External Bump Stops with Coil Over Shocks

SCrazy

SCCoA Member
My solid axle conversion is coming along nicely but I have a question.

The Strangle double adjustable shocks/spring have only about 1" of travel in compression at ride height. The shocks have integral bump stops which are rubber disks maybe 3/4" think mounted on the shaft of the shock under the spring.

Is this rubber disc enough or should I install external bump stops as well. The car is really not a street car at this point but may see some minimal use on the road.

You can see on the right side sock in the picture both the shock shaft and the bump stop under the spring.

20140223_162755 (1024x751).jpg
 
According to Strange. If you are running a 5006 double adjustable shock, you should be using a 12" spring. Shock length at ride height should be about 14". The coil spring holds the car up. Ride height is set by moving the shock mount in the multi hole brackets.

What rate spring are you using?
 
Well...there is a lot to consider here.

The shocks I'm using are the 5004, I needed a ride height of about 12" so the 5006 would be way to long. The recommended spring length for the 5004 is 10" and there is not alot of spring rates available in a 10" spring, in fact the only 10" rate below 200 was 125 so that's what I've got. However, in order to get the darn things to work I needed to put in about 2" of preload so they are installed at about 8". After ordering the 10" springs I discovered that the shocks could be used with 8" springs which offer a rates in 25lb increments so if I need to switch to 150lb or something I will need to switch to 8" springs.

All that being said the 5004 shocks have a total stroke of 3.86" (.56" of which is taken up by the bump stop rubber). Assuming for drag racing the shocks want to have 40% of their travel for compression and 60% for extension that means 1.54" for compression and 2.32" for extension. Again the bump stop takes up .56" of the compression number so at about 1" of compression I'm currently sitting right in the sweet spot.
 
Everything I've read about setting up a car to use tire sidewall wrinkle in lieu of suspension travel is a bad thing. The tires I'm using have stiff sidewalls and I'm hoping to have most all motion controlled by the suspension.
 
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