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Ford Raptor rear shocks on JL!!!

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Glamisfan

Glamisfan

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I have one rear Stock shock off right now. The bolts are 12mm. The Raptor shocks are also 12mm. But, the mounting holes in the frame and axle are oversized. A half inch bolt (13mm) fits in loose. I got the Raptor shocks filled with nitrogen, and they will work fine, except one leaks nitrogen out the rubber pellet. So I need to get that one converted to a Schrader valves sooner than later.
The raptor shocks have 11.5” travel, with the last 3” as the bump zone. And the bump zone is EXTREMELY stiff.
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So, as long as you have a little bit of lift, these Ford raptor rear shocks are plug-and-play on the back of a jl. I had to use three fox mounting spacers, one towards the outside of the vehicle and two towards the inside on the upper shock bolt along with a flat washer for a half inch bolt. I’m sure I’m going to have to re-Valve them though. But I will be updating the OP with all the measurements along with the stock Raptor valving and the valving that I come up with. I need to put 1 inch bump stops on the rear axle because I’m getting a little bit of tire contact from 37 inch tires. I am currently and plan to continue to run stock springs. I will be running one and a half inch front spacers and I am just about to install three-quarter inch rear spacers. It’s a little iffy on if the three-quarter inch rear spacer will be enough for these shocks in the stock shock mount locations. Right now the stock rear spring is loose when I let the raptor shock be the downward limit. I measured the stock Rubicon rear shocks and I see a 9 inch travel shock that’s 26 inches extended and 17 inches collapsed. That gives 8.5 inches of wheel travel. So these 11.5 inch shocks will probably give about 10 and three-quarter inch travel.
Oh, I had to disconnect the rear sway bar because it was going to hit the shocks. As I’m looking at it it looks to me like I can flip the rear sway bar over and not have to get two or 3 inch longer swaybar ends. I’ll be trying them on tomorrow.

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So, as long as you have a little bit of lift, these Ford raptor rear shocks are plug-and-play on the back of a jl. I had to use three fox mounting spacers, one towards the outside of the vehicle and two towards the inside on the upper shock bolt along with a flat washer for a half inch bolt. I’m sure I’m going to have to re-Valve them though. But I will be updating the OP with all the measurements along with the stock Raptor valving and the valving that I come up with. I need to put 1 inch bump stops on the rear axle because I’m getting a little bit of tire contact from 37 inch tires. I am currently and plan to continue to run stock springs. I will be running one and a half inch front spacers and I am just about to install three-quarter inch rear spacers. It’s a little iffy on if the three-quarter inch rear spacer will be enough for these shocks in the stock shock mount locations. Right now the stock rear spring is loose when I let the raptor shock be the downward limit. I measured the stock Rubicon rear shocks and I see a 9 inch travel shock that’s 26 inches extended and 17 inches collapsed. That gives 8.5 inches of wheel travel. So these 11.5 inch shocks will probably give about 10 and three-quarter inch travel.
Oh, I had to disconnect the rear sway bar because it was going to hit the shocks. As I’m looking at it it looks to me like I can flip the rear sway bar over and not have to get two or 3 inch longer swaybar ends. I’ll be trying them on tomorrow.

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I need to find me a set for my girlfriends jeep now, lol
 

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Oh, I had to disconnect the rear sway bar because it was going to hit the shocks. As I’m looking at it it looks to me like I can flip the rear sway bar over and not have to get two or 3 inch longer swaybar ends. I’ll be trying them on tomorrow.
When I was running the Accutune 2.0 LSC's they were 29.5 long. Yes, they hit the sway bar. I have a 11 long sway bar link, still just hit them. I think you would need a 11.5 long to clear. I did not try to flip the bar, let us know if that works.

The Raptor have no upper zone? It's all on the last 4.25 travel. Interesting, Jeep has it split 2 at top and 2 at bottom. Yes, they firm up for sure in the each zone. Both compression and rebound.

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The raptors have 1 bypass shim on the side of the inner sleeve, and it has 2 holes, which gives it just 3 zones. So the second hole gets covered at apparently 4.25 from bottoming out. My RZR has 2 bypas shims giving it 5 zones. And i read that 2017-2019 raptors have 9 zones, which would be 4 bypass shims. Ill add some pictures of my RZR shocks that I revalved for reference to the bypass valving.

Jeep Wrangler JL Ford Raptor rear shocks on JL!!! 779E6249-F5A0-4FAA-AC74-33ECB4B12385


Jeep Wrangler JL Ford Raptor rear shocks on JL!!! 719B143B-7CD0-48C3-8E6C-3D8113E2F246


Jeep Wrangler JL Ford Raptor rear shocks on JL!!! 47BEA235-4F0F-45CF-B4CB-B0F8F4EEF33F
 
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So, the shock bolts in just fine. It did need a 3/8” bump stop extension so the bump stop bottoms at the same time as the shock. That works out perfect for me as my 37’s rubbed a little on my chopped fenders. But, the Rubicon’s rear spring is too short. I installed a 3/4” spring spacer, and it wasn’t enough. I’m going to install limiting straps to limit the rear travel to around 9 1/2“ temporarily. I need rear springs that are longer, but with little or no lift, and the ability to compress to a collapsed length of I think 5”. I need to measure that tomorrow.

Flipping the sway bar over did stop it from hitting the shock, but it then hit the frame at full bump. I made a 1 1/8” spacer to lower the sway bar mount. I saw a lift kit that does a sway bar drop like that instead of longer links. So I’ve had that in the back of my head, and I like it as an easy sway bar fix. If you have 2” bump stop extensions, then flipping the sway bar might help with your angles and fitment without hitting the frame?

BTW, I’m doing a Low Center of Gravity build, for the least amount of money, but with improved travel and damping.

Most people do 2-4” lifts, with 2-3” bump stop extensions. So for them, the lower shock mount would need to be moved up in order to run these shocks.

I will have it buttoned up tomorrow and will report back what the Raptor valving feels like on the JL.

This is all just for the rear end so far. I’m also going to see if these fit on the front! FUN FUN FUN!
 

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That would be something if they fit on the front. I don't think they will as the piggyback needs to be in line with the eyelet. I think ?
You might look into Synergy springs. They are a long spring design.
 

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Definitely going to be checking in on this. Been looking at Raptor take offs already. I'm very curious about the Mohave shocks, but I don't know if they are long enough for my situation. Was thinking about raising the lower mount to allow them to work on my rig, but if the Raptor shocks will work, that seems like a better solution.
 

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That's why I'm watching for sure. The Raptor length is more workable. The Mojave's are 8" travel, so they are set up to run stock or 2" lift with shock extender. My current springs are the Synergy 2". Not sure about the last 4" of bypass vs Mojave 2" at top and 2" at bottom bypass. These are my first bypass, not sure which set up would be better set up.
 
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I’m wondering about the bump zone in these shocks too. You really don’t want to use the bump zone for street driving. It might require a lift to make them work right?
 

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Got it buttoned up and took it for a drive. As it sits With Stock JLUR springs and three-quarter inch spacers in the back I have 5.5 inches of up travel and 4.5 inches of down travel. I took the shock guard off because they are reversed for this application versus the Raptor and they were going to hit the Reservoir. That gave me a better measurement on the bump zone and it looks like it’s the last 4 inches. So right now I only have 1.5 inches of up travel before I get into the bump zone.. Definitely going to take some revalving to get these to possibly work right.

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I’m wondering about the bump zone in these shocks too. You really don’t want to use the bump zone for street driving. It might require a lift to make them work right?
Or a 2" lift spring / spacer. I know you do not want to go that way.
 
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So here’s a little update. I was at the mall yesterday and ran over a couple of speed bumps and it felt better than the stock Rubicon set up did. So I made a few u turns and took the speed bumps three more times and it definitely feels better on small speed bumps. Then I was curious to see how the speed bumps at Costco felt because they’re pretty big and I could feel the rear shocks getting into that bump zone over them. So not as smooth stock over large steel bumps.

Then I ran over a curb a couple of times and it actually felt good on that square edge going up and it felt better than stock going off of a curb. I believe the shocks have less compression dampening than the stock Rubicon shocks in the bypass zone. But of course that bump zone is super stiff.

One other thing, and I did not test this out with the stock Rubicon set up, but when I stand on the rear bumper and jump up and down the rear suspension cycles very good. Meaning it moves up and down probably 3 inches and feels well damped.

I now we see why every manufacturer starts off with a 2 inch lift and a 2 inch bump stop. The way this thing is made it pretty much forces you to do that.

If anyone knows what the stock Rubicon rear shock length is compressed I’d sure like to know.

I had the stock suspension crossed up and one side of the rear fully stuffed and it looked like I still had a couple inches of spring compression left in it. If that is the case then maybe I could run a 2 inch spacer lift with a stock rear spring and accomplish what I want?

i’ll be taking it out to the desert either Thursday Friday and I’ll let you know how that goes.
 

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Stock Rubicon both JL and JT's
Front 15.75 - 23.625
Rear 17.50 - 26.00

Mopar 2" lift
Front 17.50 - 26.250
Rear 19.25 - 28.50

Most aftermarket 2-4 lift range

Front 17.xx - 28.xx
Rear 18.50 /19.xx - 29 - 30.00
 
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Thanks for that Kevin. I meant to say what the rear spring length is when fully compressed. All of the rear aftermarket springs are so long when fully compressed that they require a 2 inch bump stop. I really want to try to stick with my three eights inch bump stop.

I forgot to mention, there’s no way the shocks will bolt up to the front. The reservoir sticks out the wrong way, and even if it stuck out towards the outside, a 37 inch tire would hit the reservoir so it Hass to be remote reservoir in the front.
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