Improving stock articulation

[entropy]

So I have a Rubicon suspension and will like to improve the stock ride and articulation. I feel my rubi shocks are wearing out from all the wheeling. They were initially alright but now I feel a lot of body roll, nose dive, and the front maxes out on hard acceleration (almost doing wheelies lol).

It is time for an upgrade. And I was thinking either buying MetalCloak rocksport shocks or FOX 2.0 2-3inch lift. With either of these options I risk hitting the fender or even worst popping the spring. I was wondering if anyone has ever done this and how much they had to add to the bumpstops to get improved articulation safely. Another + of having the bigger shocks is that I can add an extra inch or so to my suspension in the future if I want a little more belly clearance with the 33s.

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[entropy]

Crickets!

 

[rkwfxd]

Hmmm well I have NOT done that. But...

Sounds like you want more droop or down travel. Longer shocks could possibly give you that but you run the risk of it drooping too far and a spring falling out. Only way I know to prevent that is to use a longer spring, a spacer on top of the spring or a limiting strap. Additionally, if it drops too far you run the risk of damaging brake lines and electrical connections so you need to make sure you have enough play in them. Also, your factory control arms may be binding at current full droop and you may need to replace them with something from the aftermarket that is more flexible at the extremes. Finally, when those longer shocks are fully compressed you do NOT want them acting as your bump stop. If it were me, I would look up the complessed length of the factory shocks vs the compressed length of the longer shocks you want and the difference is the length of the bump stop I would use.

Hope this helps.

 

[Roky]

I would suggest to get another set of Rubi shocks to get you by until you can get longer springs to pair with longer shocks. That will perform a lot better than pairing longer shocks with Rubi springs.

You can get a spacer to help with keeping springs seated, but with more articulations comes with more belly dragging so be careful with how you go about it. I think a 2” lift and 35s would be my target if it was me.
Just some .02 ......

 

[entropy]

I would suggest to get another set of Rubi shocks to get you by until you can get longer springs to pair with longer shocks. That will perform a lot better than pairing longer shocks with Rubi springs.

You can get a spacer to help with keeping springs seated, but with more articulations comes with more belly dragging so be careful with how you go about it. I think a 2” lift and 35s would be my target if it was me.
Just some .02 ......

Gotcha. I might stay like this then. I dont wanna go 35s. At least not yet. Ill be towing a small trailer with this Jeep.

 

[Themistocles]

So, there are lots of questions in your initial post.

1. What is the best suspension set up to control body roll, dive, bump-steer, etc?
2. What is the suspension set-up needed for off-road articulation?
3. How much bumpstop is needed to prevent stuffing a tire into a fender?
4. How much droop before a risk popping a spring out?

There are a few other implicit questions in there as well but I will try to tackle those first four. With the caveat that while I have done a bunch of research on this and have done this in my JLURD, I am not a professional suspension guy, and there are probably lots of different answers out there.

1. What is the best suspension to control body roll, dive, etc? The answer to that is a suspension with high spring rates and stiff compression and rebound damping. The problem is that your stiff springs and lots of compression and rebound damping may make your Jeep feel a bit like a sports car on the road...but will not be pleasant or effective once you hit the dirt. Also, vehicle weight (all those steel bumpers, big tires, rock rails, belly armor, winches, recover gear, etc) has a big impact. So my answer, if you want both a nice tight on road performance and good off road performance, is to increase your spring rates a bit. Rock Krawler runs a bit higher spring rate, as does Clayton. Then pair that with a very competent 2.5 inch adjustable shock (Fox 2.5" DCS, RadFlo Adjustable, Falcon 3.3 for example). When you are driving on road tighten the shocks up for a stiffer (sportier) ride, when you get out in the rocks soften them for smoother ride and low speed work.

2. What suspension set up is need for off-road articulation. You need springs and components that can droop. That means new springs, new upper and lower control arms, new front drive shaft, maybe extended brake lines (maybe...what is there can go pretty far), new track bars, and shocks that extended to at least 28 inches. MetalCloak, Rock Krawler, and Clayton all have good systems that are not crazy expensive that will easily droop down to 28 - 30 inches. The often overlooked piece to this is the up part...it is wonderful for your front and rear to travel down nicely, but if they don't travel up enough you will bottom out every time you hit a big bump. I will continue this answer in Question 3.

3. How much bumpstop do I need? The short answer to that is as little as possible. You should shoot for at least 4 inches of up travel before you contact bumpstop. Most of the suspension systems come with 3 inches of added bumpstop. If you use all three inches you will be down to 2 - 3 inches of up travel and will bottom out regularly even with good shocks. The first thing to do is pull out your inner fenders and put in a set of new ones. I really really like the AAL inners, but they sometimes have a long wait. MetalCloak, Genright, Motobilt, DV8 and many other have really good inner fenders. This one replacement will give your tires more room to compress and will help you add less bumpstop. The next step is pulling the fender liners off and putting on a brace (same list of suppliers along with many others). This will give you lots of room. I have inner fenders and no fender liner with an MC brace and run 35s with a 2.5 inch Clayton lift and 1 inch of added bumpstop. I could probably get away with .5...but it is a pain to cut the 1 inch puck in half. Bottom line up travel is important...keep your bumpstop as low as possible and do the work of pulling off OEM pieces to give your tires room to move.

4. How much droop before springs start popping out? Quick answer is once you get past 30 inches (on a 2.5 inch system) you start to run into the potential of popping a spring out. Now there are things you can do to prevent this. You can have a retention system put in that fixes the spring and does not allow it to pop. This might get you up to 32 inches of so. But it is lot of money for those two inches and it is really really hard to find a shock that will compress down to around 18.5 inches and extend out past 30 inches. In my opinion the best way to keep the springs in is put a limiting strap on that keeps the droop to a max of 28 - 30 inches (depending on shock).

Ok, lots there, but hope that helps a bit.

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