Coilover shocks

[steveb05]

As some of you know, I have an 89 chassis...but its been cut and modified to fit a 96 body. It has a lift in the front and air shocks in the back. I'm looking to see what is out there in coil over shocks but am not having much luck. I need an extended length of > 21" with a mid-stroke (loaded normal length) of about 18" with springs soft enough for a decent ride. Any suggestions or am I welding up some new upper mounts to get a more "normal" span to cover?

[Flintrock]

Steve, I would think you are in the "sand rail" area for length of travel, with some of the "weaker" rate springs (100-125 #'s). Search on those, or some of the VW aftermarket coil overs.....

[tdcanada]

Steve go to Monroe's web page and look at their shock selection guide PDF, it has lengths and and type of bolt up for every shock. Their coil over is going to be around 1200 lb load rating, which may be to stiff for your needs.

Another place, go to JCWhitney and check out their VW shocks like mentioned above.

Another possibility is to go to some of the rail buggy build pages and forums, they sell the type of shocks your looking for, but get ready to come off the hip pretty good for those.

[blake80]

I went that route before. But, i ended up using hydraulic hd shocks from some kind of ezgo. The were a good bit longer. I am here to say that it rode like a tank. A stiffer shock with leaf springs are not a good combo on the front end of these carts. There just is not enough weight up there. The rear wasnt to bad as long as there were people or something back there for weight. But, the front end was just way to stiff.

[crash12888]

Are they going on the front or back?

[steveb05]

They are for the back. The front is okay for now. I may do a trailing arm setup on the front one year, but that is after everything else...but I need to do something with the rear soon.

[crash12888]

What's wrong with the air shocks?

[steveb05]

Now its gonna get personal LOL. I'm 6'1" 250lbs ish. My wife is 5'10" and not far behind me. Plus, I have a small Pelican fishing boat I pull behind it and sometimes a 90 lb dog or three come along too. So in order to accommodate the varying load without dragging the fenders on the tires, I have to keep the air shocks fully inflated which makes for a rough ride. I'm okay with a rough ride if I'm fully loaded, but when I run 'round by myself, or if the kids take it out, I want a ride that doesn't end with a visit to the dentist.

[blake80]

i have 2 sets of hydraulic shocks if your interested in a set. i can send the mounting brackets i made for them so they will mount at the axle.

[steveb05]

I appriciate it Blake, but I have no springs for it yet.