Topic: marlin shock hoops; tall or short?

[havik]

when i ordered my shock hoops i figured i would go with the tall ones since i plan on running 14" shocks up front. what are most of you all running? the tall ones or the short ones?

[AaronB]

I picked up the tall ones. The only problem is you have to cut out part of the wheel well

[KYOTA]

what is the length of Marlins tall hoops from shock mount to center of tube that welds to the frame? I have Shaffers hoops on my 83 that are 13" with 14" 9000's, no cutting with about 1/4" clearance. If you do have to cut the inner fender, then you may as well go ahead and make a detachable brace tube across the top of the engine from hoop to hoop

[AaronB]

If you do have to cut the inner fender, then you may as well go ahead and make a detachable brace tube across the top of the engine from hoop to hoop

Thats not a bad Idea! Ill have to check into it.

[KYOTA]

Thats not a bad Idea! Ill have to check into it.

or you can do like I did if you have an exo or fender tubes and go from the hoop to the fender tube

[havik [OP]]

iam not sure if i want to send the tall ones back for the shorter ones. 
i might post up to see if any one would want to trade, tall ones for the short.

[BigMike]

I am running 14s on our short hoops. I moved the hoops up as high as I could on the frame and welded them in.

With the lower shock eyelet mounted in the factory location, my uptravel is limited to right when the top of my 37s are equal with my fenders (first gen, '81).

I have plans on changing the lower shock mount so I can get more uptravel, but I have also noticed that when my 14s are bottomed out, my front leaf springs are slightly inverted, WHICH IS A NO-NO.

So what am I supposed to do? I don't have any plans to link the suspension, so I am running our USA 4" springs, but I would like to have more up travel, but the springs are already at the max as it is now.................? I guess I should just focus on my down travel...

I've always said that my truck is either too tall for how narrow its track is. So I should either lower the truck, or I should run wider axles.

Currently I've got a 1" body lift w/4" springs atop '85 front axle with 2" spacers, and '86 rear axle with 1.5" spacers, 10" wheels with 3.5 BS.

I feel my truck is too tall for at least the front axle, and that is why I've always talked about going FJ80 front end..

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[AaronB]

FJ80? Wont that be a lot wider than your rear axle?

[havik [OP]]

hey big mike can you tell me the difference in size between the short hoops and tall ones?
i might have an idea

[BigMike]

FJ80? Wont that be a lot wider than your rear axle?

Yes. According to The Capacity/Size/Weight/Length Thread,

FJ80 front axle width: 63.5"
1986-1995 rear axle width: 58.5" (with 1.5" spacers = 61.5")

This is perfect. Ideally you want your front axle wider than your rear so as you corner, the rear track follows the front.

hey big mike can you tell me the difference in size between the short hoops and tall ones?

	Overall Height....	Overall Width....	Bottom to Eye-let (shock mount)
Short Hoops	15"	10.5"	13"
Tall Hoops	16.5"	10.5"	14.5"

[Paulie]

or you can do like I did if you have an exo or fender tubes and go from the hoop to the fender tube

that looks clean, what did you use to bend it close like that, to fallow the fender lines. ive used a manderal bender and getting the fender bar to run the same with the fender lines is tough. just curious cause i plan on doing the same thing

[havik [OP]]

thanks bigmike
iam keepin the tall guys and mounting them as low as possible.
there will be a wright up on the whole truck once we get our internet back up

[BigMike]

Right awn havik. If you have the 14s on tall hoops then you should be ok. You'll get almost 2" more uptravel then me-

BTW, did you notice on the Hoops page that I put the measurements with a dimension picture there? Check it out: http://www.marlincrawler.com/htm/suspension/shocks.htm#hoops

BigMike

[AaronB]

Nice!!!  BM

[havik [OP]]

yeah is that new? i dont remember seeing that when i made my order
nice

[BigMike]

Right, I just put it up on Monday