Staggered Shocks
 

all of my square trucks have had staggered shocks on them from the factory. Only one truck that i owned i changed to be on the leading edge of the rear axle housing and leaning forward. unfortunately i never got to drive that truck enough to notice if there was any difference in the ride quality or handling.

What is the consensus on changing the shocks so that they are either on the front or rear on the rear axle housing?

I notice now that i have put new shocks on my 86 that the left rear seems a little more 'squishy' when going thru dips in the road on straight roads and much much more 'squishy' if there is a right hand corner with a dip in the road at all.

I Have been considering bolting in a simple shock mount cross member just forward of the rear axle housing and changing the shock mounts on the axle housing itself. This would put the shocks ahead of the axle housing.

I am wondering what would the pros or cons of running shocks in an un-staggered configuration be?

Also the shocks would be inboard of the frame rather than outboard. I could do the cross member so that the shocks are on the axle housing located in a similar position from center as the stock mounts and have them tilt inward to a more center mount on the cross member. this could serve as a simple way to use a stock length shock in a lowered truck situation?

Looking at porter built parts his rear drop member is a little too extreme for me and my daily driver, but i noticed that he mounts his shocks inboard of the frame, forward of the axle housing, straight up and down, and the bottom mount appears to be the swaybar itself?

Thoughts?

TIA

-Izzy

Re: Staggered Shocks
 

Staggered shocks (one pointing fore, one pointing aft), as I understand it, are to control axle wrap on a leaf-sprung vehicle - one controls acceleration, the other controls deceleration (since the axle will wrap the other way).

On a four-link (or equivalent), axle wrap becomes a non-issue, so the shocks are usually mounted the same on either side of the axle.

Re: Staggered Shocks
 

My last C10 I installed a 9inch ford with the factory leaf springs. Used lowering blocks with springs relocated under axle housing and lower spring plates/shock mounts from speedway motors. I made a upper shock mount crossmember out of 2" angle iron and the shocks mounted inboard angled in at the top. Same as under a dodge pickup. Shocks were same factory c10 only nitro drop. Worked great for 10 years and 50k miles. No problems.

http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/...05E3817D16.jpg
Now I have 4 bar on air bags with both shocks behind axle angled toward rear.
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This is another setup I ran with a step notch that was mounted between spring and outboard frame. Also worked fine.
http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/...05DDA66911.jpg

Re: Staggered Shocks
 

Staggered shocks are to control axle "tramp".

Tramp is like wheel hop, except instead of the axle bouncing up and down evenly the wheels bounce up and down alternately (left, then right, etc).

K