills. Should I go for a taller main coil with same weight load or stay with same height coil and 400 lb rate?

[Leatherneck]

I would go with a heavier main as you are using up the 350, also check your pressure.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I think there is a lot more questions that you need to deal with. Changing the spring rate is one thing but does it answer what you are doing when you bottom out.

Are you "floating down the river" when you reach the bottom of a hill or are you hitting it at speed (I was going to exaggerate for effect but this is good enough for now).

Changing spring rate might help but maybe it is going to take re-setting up the suspension so your buggy sits higher and/or changing spring rate also.

Need pix and more description of what is going on.

Lee

(Add'n) Remember, I ride where a lot of travel especially if one is aggressive. Also, some of the transitions can be aggressive due to the angle of the dune face, so much so that the rear of the buggy can drag even at slow speeds (and after a storm). Off-road (not necessarily on sand) can have some high areas between the trail the tires of rigs have made which is another possibility of dragging on the buggy. Add to that high centering when reaching the transition at the top of a hill.

[mlrailguy]

In the process of relocating my shocks right now. Once I get that done I'll see how the ride height looks with what I have.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Nice looking rig! Very neat and clean looking.

Relocating the upper mount would have been my suggestion assuming you like the ride you currently have but then ride height looks to be properly setup with the paddles and baldies but just too low. On the sand (paddles and baldies) ride height can be a problem depending on the sand you are riding on and how you ride; e.g., passive or aggressive. In this case "on the sand" could mean low choppy dunes, tall and/or a lot of dunes or fairly flat sand areas. Where I ride you see a lot of all of them but in a smaller area. In the southern CA and AZ dunes a lot of higher dunes that cover a large area.

The heavier rated primary springs would probably be OK but set the shock/spring mounts to the ride height you want or think you need. I would then take it out and check to see if you still bottom out based on how and where you ride before you go to the stiffer coil over shocks.

The next question would be dealing with the front beam... just to keep things level .

Lee

[Leatherneck]

Everybody has a opinion, mine it looks like the bottom is angles out to far again just an opinion

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Everybody has a opinion, mine it looks like the bottom is angles out to far again just an opinion

On a second look Leather points out something I missed: is it a swing axle or IRS setup?

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

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I edited your pix to double check to see if your clean rail was Swing or IRS; the pixs show that it looks to be IRS with a widened stance (not sure about longer travel though). If it were swing axle then I would have been a bit more cautious about the moving of the upper shock mount and maybe would have suggested the stiffer coil spring. With what looks to be a widened stance you probably would be good with relocating the upper mount then, at some later time... if you do need to change the spring rate I would suspect you would be OK.

Leather's thought about the angle of the spring is worth looking at though as you might be loosing some of the value of the springs. Its hard to tell about your fore and aft arc but the drive axle arc might be somewhat compromised by the angle of the shock. the "Might be" a SWAG opinion only.

Again, my opinion is worth something less than you paid for it.

Lee

[mlrailguy]

As you found in pics, it is IRS. The arms are 4x5 or 5x4 ( I forget ). I'm in Moses Lake WA, our dunes are nothing big, but still fun to play on. Lots of trails that are big whoops, and we like to bomb across them in 3rd gear, so yes, you could say my driving is aggressive. Have been saving for front coilovers, so hoping maybe by this time next year, I could get some.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

As you found in pics, it is IRS. The arms are 4x5 or 5x4 ( I forget ). I'm in Moses Lake WA, our dunes are nothing big, but still fun to play on. Lots of trails that are big whoops, and we like to bomb across them in 3rd gear, so yes, you could say my driving is aggressive. Have been saving for front coilovers, so hoping maybe by this time next year, I could get some.

Its been a long time since I have ridden there, the mid to late 90s probably. Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980 and the Moses lake area still had ash piles on the sand when I was last there. The first time there the farms were pulled back which allowed us more riding room but with the ash covering the area the crops grew better and faster so they took back their land and the riding area got smaller. I did get high centered there but front and rear trying to climb one steep side of the big dune area .

Dune house diary 081 copy.jpg

It was really a very weird thing as I would put it in reverse trying to back off then the same thing in first. I'd let off on the gas and then a second later I would hear the sound of the thrown up sand off the paddles come raining down on the top of the buggy. One of the guys who rode with us daughter was in the buggy with me and here head was hanging over the side of the buggy and she looked to be hurt and having convulsions and I was really worried that she was hurt... but it turned out that she was a silent laugher and she was just cracking up! Whew!

The angle of the coil overs could possibility loose some work because of the angle which I think is what Leather was alluding to. Straight up and down the shock works a certain way but at an angle, if not accounted for, could possibility negate some of the spring's designed for work. In other words the shock might be pushing out somewhat on the suspension than fully dampening the action as it is designed to do. Not sure if your angle is enough to cause that but it is something to ponder.

Since I don't have the suspension setup that would allow for coil-overs I don't know much more about them that what I hear listening to other's talk about it; these guys are more aggressive than what you describe and are constantly upgrading or getting new rigs it seems like. They used to come back to camp broken a lot if that tells you something. It seems like they seemed to concentrate more on the upper springs a lot more than the bottom spring's ratings but then I suspect that the lower ones have already been figured out.