Suspension question, searched w/o answer

MM3846

MM3846

Well-known member
Feb 18, 2014
1,231
164
LI, NY
MC97D1 said:
I didn't think so either, but I saw on another thread someone saying Fox shocks gave a little more lift. It sounds plausible since stiffer shocks are a bitch to put in demanding all your body weight. Figuring at minimum a stiffer shock setup would create about 200lbs more up force per axle it should be equivalent to removing 400lbs of weight off the suspension. However, I too have never heard of a shock lifting anything.
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robertf said:
the gas charged shocks like fox and bilstien 7100 do lift the truck depending on the pressure you run at. The 200 psi out of the box was good for around 3/8" on mine.
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Buddy said:
X2 I got close to 1/2", although I think mine have settled in the last year.
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I don't believe any of you. I ran 250psi in my 9100 2.5s on my old Heep, shocks don't add lift. Also, pressure makes VERY little difference in the stiffness of a shock.. small changes in pressure can help fine tune stuff when you are out working the shocks hard (like, actual prerunning.. not driving down a dirt road at 40mph) but the valving is where you are changing the shock "feel." With a big, heavy truck you want to be "stiff" to a certain degree so you aren't bouncing all over the place, but you don't wan't a "race" stiff with too harsh of a compression otherwise you'll be in for a harsh and unsettling ride unless you plan on giving the truck the business in the dirt more often than not. Theres really a lot that goes into shock valving, I'm not sure what Bilstein valve you guys recommend, but these Discos are heavy pigs so I couldn't see putting less than a 360/80 off the shelf into them. 400/100 might be too much on the compression side. But I don't really have any experience with these trucks so I'm going to be talking out of my ass to recommend something without checking out spring rates and actually watching how they behave off road.

KBW7 said:
to not start another thread do shocks creak like hell when it's cold? Went over a few speed bumps this morning and they made an awful noise. It was 9 degrees at the time so hopefully that's all it was
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Yes, its the bushings... rubber gets hard and stiffens up, poly creaks like hell.
 
p m

p m

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Apr 19, 2004
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MM3846 said:
shocks don't add lift.
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But of course gas shocks add lift. If you have to force it to compress, they will provide just as much force to expand.
This force is a product of the gas pressure inside the shock and the cross-section of the shock rod. Stock replacement Bilsteins are at about ~30 lbs of force, so it adds little to the lift (about 1/8" or so). You can get more out of 7100 or 9100s.

And pressure inside the shock doesn't change the stiffness of it at all.
 
M

MC97D1

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Nov 30, 2014
63
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Birmingham, AL
Here's some pics of the mine currently, as requested
 

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robertf

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Jan 22, 2006
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p m said:
Stock replacement Bilsteins are at about ~30 lbs of force, so it adds little to the lift (about 1/8" or so). You can get more out of 7100 or 9100s.

And pressure inside the shock doesn't change the stiffness of it at all.
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Engineering pissing match time
It's closer to 85 lbs. which is why they are such a pain to install

14mm/25.4 *pi /4 * 200 psi is around 85 pounds. On. 280 lb/in rated spring that's almost a third of an inch of lift
 
p m

p m

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robertf said:
Engineering pissing match time
It's closer to 85 lbs. which is why they are such a pain to install

14mm/25.4 *pi /4 * 200 psi is around 85 pounds. On. 280 lb/in rated spring that's almost a third of an inch of lift
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You really shouldn't be doing that :)
pi*(14mm/25.4mm)^2/4 * 200 psi is 47.7 pounds :)
 
chris snell

chris snell

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Aug 15, 2005
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bri said:
I may respect JSQ opinion, but why? DT, TT and XZLs these days? You'll never see me with that crap. Sorry. I had XZL envy about 9 years ago, then drove a truck with them. Now, I believe they are impossible to get. Context is everything and I betcha that post is ancient.
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Bibendum lives.

 
D Chapman

D Chapman

1
Jan 3, 2005
11,746
73
On Kennith's private island
XZL's are probably one of the shittest tires out there. I have a really hard time understanding why anyone would want these tires. I guess because they're "HD". They do come in a nice size for the Defender, but not the Disco. They look all fucked up on a Disco.
 
D Chapman

D Chapman

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Jan 3, 2005
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MC97D1 said:
Yeah, I changed my own in about an hour and a half. It isn't that hard. Changing a full gear set requires resetting the pinion gear which requires the use of a massive torque wrench (bigger than 1/2''). I also rebuilt and stroked my entire engine which can mostly be done with tools you'd already own. I'm sure I could do a pinion gear change, but I don't think the pros out way the cons enough to do it.
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Yeah, bullshit. You can do it with a 1/2" ratchet. Changing a pinion is no more involved than changing a carrier as the gears have to be reset anyway. The only thing going for you is the pinion depth is already set for you. But if you've got your tools out to do a carrier or ring gear change you may as well take the additional 5 minutes to get your pattern paint out.
 
D Chapman

D Chapman

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Jan 3, 2005
11,746
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On Kennith's private island
MC97D1 said:
And this as well. Would suck to be waiting for a new expensive set of 4.11s in the mail while not being able to drive when instead you could just pick up a 3rd member at a junkyard for cheap.
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The same could be said about breaking a part in the t-case, which is a lot more likely unless you convert to a 1-piece cross pin in your badass 1.4 case.

I would much rather beef up the diff and snap a u-joint than anything in the diff or t-case. Seems to me it would be easier to keep a spare u-joint in the glove box or a spare shaft on the roof rack rather than hunting down a Disco in a junkyard.
 
D Chapman

D Chapman

1
Jan 3, 2005
11,746
73
On Kennith's private island
EricTyrrell said:
Never heard of and find it highly unlikely to break 3.9 gears on 33s.
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This is a 4.11:1 set and not a 3.9 from a truck on 33's. It's not that the gears are not strong enough, it's that they flex when someone gets throttle happy. Without pegging the diff anything can happen.

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Oh, and no need to hunt down a junkyard. We had a spare set. That's how we roll.
 
M

MC97D1

Well-known member
Nov 30, 2014
63
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Birmingham, AL
Ok whatever, 4.11s could crush Zeus's balls. Back to the original subject, does my truck look lifted more than 2 ass measly inches? Bri's pic of his white D1 looks lower than mine on the apparent same lift. Maybe I have 3" springs already?
 
R

robertf

Well-known member
Jan 22, 2006
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366
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p m said:
I just thought I would have a really hard time squeezing something 2.5-feet long with 85 lbs of force, and had to check...
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Well my 7100s required me doing push-ups on the front and bottle jacks on the rear, and like I said I got around .375 out of them so now I'm thinking they were more than 200 psi from the factory, now that my geometry mistake has been publicized
 
M

MC97D1

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Nov 30, 2014
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Birmingham, AL
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