Shock placement question...

[Rezarf <><]

Hey fellas, I thought I would tap into your collective knowlege for some advice on shock placement on a solid axle trailer.

Here is a pic of the chasis I am mounting these onto.

What is the best orientation to get the shocks to perform well, and stay out of the rocks? Also, if I could not fab up another crossmember that would be swell.

I am thinking just welding a mounting tab onto the axle tube and leaning them back to the next rearward crossmember and mounting them like that?

My fj40 mounts on the bottom of the U-bolt plates and leans them inboard, but mostly in the vertical plain towards the center of the rig. Toyota is smarter than me for sure, but is that the best option?

Thanks guys, looking forward to the learning session.

Drew

 

[ExpoMike]

I don't have a clear answer with your trailer but here is some good info my very good friend at Bilstein gave me.

The more vertical you can get the shock, the more linear the shock will work. This becomes important when tuning a shock (not that you are going to do that). As you angle the shock, you start losing shock travel as it move in an arc and in turn changes how the shock will react response with suspension movement.

Second, the closer you can get the shock to the wheel, the more control it will have to the movement.

Most of the time shock placement is a compromise of the given space and needed travel. If you need 5" of suspension travel but only have x amount of space, you will see the shock leaned over to fit the shock body plus it can also reduce the total amount of shock travel needed due to the loss in the arc movement of the shock.

Not sure if it helps at all but things to think about. Good luck! :ylsmoke:

 

[ntsqd]

The more vertical you can get the shock, the more linear the shock will work. This becomes important when tuning a shock (not that you are going to do that). As you angle the shock, you start losing shock travel as it move in an arc and in turn changes how the shock will react response with suspension movement.

Expanding on this a bit; The closer the shock piston's travel matches that of the wheel the better the damping control of the shock. Shock piston speed, particularly in a deflecting disc style of damper (Bilstein, Fox, King, etc.), is key to good results.

IMHO what you want is for the shock to be vertical when the suspension is bottomed out. What this does for you is start out with a "soft" (in comparison - not necessarily SOFT) damping. As the suspension further compresses the shock becomes closer to vertical which increases the damping rate. So the harder the bump, then more damping you get.
Note that with leaf srpings that the axle moves rearwards as they compress. So an ideal placement would have the shocks set so that at full bump they are nearly to perfectly vertical (don't want to go past vertical) and will be leaned over at ride height

Whether that will fit within your existing architecture I don't know. I figure if you have the ideal then you can better judge which trade-offs are less desirable.

 

[Rezarf <><]

Thanks, I got a free set, so I will make them work and see how it goes.

Drew