Heavy Duty rear shock recommendations

[TCNorthwest]

I ordered Bilstein 33-176857 E450 shocks for the rear of my 97 Quigley E350 after seeing a reference sheet for Quigley econolines. It’s lifted ~5” in the rear. After mounting them today I find I only have about 2” down travel left. Not going to cut it. I removed the existing Rancho shocks but none of the numbers on the body come back with anything. Measuring the length of the old shock gets me 26” extended and 16” collapsed. I’m going to have quite a bit of weight in the rear, so I’m looking for a heavy duty shock. I’m running reservoir bilsteins up front. Any recommendations?

 

[Betarocker]

Pintop with eyelet?

Fox 985-24-061 - ext 25.625" comp 16.05" travel 9.6"
Fox 985-24-652 - ext 27.25" comp 16.65" travel 10.6"

Both are for lifted Superdutys fronts, which deal with heavy engines.

 

[nitro_rat]

5160's for the front of a Dodge 2500 with a 3" lift are 15.2" collapsed and 26" extended. Stud at top and eye at bottom...

 

[javajoe79]

These are close. Pretty good shock and cheap. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ran-rs999028

 

[broncobowsher]

So you have 26" now and only 2" of extension left. So ride height of a 24"?
How much uptravel do you have. If the suspension bottoms out what will that distance be? If it is 16" it is going to take a lot of fab work to get a new upper shock mount for a long body shock to get the travel you will need. Remember that you always want the suspension to bottom out without bottoming the shock itself. Laying shocks over will get you more travel out of a shorter body, but the shock is less effective. Going inboard makes things worse in even more ways.

I short you have not provided enough numbers to recommend anything. We know what doesn't fit. But you didn't tell us what you have room to fit.

 

[MTVR]

The correct shock length is determined by your suspension geometry, not by the dimensions of the aftermarket shocks you removed from it.

 

[broncobowsher]

Small flaw in what I said. I was assuming vertical travel, was thinking like the front. For the rear the shocks are laid over and the angle changed during the cycle. So 1" of suspension travel is less than 1" of shock travel. Actual amount has to be calculated for the vehicle they are installed on and where in the stroke you want to measure.

Quick cheat that works as long as you give yourself a little margin. measure axle to bump stop clearance. Say it is 5" Take one tape measure and measure up from the bottom shock mount 5". Now measure the distance from the upper shock mount to the and of the 5" tape measure. Be sure to keep the 5" tape measure (or whatever your actual measurement really is) true and straight. You can lay it over to make the compressed shock length whatever, so there is potential for error. You must have to be smart about it. You are just faking a bottomed out suspension to know minimum shock length. Remember that margin, like the bump stops are not solid, they do squish. You never want a shock to ever bottom out internally. Stuff like that.

 

[TCNorthwest]

Pintop with eyelet?

Fox 985-24-061 - ext 25.625" comp 16.05" travel 9.6"
Fox 985-24-652 - ext 27.25" comp 16.65" travel 10.6"

Both are for lifted Superdutys fronts, which deal with heavy engines.

Ended up going with the 985-24-061. Had to make new shock tabs as the stock mounts had already been modified and weren’t wide enough.

Initial impressions are great. The handle the weight and seem to keep the rear from rocking back and forth.