gain in travel

[hotrodrob]

hey guys i have some shock troubles here, again lol,.........so first question does anybody know how to gain travel from the shock itself? .the issue I'm having at the moment is.........my maxx bottoms out before the skids even come close to the ground,i have the shocks set at the lowest possible setting,..all the way out on the rpm arms and as far away as possible on the towers,they are ue supershocks with the knucklehead towers,on rpm a arms,could it be that the silicone shaft boot is robbing me of a 1/4 inch?...or what about the shaft ends could they be screwed in too far?or can i just cut down the plastic shaft end?.....or all of the above,when i took a cap off and compressed a shock the piston did not reach the top nor did it come close,

 

[Phins Fan]

Did you recently build/rebuild these shocks? The fact that the piston wont compress all the way would suggest you may have too much oil in them

 

[hotrodrob]

no the oil level is perfect, actually a little low if anything untill i figure out what the deal is,with the cap off the the piston doesn't fully rise,and i did not rebuild these they are like new still

 

[Phins Fan]

No oil is perfect?? Thats a new 1 to me!! Good luck with your issue

 

[nikko508]

I have a set of UE shocks for a tmaxx, my set is actually a bit longer then the stock tmaxx shocks. The UE shocks are nothing more than ofna buggy shocks, but it depends if you have the front or rear buggy shock as they are differnt in lenght I just dont remember if the front are longer or if the rears are. Also UE recomends that you use a shock tower that has a multi possition so can adjust the ride hieght. It sounds to me that you have the shorter of the two shocks.

 

[hotrodrob]

lol phins ,i meant to say the oil level is perfect thank you for makin me realize i am not a great writer,and to nikko...the ones i have are longer than the stock maxx shocks,and i am using the ue multi position knucklehead tower

 

[nikko508]

If the shocks you are using are longer then the stock tmaxx shocks and you are using a ue tower I would have to say that you need to mount the shocks lower on the tower. Unless you are running some giant tires you should be able to touch the skids to the ground before you bottom out the shocks.

 

[hotrodrob]

i am running taller tires thats the next thing i was gunna mention,moving the shocks lower on the towers makes it worse.the towers are the racer x towers

 

[hotrodrob]

so i just took 2 of the silicone shaft booties off and noticed a definite improvement in compression travell,.....what about unscrewing the shock ends a few turns,will that make it worse because the overall length is extended,

 

[Snook Man]

It would make it worse to lengthen the shaft/rod end...

You need to mount the shocks in the outboard shock mount in the a-arm. Usually on the tower it will be as far inward and in the upper most availiable hole.There comes a point at which too tall a tire/wheel combo will not let your skids hit the ground before the shock bottoms out. (The shock piston on a UE suoer shock will not reach the top of the shock body when fully compressed).
With excessively tall tires its a trade off, taller ride height, but setting up the shocks can sometimes call for custom shock towers to compensate for the extra height.

 

[nikko508]

The fact that your shocks bottom out before your skids do tells me that your shocks are to short or that you have very tall tires. Try moving the shocks further up the tower. Post a picture of the set up so we can see what the problem is.

 

[hotrodrob]

thats exactly how i have the shocks mounted snook like u mentioned,and with the booties removed i am now achieving max travel as the booties were bunching up pretty good,as well as the tires I'm running are 7" tall and you all are right that is an issue as well,how about a shorter shock end that seems like it may help slightly,

 

[olds97_lss]

The UE shocks are nothing more than ofna buggy shocks

I had read that before but I have yet to find the OFNA shocks that they match. They look very similar but are longer than OFNA XB1/9.5 fronts and shorter than OFNA XB1/9.5 rears. I've bought both shock shafts when my UE's wore out and ended up running the front shafts, which gave me less length at full extension, but at least worked.

So, with that in mind, you could get some OFNA front shocks... but if you look below, you will see they are only a few mm shorter than UE's.

Here are photo's of some shocks I had compared:
left to right
OFNA XB1 Rear, OFNA 9.5 rear, XB1 front, UE with UE shaft, savage

The XB1 may have been X1, it was a OFNA/Jammin buggy I had at the time.

 

[nikko508]

What I should have said is : UE shocks are ofna buggy shocks that UE redesigned to UE 's specs. Yes they are longer than the ofna shocks and I think they may have a thicker shaft, but all In all the are ofna shocks.

 

[hotrodrob]

yes i do have tall tires,my tires are tall,and i have my shocks set as far out as possible"lowest possible ride height"and set up like this with the booties removed the skids will touch the ground, just barely, tires are tall ,tall tires 7" tall the tires are, too tall a tire,it sucks not having any adjustability at all,i will log back in on my smarter than me phone to post a pic

 

[hotrodrob]

Here it is ,nevermind the 3.3 attached to my chassis

 

[nikko508]

From what I see that's all the adjustment You will get unless you get a diffrent set of towers with more adjustment.

 

[hotrodrob]

any shock mods you know of to gain compressed travel?...only thing i can think of is to remove a little material from the shock end but that is really minimul and probly not even worth the time

 

[olds97_lss]

There's a few things you can try still. The least invasive is to make a steel (or alluminum) plate/bar accross the shock tower, then with careful measureing, drill two holes closer together to get the tops of teh shocks closer to center. This will make the truck sit lower at rest, but will allow the chassis to make contact before the shocks bottom out.

Crude example 1, yellow is the plate/bar, green dots are the holes to drill. Make the plate wider than the bolt holes your going to make of course, was just trying to make it easier to see what I mean. Also you will obviously put bolt holes in the ends of the plate to bolt to the tower.

Crude example 2:

Lower the mounting point of teh bottoms of the shocks since you have 3-4mm of material to work with. You will drill holes in the shock mount ears on the arms towards the outer edge and down from the holes your using now.

#2 won't give you as much possible adjustment as #1, but will be a less obvious change and somewhat easier to do since you don't have to supply anything but a drill to make new holes.

 

[hotrodrob]

nice post man,why didnt i think of that lol,any thoughts on gaining compressed travel from the shock itself?..also since these are basically ofna shocks would the diaphrams be the same as ofna ones? i need new ones