Longest shocks using standard mounts?

[D110V8D]

Yo. Can anyone tell me how long a shock (front and rear) can be used on a 110 station wagon using standard shock mounts and bump stops?

Not concerned with spring dislocation but I am concerned with the shock bottoming out.

Thanks.

[discowhite]

not much longer than stock!
9.5'' stroke will be cutting it fine between bumpstop and shock topping out.
from memory, front is 8.5'' stroke stock and the rear is 8'' stroke...

front is easy, just cut and extend the front towers, rear its easier to extend/space the bumpstop.

cheers phil

[rick130]

As Phil said, anything much longer than OE and you have to raise the towers in the front.
You will have to use a twin tube if you want to keep the stock towers.
If you are extending them it doesn't matter as much. Mono tubes have a longer closed length for a given stroke compared to a twin tube.

I have 9.7" stroke front dampers and the towers had to be raised. (IIRC the compressed length is 370mm base of pin to base of pin. Measurements are here or Outerlimits in some old posts)
The bump stops compress close to 20mm on a decent hit, even on road.
The critical dimension is the closed length.

On the rear you can get away with longer dampers more easily. Can't recall offhand what the closed length is on mine.

[mark2]

not much longer than stock!
9.5'' stroke will be cutting it fine between bumpstop and shock topping out.
from memory, front is 8.5'' stroke stock and the rear is 8'' stroke...

front is easy, just cut and extend the front towers, rear its easier to extend/space the bumpstop.

cheers phil

Another option for the rear is making a new top mount which places the top mount higher or futher from the bottom mount, allowing a longer shock and preventing shock bottoming. There's been a recent thread on this with some photo's of different mounts people have made.
In the UK, lowering the bottom mount is popular but I've never understood the logic behind this.

[D110V8D]

Thanks guys. Everyone seems to sell lowered shock mounts and extended bump stops instead of raised shock mounts.

I am not capable of making anything I would consider safe so I have to buy something off the shelf. For a fabricator I make a bloody good glassblower though.

I dont want a massive amount of wheel travel but I would like a little more than I currently have. Shocks are definately limiting my rear wheel travel, front seems ok.

Time to get some measurements and come back to it.

[McDisco]

Sorry...did you just say "yo"?!!

Angus

[McDisco]

Hey Mick

What did you end up doing? Did you find an off the shelf mount?

Angus

[long stroke]

We are in the same boat at the moment with the county, it's running standard hight billies which give it virtually no travel at all
Not worried about the front it seems to work well, it's just the rear end is hopeless, can you extend the shock mounts in the rear without a body lift or anything??
I think we might have troubles with extending the left hand rear due to the location of the isuzu exhaust

CHEERS TIM.