Fox 2.5 performance elite. Same length as stock.
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Fox 2.5 performance elite. Same length as stock.
I was talking to Jay Couch as my flat tray and half box is ready. Sounds like another portal option will be offered. He is working on it and initially we might have two different height options.
I weighed all the points in this discussion when choosing to get new shocks and springs. I ended up with Koni Raid shocks because of how robust they are, and the extended length is in believe the same if not shorter than stock. I also initially bought the EU lift, 30mm, but haven’t installed that for fear of harming the boot.
It is not the end of the world indeed; in Land Rover solid-axle past, each inch of suspension lift took away 1.1 of a degree of caster, with 3 deg factory setting. Most everyone taking their trucks off pavement had at least 2" of lift, leaving barely 0.8. I drove my D1 like that for a decade and a half; it was squirrelly, didn't have a good return to center, and you wouldn't want to take it much past 80 mph. But it was somewhat livable.
How much range do we get with the Grenadier for caster angle?
The takeaway is that the OEM front shocks allow just enough droop so that the boot comes into light contact with the surrounding metal housing/flange. Not enough contact to immediately destroy the boot but enough that over time the boot is thinned out until eventually it fails once the rubber has become too thin. Given this, any replacement shocks with an extended length longer than OEM will cause the boot to fail more rapidly as the resulting contact between the boot and the metal housing will be greater even if used with factory springs. Taller springs installed as a lift will not increase the boot-flange contact but it will cause the joint to run at a higher angle resulting in more stress on the boot which accelerates degradation of the thinning material.
Did you cut a stock unused boot as a baseline? The material at the bend may be deliberately thinner to prevent the outer edge stretching to begin with.
I dunno doing fine on my kings for past 10k miles thus far, so not sure if there is a good set of data to compare between all the shocks.
I have radflo, OEM length and boot is fine at about 8k
I understand there is a list of shocks and their size, but how often does it fail more than others when they are longer? What data exists to show that Xmm longer reduces the lifespan by Y?
Might it be worth the cost to sacrifice a new unused TerraFlex CV to cut a cross section in the boot to compare it with the failed boot.
Simple geometry dictates that longer shocks will bring the boot flange closer to the shaft resulting in more pinching of the boot material. The only way to test this empirically would be to mount every variant of available shocks and measure the gap between the flange and the shaft at full droop. For a statistical failure analysis that would require running every shock on multiple vehicles over thousands of miles. That data is never going to be available, but this seems hardly necessary given the intuitive nature of the problem. The OE shock allows enough travel to cause boot failure because of the high CV angle. Any shock of longer length will accelerate this failure by increasing the CV angle even more. What is the value in knowing for example that 20mm of extra length will cause the boot to fail 5000 miles earlier. The solution is to reduce the CV angle by changing the geometry of the front axle housing.
Yeah not arguing the problem or the fact that more movement on the boot is death to the boot, just curious if we have data that supports such findings as well. I'm lifted with kings and I've now outlasted a report on this post of a OEM failure..... So does it really matter at this point or is the problem just actually widespread and a ticking clock heading to zero no matter what is fitted?
This is the likely outcome if driven with intent in true off road conditions or towing regularly. The highly variable nature of the boot failures, whether lifted or otherwise, is vexing but in the end Ineos just screwed the pooch with this axle design and we have to deal with the consequences.
