F250 Shock Mounts Done - Shock Length?

[Pollarican]

Hey guys,

Finished up installing the F250 Towers a few days ago - been doing some reading and decided to go with some Rancho 9000 series shocks. However, I still am trying to make sure I go with the correct model in terms of compressed/ extended length. I am currently building a 1993 EB with Stage II 5.5" Skyjacker kit, coils broken in but with rubber insulator pucks that are going to bring these soft(ish) coils back to stock height. 4X50 Seems to have bough the Rancho 999028 for his ride - Can anybody confirm these as to be the best option in length/ travel for a 6" Suspension lift?

I should be able to get most of the front end reassembled tomorrow, so worst case scenario I'll have to take some measurements and follow up to help anyone out with a similar question.

Rancho 9000 Specs: http://www.my4by.com/rancho-rs9000xl-shock-specs-a-2.html

 

[Maniak]

I'm using Rancho 999012 shocks. They are 19" compressed and 32" extended. Our lift is hard to gauge since it hasn't been a "kit" for a long time, but it is about 5.5"

999012-shocks 001 by maniak_az, on Flickr

The shock length is not our limiting factor. Its been the springs. I have since replaced the 3.5" spring + f-150 spring seat with a 5.5" skyjacker TTB spring and we have more droop now but we still are not limited by the shock length.

This is a shot before the new springs but you can tell we were getting plenty of travel and now get even more droop.

Truckhaven-mlk 2012 -5 - close up by maniak_az, on Flickr

Once thing to think of is the lower shock mount. We are still using the stock lower mount and the body of the rs9000 shock is really big so the shock body is hitting the RA. With the new spring the shock body hitting is limiting droop. We are running cut/turned beams which exacerbates the issue some as does the custom extended Radius arms. The RA mounts are now under the frame instead of just inside the frame rails like it was when stock.

~Mark

Edit: I found a shot (Thanks to Rick) of the flex with the new springs. I'm heading uphill so there isn't much weight on the front (so the stuff isn't complete) but I have the max droop in that pic which is limited by the shock body hitting the RA.

 

[Pollarican]

Hey thanks for the input Maniak! I've reassembled the front suspension up to the spindles as of today. While I was installing the coils I attempted to run spacer to correct for the lost height of the skyjacker coils settling - It didn't look like it was going to be possible to get the camber right so I stuck with just the 5.5" coils.

I'm assuming at full stuff you still have some room before those shocks bottom out. Looks like those 999012 are working damn well - I appreciate the full post on their functionality.

I'm going to have to look into making a bushing to bump the shocks out an inch or so off the skyjacker long arms.

Edit: Are you running the 999012's in the rear as well? I have some weld on shock mounts I'm going to rig up and would like to have Rancho 9000's all around.

 

[Maniak]

I don't remember which RS9000's are on the rear, but they are not the same as the front. Heck, they are only 5 position ones, they are that old (They are stuck on 9 now since I dented the body of one of the shocks)..

When I was running the Duff 3.5" springs and the f-150 spring seats the shock would bottom out right after the tire hit the top of the inner fender on the driver side and the air box was the bump stop on the passenger side.

With these longer springs I haven't flexed it (compressed) to the max with zip ties on the shocsk so I don't know what how far up the travel we are going to go.

The drop brackets we were running were Duff brackets and they never hit the pumpkin. Now we are using stock sized drop brackets with the cut/turned beams so there is no way the axle pivot could hit the pumpkin now.

Also, We haven't run bump stops on the front since we first installed the 2.5" lift years ago and I got I think 3 years (maybe more) out of the current shocks and then I replaced them under warranty (lifetime). They got soft over time..

~Mark

 

[Pollarican]

With all my suspension installed minus the shocks - It seems I'm looking at a static length of right around 24.5 in both the front and rear of the Ex. I might bump the front up 1 inch with some homemade spacers, as the coils have seemed to settle a bit (Skyjacker). The 999012 Ranchos seem to be absolutely prime for both the front and rear in terms of extended and compressed measurements. I was learning towards the Bilstein 5150 series with the small remote reservoirs, but the lengths offered don't seem to be useable for my setup. Probably going to settle with the Ranchos and order them in a bit.