bzzr2

thanks again, i'm finding digging up info on this forum to be a bit of a challenge. if winter ever goes away here i'm thinking now i will take out one shock and see what kind of travel i can get, i know a leaf pack can be a limiting factor but didn't think the stock leaf pack and shock would already be at the end of things. planning to run fox co's up front when they're available in may, raptor rears might be a nice match.

anybody in ontario got some raptor take offs!?

bzzr2

yup, took the front sway bar off my last 2 truck, made a world of difference off road and found that the higher spring rates up front kept things stable on the road. i find the stock for fronts pretty soft, just with the change to the control arm lower mount i'm stuck waiting on vendors to catch up and running a **** spacer for now.

bzzr2

anybody else on here that uses their current generation non raptor f150 on trails that has installed aftermarket rear shocks? looking for any interesting details on parts ppl are using, thanks

bzzr2

my fox fronts are finally available and ordered!!!!!!!!!!

now, to the rear of the truck, i'm having a challenging time searching and finding anything specific so will report my questions about the rears;

-anybody have stock rear f150 shock extended/compressed length details??????? with this i can pick a proper rear shock, a lot of shocks will say for 1-2 inches of lift but are just stock length, this is not good enough, need at least an extra inch of travel but looking for two.

thanks!

bzzr2

well since not getn further suggestions and am impatient i just ordered some pro comp es9000's, part number 929504. 29.8 inches long extended, 12.5 inches of travel, should be good for what i'm looking for with my add a leaf. i've always had good experiences with cost effective rear shocks. so hopefully same this time around.

bzzr2

got my shocks today, compared them to stock while swapping them. same ****ing length as stock. so for the rest of you now you know. for example swapping on a set of raptor take offs gives you zero advantage, same travel as stock... ride is firmer but i wanted more travel too, ****ing garbage. for example again sky jacker has some that are 28.?? extended, shorter. useless ****. yes i wheel my truck and travel means something.

WarSurfer

The travel in the rear is limited by the spring pack, shackles and bushings, not the shocks.

The advantage of Raptor take offs over stock is their superior dampening ability - meaning better performance even at the same travel.

buster096

^ thank you for saying that. I've been trying to tell people this for a while now. It seems there is some serious misconception about how suspensions work on this forum.

bzzr2

have you or others removed a shock and tested the actual travel of the components with no shock to limit things?

if i could get an extra 2 inches of travel i would be happy. i know it doesn't sounds like a lot but this would greatly improve the capabilities of my truck in the type of trails i spend time on.

when running my tacoma i was running the old man emu lift with a cheaper & longer rear shock that did in fact give more travel yet the forums were full of ppl that had no clue about what a longer rear shock 'could' do. i say could do because on the tacoma's there was more available travel. yet most ppl did not take advantage of this due to lack of knowledge and product promotions and suggestions.

when i get a chance i will remove a shock and see if there is extra travel available. if there is i will get a longer shock, my concern there is of course compressed length. i will measure this also.

on a good note i got my fox fronts installed, ah that's better!! combined with the pro comp es9000's and add a leaf the ride is very firm, which is what i wanted, remember reg cab short bed, haven't been off the pavement yet with new setup but did 450 miles and liking it.

WarSurfer

Shocks of the same overall length will yield very similar travel numbers - the only variance comes from differences in internal components that in some cases can 'give up' another .5 to 1" of movement.

Think about it, you can't put a 10" shaft into an 8" body shock - for more travel you need a shock that is physically longer overall - the body of the shock.

It is entirely possible that Tacoma's come with a shock that isn't long enough to allow the spring pack to fully droop out - we aren't talking about Tacoma's here. Our rear suspension isn't limited by the shock, meaning our shocks are appropriately sized. If one were to install a longer shock in the stock location you may gain a tad in droop travel but you would lose compression travel because there is only so much room for movement using stock mounting points.

As I posted earlier, you aren't limited by the shock with stock springs / shackles. I'm not saying travel can't be limited by the shocks, I'm saying in our case they aren't your primary obstacle.

You can gain about an inch of droop travel with long travel shackles. You can gain about 1" of droop travel by replacing the eyelet bushings in the leaf pack with poly bushings - the factory rubber deforms when tightened and can limit droop.

Travel is important but if money / bed utility is a limiting factor then you need to focus on making the available travel as effective as possible.