Rear Shock Mount Position

[padilla95624]

What do you think the best position is for rear shocks? Many rigs I see have them mounted to the axle tube and angled to the center. To me this seems to provide full use of travel and keep them safe from trail damage but limits their overall effectiveness as a shock. I read somewhere that every angle away from vertical travel decreases their ability to work. At 15 degrees they may be 85% effective.

[:)bestgen4runner]

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[H8PVMNT]

I found 2 to the rear of the axle laid back just a bit the most effective for calming down axle wrap, especially if you extend the lower mounts a bit longer to get leverage on the twisting axle, and pretty good all around.  This gets in the way if you want to run your spare tire up underneath though. 

My favorite for handling is just in front of the axle, almost vertical as far out as possible, but it can be hard to fit enough shock for travel in that position and you fight for space with the brake proportioning valve.  I went to this when I switch to a 4runner body to fight the extra rear weight.

Outside the frame rail is great for rallying around go fast stuff but hard to fit between the frame and tire.  I did this on an IFS pickup I set up to haul ass on farm roads.

The later hilux one fore and one aft is OK all around.

My favorite all around is the slight A like on a 1st gen Toyota pickup  /     \  .  The top of the shocks are like a foot apart maybe a bit more mounted on the front side of the axle.  Pretty easy to get full articulation and your shocks still work as shocks. 

I don't much care for the A configuration everybody does where the top of the shocks almost touch.  This is a no-brainer for travel of course, but the shocks have too much angle in my opinion and that renders the shock pretty ineffective for fighting body roll out unless your rig is feather light or you have crazy stiff shocks.

That's all I've tried over the years and my impressions based on how it felt to me.

Getting your springs right has more real effect on handling but it all contributes.  You just have to figure out what your priority is and what fits.

[padilla95624]

That is a lot of good info to think about based on ones driving style. I ended up mounting both behind the axel and close to the original locations. I extended the top mount up as far as possible and angled the bottom one down just enough that it will not catch rocks on the trail. It seems to ride well and fully flexes with travel to spare.