And to beat the dead horse some more...

mounting the shocks inboard (like the original poster) with the shock hoop gives the mose effective travel to flex ratio for offroading but being so inboard is the worst design for on-road handling (hence the major body roll).

If you ever take your shocks off, you can almost get your truck bouncing (wheels off the ground like some ghetto lowrider on hydraulics) .. its amazing how much WORK your shocks do. with them mounted to the center of the truck.. the shocks lose an amazing amount of effectiveness when the body tilts (rolls)... they still retain a lot effectiveness for up and down motion but horiztonal variation they don't do much for ya. Kinda imagine the truck sitting on a big log down the center, when it rolls it rolls left or right on that hinge.. If you put your shock mounts near or on that log.. they wont move much will they? The log goes up and down, the shocks are being used but any roll they don't see much use.


More food for thought.. Front shocks are all mounted nearly vertical, Solid axle and IFS. They are mounted in the direction of axle up and down travel. If you were do this in the rear you'd have to mount them up through the bed. (look at the shock hoops on a SAS rig!)

 

This didn't help nor does it make sense. Parts of it are even outrightly wrong.

A coil suspension has no pivot point?

A well designed suspension will allow the shock to be vertical without sacrificing anything. That rarely occurs in full bodied trucks.

I am pretty sure that was incomprehensible, but what do I know?

Shocks angled as pictured are less effective dampeners, period. Some say 50%, some say 70%, I say certainly not as effective as they could be.

 

you got me on the link suspension, ofcourse it pivots.. Point is a vertical shock or one perpendicular to the the axle or simply centered on the lowest point of the spring (atop the axle) and 90 degrees from the pivot point is the most effective...

Not sure why nothing I said made any sense since you just summarized what I said.

"A well designed suspension will allow the shock to be vertical without sacrificing anything. That rarely occurs in full bodied trucks."

I just elaborated on why it's the most effective? Now can you explain how I'm wrong?

 

Maybe it was my reccomendation to tilt it.. well you misinterpretted what I was actually talking about. I'm talking about the stock rear end of a toyota where the shocks ARE tilted forward and aft of the axle.. You can't mount the same shocks I have on my rear axle vertically or I'd be up through the bed if I didn't want them to bottom out before the spring was done travelling up...

I'm not sure why this is so hard to understand?

 

Well, I got my shocks remounted from this / \ to this || over the weekend.

I haven't wheeled it yet, but never really had any sway issues off road. I will say, my on road handling has improved substantially around town. Much more controlled with limited sway. Not a sports car, but far easier to handle on bumps and corners.

Shock angle makes a big difference. Not that this is news to anyone, just some real world validation.

 

Oh snap! I forgot to post up all I have learned on the tipiness issue of 2nd and 3rd gen SAS'd and lifted runners in the last month!

1) Put the heavy weight as low as possible when traveling to a wheeling trip. Don't fold the rear seats down. Instead put the recovery gear (Heavy chains and metal, high lift and CO2 tank) on the floor boards lower than the rear seats. Put any additional heavy weight (spare fluids) up as close to the front seats as possible on top of the recovery gear and on the upright rear seats.

Why? Because when I did not do this the 90- mile trip to holy cross was a 3 hour death trap! When we changed the configuration on the way back it made a HUGE difference!

2) No matter how much one spends on a 2nd or 3rd gen suspension (of a SAS rig) - if you SAS with toyota axle width it will ALWAYS be TIPPY!** I always thought Tippy(my rig) could be fixed. Ya know... made less Tippy! After watching 3 VERY well built similar rigs in Farmington (For the TTORA Takeover) I have since realized that with ALL that window and rear topper weight on 2nd and 3rd gen runners up there... there is little that can be done to rectify the tippy problem, other than good packing and/or CHOPPING the top (like 4 hummer) or [utting on uber wide axles like Adrian. I have spent thousands to redo Tippy's suspension. I though the only way to fix it further would be 3 or 4 link. I would be wrong. After seeing what I saw this past weekend... the tippiness factor will ALWAYS be there. The weight is just too much, up too high...

And that is my 411 on the tipiness issue of 2nd and 2rd Gen runners...

** Forgot to mention that if you have UBER wide axles (As Isaac points put) Like Adrian... well then you reduce the tippy factor.

 

you can correct it by going out.

It will still FEEL tippy, but won't actually BE tippy.

 

Going out - meaning axle width?

If so, It is cheaper to reduce up top weight for me... Trust me Isaac if you had seen what I saw at farmington... well....