[Ivan D.]

Originally Posted by BowTieOgre

Thats true, if you have spindles and shock mount relocators then you can get away with stock shocks as you arent really changing the distance between the upper and lower shock mounts. If you do like I did with the cut coils and no rear relocators then drop shocks are in order...but I may hold off on mine as I like the way my wife bounces when she rides with me.

I'll have to disagree with that - stock shock lengths are selected from the manufacturer so that the suspension maxes out in both directions before the shocks run out of travel, at least that's how it is in the front. By cutting the front coils you're just reducing the upward travel of the suspension, however since no modification is done to the LCAs at max compression their position relative to the frame will be the same as stock, so stock shocks will work just fine. Reason why you want lowering shocks is that lowering springs are shorter and if you get airbourne they may dislocate and damage the suspension upon landing, also they are ususaly stiffer so a different damping rates are required for the shocks now.

In the rear it's pretty much the same, if you have stock shocks the axle will hit the frame bumpstops before the shocks run out of travel, so you're safe there too. The problem happens with rear coil-sprung vehicles, such as the '60s Chevy trucks and also most full-size cars - using shorter coils means the extension travel of the shocks can be larger than the lowering spring's free length, so really if you lower a Caprice with just springs if you get airbourne the rear springs may fall off. Not a concern with leaf-sprung trucks.