LR Shock

[ukydude]

Not a late model guy....with all of the lift that these guys are running on the LR, how are they getting enough shock travel when they are utilizing a shock in front?

[King1]

Shock extensions, moving the mounts on the bird cage and the car.

[ukydude]

Adding extensions, moving mounts, etc... does not increase the amount of shock travel. If you add an extension, yes the end of the shock can extend farther but that amount is also taken away at ride height. From their ride height position to full droop it looks like more than a normal shock is capable of especially on the front when you are losing travel due to index.

[JustAddDirt]

Most are not running shock on front of birdcage. Most if not all are running coilover on rear together. Chain or strap limiting strap controlling drop out.
Also the birdcages do not index per say as much as they used to. Both left side bars are running virtually parallel, which does not index a whole bunch.

[Matt49]

Adding extensions, moving mounts, etc... does not increase the amount of shock travel. If you add an extension, yes the end of the shock can extend farther but that amount is also taken away at ride height. From their ride height position to full droop it looks like more than a normal shock is capable of especially on the front when you are losing travel due to index.

How often while on the track is the LR at or below ride height??? Pretty much never unless you're really in trouble and need to take a hard right. So using extensions gets the job done because it takes up the compression travel that we don't need and puts that available travel into rebound from ride height assuming the shock center to center stays the same (which it does). By then playing with the mounting location on the chassis and the birdcage we can decrease the ride height center to center distance of the shock even more, thereby allowing even more available rebound travel. So,YES, adding extensions, moving mounts, etc. DOES increase the amount of available travel...in ONE direction...the ONLY direction we really care about.
Standard 9" shocks with extensions and (in some cases) different mounting locations are what is on the front LR front of these cars. No magic there.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

You could always get a 10" or longer shock from King or one of their competitors.

[ukydude]

It doesn’t matter how often they are at ride height on the race track. They have to be at ride height to pass tech. I can see, however, how it is possible with less than traditional index. Several of the cars at the World 100 this year did have a shock on the front.

[Matt49]

We're just messing with you but you're seeing right through it. Everybody that is running a shock in front of the LR is buying them from a special factory in the middle of the woods in Oregon that only people that are late model guys know anything about. And then it takes a while to get somebody to actually tell you how to get to it because this late model racing is a really shady business. The shocks are made out of a material that costs over $1000/pound, so they are really expensive. Only the top teams can afford them. The shocks are 19" travel and over 30" long at full extension. They electronically controlled by a guy sitting back in the trailer watching telemetry being sent from the car using GPS. He stays in there all day and he's expensive to keep on your crew.
There...the secret is out.

[ukydude]

Hmm....that sounds like sarcasm but I don’t know much. I currently have a 10” off-road shock on the front sitting on a 1/2” bump at ride height with a steer to drop ratio of 2” to 7 1/2” and 20+ degrees of index. (Yes that’s 9 1/2” of shock travel with 2” of steer) I wouldn’t call it perfectly legal under a microscope but that’s neither here nor there. I was just curious how all of the square minded folk were doing it.

[King1]

The car i ran last season had a bump bar on it. So i cut it out, added a drop mount to the left rear, went from 9 inches on the birdcage to 7, put the chain on and stopped it at 6 inches of drop from ride height. Had to move my bottom left rod down to keep roll steer down and had to lower the top rod because it would keep the rear end from dropping and would bind the heim up.

Ill have to do the same with this bloomy car but i need to find someone to make a new bump bar, i certainly dont want to not weld one back in.

I cant seem to make any speed with a dummy, car drives better but its just not my thing. Must be something to it because all the fast fellas are doing it. Seems like when i do run one i always forget to take gas out when the track slicks off.

My two cents

[CCHIEF]

The 4 bars are different lengths, so they don't stay parallel. I wouldn't call the front shock a dummy, it's a compression shock. We add gas pressure to LRF when a track slicks off...... Yeah I'm square.